Noem hits back at Ben & Jerry’s over ‘stolen’ Mount Rushmore message

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) hit back at Ben & Jerry’s over the company’s call for Mount Rushmore to be returned to Indigenous populations whose land was “stolen” by the U.S. government. 

Noem said in an interview on Fox News she will not listen to “a bunch of liberal Vermont businessmen who think they know everything about this country and haven’t studied our history.” 

The ice cream company, which is based in Vermont and was founded by Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield, posted on its website on Independence Day that the United States must return the “stolen Indigenous land.” 

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Ben & Jerry’s noted the history of the South Dakota land that became Mount Rushmore, which had been called Tunkasila Sakpe by the Lakota Sioux that lived near there in the Black Hills. The federal government signed treaties with the Lakota and other tribes after decades of fighting to give them an area of 35 million acres that included the Black Hills. 

But the government broke those treaties after gold was discovered, and settlers rushed into the area, the company recounted. The Sioux, a group of tribes that came to be known by that name, were then forced to move to smaller reservations in a different location. 

Ben & Jerry’s also noted the Supreme Court ruled in 1980 that the land was stolen and awarded the tribes financial compensation, but the tribes refused it because they only want the land back. 

Noem called Mount Rushmore “the greatest symbol of our freedom” in the country’s history. 

“We can learn from the men on that mountain. We can do better, but boy did they lead us through some challenging times,” she said, referring to the four presidents carved on the mountain — George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. 

Noem said the country needs to have inspiration and can gain it from monuments like Mount Rushmore. 

“We should be proud of America and knock off what Ben & Jerry’s is doing. They don’t have any idea what they’re doing,” she said.