Honoured Film’s Poignant Take on Native America: Tim Gruenewald's Film on Mount Rushmore and Wounded Knee

Mount Rushmore is an iconic American monument, its surface carved with the faces of four presidents who were instrumental in the country’s founding and expansion. More than two million people visit every year, guided to its remote location by elaborate signage, roads, carparks and visitor amenities.

Just 160 kilometres away, down an unlit road through poverty-stricken Native American land, a small, rusted, graffiti-covered sign marks another iconic American site. Wounded Knee is where more than 200 Lakota people were massacred in 1890. Following the publication of Dee Brown’s book “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” in 1970, the site became a symbol for the history of the government’s aggression against Native Americans, an aggression that was driven in large part by the westward expansion of Rushmore’s leaders.

Dr Tim Gruenewald, head of American Studies, encountered these contrasting memorials almost accidentally in 2001. He was driving from Atlanta, where he did his MA, to Seattle to begin his PhD studies, when he decided to take a detour to Wounded Knee. He literally got stuck in the mud at the isolated site.

“I was surprised I was the only visitor, but what was really against expectations was the lack of any remembrance infrastructure,” he said. “Most people in America have probably heard of Wounded Knee, but that rusty sign was the only historical marker. It was in such a sorry state.”

He then drove on to Mount Rushmore and was so struck by the contrast that he was inspired, on the spot, to make a documentary about these two places.

It took a few years. First he had to complete his PhD and get his career underway. But in the summer of 2009, just before moving to Hong Kong, he returned to the area with visual artist and photographer Ludwig Schmidtpeter. They spent a month filming and interviewing about 50 people. Dr Gruenewald then spent five years in post-production in between his academic duties at HKU.

The end result, Sacred Ground, was released late last year. It touches on the complex relationship between modern-day America and its native population and explores contrasting approaches to remembering the history of the United States. In fact, Mount Rushmore is located in the Black Hills, which are sacred to the Lakota people.

“Part of this film is asking, what is America about? Is it Mount Rushmore or Wounded Knee, or do they belong together? They are two sides of the same coin, you wouldn’t have one without the other. Many would say that’s a given, but when you go to Wounded Knee, nobody is there,” he said. “Is this not worth remembering? There are national memorials for Jefferson, Washington, Lincoln, the Vietnam War, World War II, 9/11 and so on. Why is this part of U.S. history excluded from the national remembrance discourse?”

The film played at several film festivals in the U.S. and won an “Independent Spirit” award at the Idyllwild International Festival of Cinema in California in January. It connects to Dr Gruenewald’s current research project on memorials and memory museums in Washington, DC, and New York City, which also investigates the intersection between remembrance sites and the national imagination.

For more information about Sacred Ground, visit http://sacredgroundfilm.com/.

See the original article in Arts Faculty Newsletter Winter 2015.