The Crazy Horse Memorial - South Dakota
Feature by Lizzie Guilfoyle
MOST of us are familiar with the granite faces of Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota but how many, I wonder, even know of the existence of a second memorial nearby; one dedicated to the spirit of Sioux leader Crazy Horse and his people.
When finished, and it won’t be during our lifetimes, this massive mountain monument in the round will be 640 feet long and 560 feet tall, making it one of the greatest sculptures on earth. But when did it all begin?
It was, in fact, in 1939, the year Boston-born sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski not only briefly assisted Gutzon Borglum carving Mount Rushmore, but also won first prize for sculpture at the New York World’s Fair with his marble portrait Paderewski: Study of an Immortal.
As a result, Sioux Chief Henry Standing Bear invited Ziolkowski to carve a mountain memorial to Crazy Horse in the Black Hills of South Dakota, the ancestral (and spiritual) home of the Sioux Indians. In his written invitation, Standing Bear stated simply: “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, too.”
Seven years later, after studying Native American history and coming to the conclusion that their epic story also deserved to be immortalized in a mountain monument, Ziolkowski accepted the invitation.
Furthermore, he promised the work would be the focal point of a vast, nonprofit cultural and educational humanitarian project, to be financed through the free enterprise system and not by the taxpayer.
On June 3, 1948, the Memorial was dedicated with the first blast on Thunderhead Mountain and a year later, when Ziolkowski was 40 years old, work finally began. It was a mammoth undertaking and beset with difficulties but Ziolkowski never wavered in his determination to succeed. He died in 1982, at the age of 74 but his work is continuing under the watchful eyes of his family.
Today, with only a fraction of the monument complete, there’s still a long way to go but, as the image demonstrates, it’s already an impressive sight. And with a scale model on display in the complementary Indian Museum of North America, it’s easy to visualize the completed work.
You might however, find yourself wondering why Crazy Horse is depicted pointing over his horse’s head or how it’s possible to carve a portrait of a person who refused to be photographed? Two questions that have been asked a great many times in the project’s 50-year history.
The answers are simple – the Memorial is dedicated to the spirit of Crazy Horse – and to his people; the pose is part of an answer to the derisive question asked by a white man; “Where are your lands now?” To which Crazy Horse replied: “My lands are where my dead lie buried.”
The museum, with its extensive displays of Indian crafts, paintings and full-sized tepee, also offers a fascinating insight into the lives of the Native American and is well worth a visit. And not so very far away, close by the town of Custer, is the Custer State Park where approximately 1,500 bison roam freely over the southern rangelands. A magnificent sight that, perhaps more than anything else, brings the story of the American Indian to life.
For more information visit The Crazy Horse Memorial’s excellent website.