Crazy Horse

Our visit to Crazy Horse was full of Native American history. So here is just a brief history of how the Crazy Horse Monument came to be.

 

Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear stated, “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, also” (In reference to Mount Rushmore). So he invited Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to the Black Hills to carve the red man’s hero, Crazy Horse. Korczak arrived in the Black Hills on May 3, 1947 to accept the Indian’s invitation. When he started work on the mountain in 1948, he was almost 40 and had only $174 left to his name. Over the years he battled financial hardship, injuries and even age. A strong believer in the free enterprise system, he felt Crazy Horse should not be built with taxpayer dollars. Two times he turned down federal funds.

 He knew that this project was larger than any one man’s lifetime, so he left detailed plans to be used with his scale models to continue the project. He died in 1982 and his wife Ruth and children have continued the project.

 
Crazy Horse Memorial is the World’s Largest carving in PROGRESS, as you can see by my pictures, its not quite done. Funding comes from admission prices, money spent at the gift shop, and private contributors. So progress is slow. I wonder how much more will be accomplished when our grandchildren visit?

Why did the Indians chose Crazy Horse for the Mountain Carving? Crazy Horse was a warrior Indian that stood up for the Indian way of life. He had been disappointed by the United States President for breaking the Treaty of 1868. He was disappointed by the government agents who did not bring treaty guarantees for taking over their land. He was disappointed by the way he saw his peoples’ lives ravaged and destroyed. He fought to keep the Native American way of life. So this memorial was created to the spirit of Crazy Horse and to his people. When the monument is complete it will have Crazy Horse pointing out into the Black Hills to answer the white man’s question, “Where are your lands now?” In response Crazy Horse points and says, “My lands are where my dead lie buried.”

Crazy Horse was murdered under a flag of truce by an American soldier who stabbed him in the back on Sept. 6, 1877.

We stayed past dark to witness the Laser-Light Storytelling. They call their laser show, Legends in Lights. For those of us who have seen Stone Mountain’s light show, this one is similar

End of day, good night Crazy Horse. Tomorrow we will say hello to South Dakota's Bad Lands.