Lakota artist smudges the former gold mine inside the Black Hills WSOC TV [Video]

When Lakota artist Marty Two Bulls Jr. looks at the Black Hills of South Dakota, he doesn’t just see its natural beauty. He also sees a scar cut deep into the heart of the universe.

The mountain range is central to the origin story of several tribal nations, including his, and it has become an international symbol of the ongoing struggle for Indigenous land rights and the destruction of sacred sites. To the Lakota, Mount Rushmore is the most visible scar on the mountains. The former gold mine beneath is another, and that’s what motivated Two Bulls to use his performance art to cleanse it.

“You hear ‘land back’, and it means a lot of different things to different people,” he said, referring to the Indigenous-led movement to restore tribal self-determination through ownership and stewardship of their homelands. “It’s been interesting trying to reframe some of these conversations about stewardship …