The protesters were sprayed with pepper spray and 15 people were arrested during the demonstration on Friday.
A group of mainly Native American protesters blocked the road leading up to Mount Rushmore for three hours before President Donald Trump gave a speech at the national monument Friday night.
Trump went on to give a divisive speech at Mount Rushmore, saying the country was under siege by"far-left" fascists waging"a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children." The Supreme Court in 1980 ruled that the United States had illegally taken the land from the Sioux tribe in a deal brokered in 1873. The Mount Rushmore carvings were completed in 1941.Jeff Ostler, a historian at the University of Oregon, told ABC News that the federal government had offered the Sioux people a settlement of $1 billion for taking the land. The tribe has refused, saying they will only accept their land back.
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