Riot gear protects sheriffs from Natives burning sage during Standoff at Mt. Rushmore July 3rd

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Open with a news broadcaster in a sundress holding a microphone, saying to camera:

"Things outside the entrance did start to get tense because of something that either had a connection to hurting, uh, killing the Indians or, um, (asks someone off camera, 'slavery?' then back to camera) Yeah slavery. They are out here protesting that the figures on Mount Rushmore monument represent a time in history of seizing Indian land and, and-" 

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A cadre of "police" arrive, or at least their body barriers say "police" but they might be local sheriffs, say the newscasters. Every pocket of their brand new desert camouflage uniforms is stuffed with weapons devices tazers sticks. Each "police officer" has a brand new backpack and helmet with guns of various lengths dangling round their bodies in holsters.

AP Photo

Honest, the uniforms are so new, you can see creases, these men and women in camo appear to have just come from an Army Navy surplus store. They march to the scene like a group of tourists arriving at next stop on their itinerary.

Voiceover from the reporter in a sundress: "There hasn’t been any violence at this standoff so far, per se but now here come these men and women in uniform."

A small group of Trump supporters can be heard yelling at the protesters but the camera never pans to them.
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The demonstration started when indigenous persons near Mount Rushmore in three white vans pulled up and blocked one of the roads to the amphitheater for Trump's speech July 3rd.

They screeched in, piled out of the vans, then all down the valley people heard explosive sounds, calling out "a bomb? Guns, what's going on?"

The Black Hills Sioux demonstrators had pulled out knives and stuck them into the van wheels so they would explode and go flat, announcing the Natives' arrival with several Bangs. Plus now the vans couldn't be moved until tow trucks came from the nearest city miles away.

Well played, I think.  

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The reporter in a sundress is interviewing a protester:

"I know there's a lot of heritage when it comes to ancestry and all that but is there ever a time when you just give this up, let this go? I mean, it's been a couple hundred years-" The demonstrator's answer is too far off mic to be audible.
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All together about fifty persons lined up on two sides against each other about two dozen on each side.  The Sioux and supporters were behind barricades in heritage clothing, some on horses, singing Native songs, waving torches. Watching them, the sheriffs stood in line on their side, occasionally pulling out water bottles and cell phones, engaging in banter.

Now and then the sheriffs would put on gas masks and stand threateningly. Then you heard voices in the crowd saying, "Masks, they're putting on masks this could be it, here comes the teargas." A few minutes later the sheriffs would remove the masks and go back to drinking water and bantering amongst themselves.  That happened a couple of times in the video I watched.
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At one point the Native Americans from South Dakota jumped to the middle of the two crowds with torches they lit on fire, causing the line of sheriffs in full riot gear to back away, yelling, "It's gas, it's gas," then they stopped retreating, realizing, "Oh it's sage."

The natives threatened the sheriffs with burning sage.

The ruckus came to an end when tow trucks arrived and took away the vans and that was the end of a standoff between police defending the Donald Trump performance at Mount Rushmore July 3 and Native Americans using the opportunity to tell the world the U.S. did not abide by the treaty signed nearly two centuries ago, that the very land where they stand belongs to the Black Hills Sioux.

As the group dispersed you could hear Trump supporters shouting at the demonstrators: "Go home.*

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By Kay Ebeling

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(Inside the venue, Gigi Poirot and her tour group from L.A. referred to the demonstrators outside as "Morons, we're already inside, they didn't block any of us from getting here." Then they sat in the sun for eight more hours until Trump arrived to speak.)
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Protester Signs: 

Great men do the right thing, honor the treaties

We are all Human

Unify Humanity
You are on Stolen Land 

-ke