Korczak listened to the mountain,
he knew what was inside

The following includes the comments made by Mgsr. William O'Connell. Mgsr. O'Connell is a long time friend and confidant of the Ziolkowski family and was a close friend of Korczak.

When I saw Crazy Horse, it was in 1957 shortly after I was ordained. I cam and I looked at that mountain. And for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what it was about.

But that’s the difference between being Irish and Polish. (audience laughter). But over the years I came to visit and became a friend and confidant of Korczak and Ruth, and I came to know what it was about.

One day Korczak took this Irishman up the mountain. He said to me, I want you to put your hand on the stone. So I did. You know, stone is stone is stone. He said what did you feel, I said, nothing. He said, PUT YOUR HAND ON THE STONE. So I put it back on the stone. Now be quiet, let it talk to you, let is speak to you. The stone did. And it still does.

In Lakota, I’m probably mispronouncing, there’s a phrase, Mitakoye Oyasin; all my relatives. The stone, the trees, the animals, all of us, Mitakoye Oyasin.

That afternoon when I went back to the rectory, I began thinking. Korczak is listening to the stone and he knows what’s in there. What seemed to me, because I had been a visitor in his home, and there had been a replica of Michelangelo David. Michaelangelo knew the same thing, or must have done the same thing. Put your hand on the marble, it’s speaking to me and I know what is in there. As Michaelangelo was able to know what was in the marble when he carved David, Korczak knew what was in the mountain behind him, the mountain in front of him.

One day when I was out visiting. Korczak said, you know I picked up this book a long time ago. The problem is it’s in Latin. He wanted me to sit down and go through it a little bit. The title meant "The Farm Like" or "The land like." The book was written by Aristotle and translated from the Greek into Latin. It talked about how the things around us are alive and that we should have respect for them. That you should cherish them and that you should value them. Mitakoye Oyasin. That all of these things are our relatives.

It is Korczak’s vision behind me. What that mountain can see. Climbing up there crawling up there, talking to the stone and listening to the stone talk back to him. He was really making concrete was written in the book. What a genius.

In October, 1978 I got this phone call, there had been an election in Rome. John Paul II had become Pope. Korczak had me on the phone, and he said, "one of our boys made it, what’s the matter with yours?"

I know, for I have been around South Dakota for 32 years. Sometimes there has been negative press and negative feelings. Sometimes the question is raised, "why did this man chose this project. He chose it of course, because he was invited to. But I think he chose it, Mitakoye Oyasin, because of his background. A man who was abandoned, an orphan. A man who in foster care was abused. That man knew; knew what it was ask a child to suffer. And I think we know what it is to suffer. God graces us with unique gifts that within spirits we are able to sense the suffering of others. We are able to sense the sufferings that are reflective of others.

Why did Korczak say yes to Standing Bear to come and carve the mountain? It was not, I believe, according to our conversations, an ego trip. It was a desire, out of the soul, out of the spirit that he suffered. It was a desire to say, "Let us," in his own words, "give the world a monument dedicated to a great people. And in doing this, let us remember the stories and legends are essentially our lives. Because they give birth to our dreams and to our visions. And when our dreams and our visions are not there, then we wither as a people. And then we die."

Korczak believed in the stories and the legends of the native people. He wanted those to be able to continue. Not for this generation, not for this century, but for the millenia ahead. That’s why he undertook the back breaking work of climbing up and climbing down and climbing up and climbing down, and having to climb all the way down to start the generator again to go all the way back up.

He knew that it was only out of suffering that we are able to accomplish greatness. He knew particularly, the sufferings of the Lakota people that greatness could come from them.

I firmly believe that as we proceed over the next century with the carving of Crazy Horse it will not be "My lands are where my dead lie buried." It will be, "There is where my people have come to life, where my people have been resurrected." That’s the purpose of Crazy Horse.

In the Lakota tradition, we have elders to tell their stories, we have pipe carriers, spiritual leaders. All are essential as we are warriors to make good, warriors for deciding greatness, warriors for the resurrection of the people that there has to be this spiritual core that comes from the heart of a people and from their stories and their legends. It’s essential to us.

I offer you, even though they are not Lakota, that that is the way of the children of Ruth and Korczak. They are pipe carriers, are story tellers, are the people who are insisting that the legends go on.

A few of you possibly had read the Rapid City Journal, where it talked about how Korczak always wanted to be in control, even when I was talking to him. But Korczak got the letter, it was the letter that was the charge, a mandate that if you are willing to accept the work that is there for the good of the people that we are seeking to honor, then I am with you, then I am with you.

In affect, with the goodness out there with which we see the three spirits on the mountain, the spirits of Crazy Horse, of Standing Bear and of Korczak, and I believe that they are here, I know that they are here. Because it is with an extreme sense of purpose that this monument will always draw out the spirit of good, the spirit of generosity, the spirit of courage, the spirit of kindness. Out of all of those who come, this mountain defends the gifts in each of us, the gift of solidarity, one with the other.

In Lakota we say Mitakoye Oyasin, all of us are relatives. And I have to ask you this, all of us who are relatives, my relatives, do you believe in dreams? Korczak can’t hear you. Do you believe in dreams? (audience responds with YES) Do you believe in visions? Do you believe in solidarity with one another? Do you believe as Governor Mickleson believed, that we can be one people in this state? (YES) Are you willing to work for it? (YES) Amen and Amen. Do I hear an Amen? Do I hear another Amen?

I am here to give the convocation. I wanted to talk a little bit about Korczak. And now I want to talk a little about Ruth. Everybody honored her today. And I can remember when once Korczak and I were sitting together having a glass of water. (audience laughter) It was holy water. He said, "you know, Father Bill, I work the mountain, I dream about what it can be, it’s Ruth that keeps it going.