Things To Do In The Black Hills of South Dakota: Crazy Horse Memorial

After the start of the carving of Mt Rushmore, theSeptember 6, 1877.
Native Americans of the Black Hills wanted to have aCrazy Horse defended his people and their way of life
sculpture celebrating their own heroes. They wrote toin the only manner he knew.
a sculptor named Korczak Ziolkowski.But
My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man toOnly after he saw the Treaty of 1868 broken,
know the red man has great heroes too, wroteThis treaty, signed by the President of the United
Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear when he invitedStates, said in effect: As long as rivers run and grass
Korczak to the Black Hills to carve the Crazy Horsegrows and trees bear leaves, Paha Sapa the Black
memorial.Hills of Dakota will forever be the sacred land of the
Korczal arrived in the Black Hills on May 3, 1947 toSioux Indians.
accept their invitation. When he started work on theOnly after he saw his leader, Conquering Bear,
mountain in 1949, he was almost 40 and only had $174exterminated by treachery,
left to his name. Over the decades he battled financialOnly after he saw the failure of the government
hardship, racial prejudice, injuries, and advancing age.agents to bring treaty guarantees, such as meat,
For years he and his sons were the only ones workingclothing, tents, and necessities for existence which they
on the monument.were to receive for having given up their lands and
Work on the sculpture continues today. When it isgone to live on the reservations.
finished it will be 563 feet tall and 641 feet long. MuchOnly after he saw his peoples lives and their way of
larger than Rushmore. The story of how and why thelife ravaged and destroyed.
colossal memorial is being created is told at the visitorCrazy Horse has never been known to have signed a
center.treaty or touched a pen. Crazy Horse as far as the
If you go to the memorial at night in the summers, youscale model is concerned, is to be carved not so much
can watch the Legends in Light show. It is a multimediaas a lineal likeness but more as a memorial to the spirit
laser light show with photos and animation projectedof Crazy Horse to his people. With his left hand thrown
on the 500 foot mountain side.out pointing in answer to the derisive question asked
The following was written by Sculptor Korczakby the white man, Where are your lands now? he
Ziolkowski in May 1949.replied,
Crazy Horse was born on Rapid Creek in the BlackMy lands are where my dead lie buried.
Hills of South Dakota in about 1842. While at FortThey made us many promises, more than I can
Robinson, Nebraska, under a flag of truce, he wasremember. They never kept but one; they promised to
stabbed in the back by an American soldier and diedtake our land, and they took it!