President Donald Trump touched down at Mount Rushmore on Friday night to greet supporters and kick off a fireworks display in honor of Independence Day.
More than 100 protesters, many Native American, lined the road leading from Keystone, South Dakota, to the monument, holding signs and playing Lakota music in 95-degree heat, according to the Associated Press. About 15 protesters were arrested for blocking the main road.
The Native American activists said the stone monument of four past presidents was built on stolen sacred land and that the mask-optional gathering could spread Covid-19, which has hit Native Americans especially hard. They and local officials also cite the danger of wildfires from the planned fireworks display.
“It’s like if he tried to go and have a fireworks display celebrating independence at the Vatican,” Julian Bear Runner, president of the Oglala Sioux tribe, was quoted as saying in the Washington Post. Other opponents note that two of the four presidents depicted in the mountainside sculpture — George Washington and Thomas Jefferson — were slaveholders.
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In This Story: Vatican
Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State, is the Holy See’s independent city state, an enclave within Rome, Italy. The Vatican City State, also known as The Vatican, became independent from Italy with the Lateran Treaty (1929), and it is a distinct territory under “full ownership, exclusive dominion, and sovereign authority and jurisdiction” of the Holy See, itself a sovereign entity of international law, which maintains the city state’s temporal, diplomatic, and spiritual independence. With an area of 49 hectares (121 acres) and a population of about 825, it is the smallest sovereign state in the world by both area and population.
As governed by the Holy See, the Vatican City State is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state (a type of theocracy) ruled by the pope who is the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. After the Avignon Papacy (1309–1437), the popes have mainly resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere.
Within the Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peter’s Basilica, the Sistine Chapel, and the Vatican Museums. They feature some of the world’s most famous paintings and sculptures. The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by donations from the faithful, by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, and sales of publications.
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