None of history is wholly accurate, but the past is not well served by intentional distortion. President Donald Trump in his July 3 and July 4 speeches asserted that “our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children.”

If Trump is referring to Black Lives Matter, which he surely is, then the conversation is making our understanding of U.S. history deeper and wider. His speech at Mt. Rushmore, known as The Six Grandfathers (in translation) to the Sioux, conveyed his horror at his version of contemporary America’s treatment of the past.

Trump’s knowledge of historical U.S. agreements is apparently inaccurate and incomplete. Oglala Sioux President Julian Bear Runner asked for Trump to stay away from The Six Grandfathers and comply with 19th century treaties with the Sioux related to the tribe’s sacred lands. He did not, and neither did 3,500 mostly maskless individuals who attended his show.

The faces of presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt are sculpted into the famous mountain. These are some of the men whom Trump believes are defamed. Black Lives Matter presents a factual critique of two of these men as slave owners and one as a colonialist much in the vein of George III against whom Washington and Jefferson led the American Revolution.

Visitors to Washington’s Mount Vernon and Jefferson’s Monticello will see, in addition to the lovely homes in which these men resided, slave living quarters and the large plantations farmed by slaves in the Virginia heat and humidity.

Washington is known to have freed his slaves upon the death of his wife Martha, but many Mount Vernon slaves were owned by his wife and her first husband’s family. These men and women were not liberated.

At Jefferson’s estate visitors will hear about the enslaved Sally Hemings, who had six children with Jefferson, and her extended family that served the third president throughout his life. Roughly 600 slaves worked the five farms owned by the president. His Mulberry Road, the industrial center of the plantation operated by slaves, is easily seen from Monticello. He wrote The Declaration of Independence as his estate was expanding. His “all men are created equal” must still ring hollow to many minority Americans even as the statement is a core value upon which the United States is built.

Jefferson freed two slaves during his lifetime and seven upon his death. Two were Sally Hemings’ children. He lived a lavish life, often serving 20 to 30 people dinner, sharing his expensive taste in French wines. At his death, 130 slaves were sold to cover his debts.

It’s hard but essential to hold in mind that 12 out of 15 of the nation’s early presidents were slaveholders. Of the founding fathers, Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe held almost 1,100 slaves. All the founding fathers accepted slaves as three-fifths of a human in the U.S. constitution. That famous compromise meant that Southerners could win national presidential elections. Nine of 15 presidents before Lincoln came from slaveholding states.

Southerners knew the political and economic value of slavery. Jefferson once calculated the worth of every new born slave on his property at 4% annual return on his investment. With the abolition of slavery, Southerners lost their economic engine and their political advantage as once male slaves, now freed voters, were not much interested in electing Southerners as president. Of 27 presidents elected after Lincoln, eight were from the south.

Today’s historical debates on history are necessary to moving toward a healthier, if not perfect, union. Washington fought the right war against the British monarchy. Jefferson defined the best ideas on liberty and freedom. The founding fathers put together a value-laden constitution, since improved with its amendments. The nation has an outstanding foundation.

But our Mt. Evans is named after a former governor, John Evans, who authorized the Sand Creek massacre of Arapaho and Cheyenne people. It’s the statue honoring the Union soldiers who performed the slaughter that individuals took down in front of the State Capitol. Mt. Evans is now a peak that many want to rename.

Surely there’s room in this union and this state for the history of all our peoples, no matter how uncomfortable. And surely we can restore indigenous names to at least some of our mountains, now so clearly visible due to our refreshingly clean COVID air.