WASHINGTON – The new superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Monument
intends to give Indians more prominence at the popular tourist magnet.
Gerard A. Baker served as master of ceremonies at a July 9 dinner honoring
Native American veterans. Prior to the ceremony, he said “there will be
changes” at the monument and they will be designed to bring out a Native
American presence there.
Baker, Mandan Hidatsa, said the National Park Service, which employs him,
has come a long way in its appreciation of American Indian culture since
the turmoil of the early 1990s over renaming Custer Battlefield National
Monument the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, and creating an
Indian memorial there.
Baker divulged no specific plans but repeated that changes are in store for
Mount Rushmore.