Crazy Horse
tool for future

• Mountain sculpture provides an inspired way to educate Americans about the history and struggles of American Indians.

Crazy Horse celebrated its 50^th anniversary with all the fanfare of a three-ring circus. If you didn’t count the news media, all it was missing were the clowns.
But who could blame them? Korczak Ziolkowski’s dream of carving a mountain
was not at once embraced. Many thought it was a crazy idea. An overblown tourist trap. The townspeople of Custer and even this newspaper were, at best, skeptical that it would be completed. But, still, he persisted, using his most productive years as an artist behind a bulldozer.

Some claim he was just out to make money, but it can be pointed out there are easier ways to turn a buck. Considering the rough conditions of the area and his artistic talent, he could have made a more comfortable living back East. His success is the product of hard work; he, like all of us, just tried to provide for the family.

As an artist, his vision, his art, is the mountain. He fiercely defended his dream, and, of course, made some enemies along the way. Throughout this period he struggled to show others his dream, what he visualized that the massive sculpture would have once it was done. He even painted its outline on the mountain, which many wrongly thought was all he intended to do. So, it is a real vindication now that the face is done, to visualize the rest.

In 1948, after the second world war, America suddenly found itself a world power, a super power. Mount Rushmore was symbol of a nation’s pride, the Shrine of Democracy. On the other hand, American Indians felt that this monument desecrated their sacred Black Hills. Not so much the blasting of a mountain but the very idea of effigies of white leaders who were the architects of a government that stole from them their very life’s blood. And who sill oppressed them and the lives of their children and grandchildren.

It was in this climate that Korczak was invited to carve a monument to honor one of the greatest leaders of the Lakota, Crazy Horse. The people who invited him were not descendants, sellouts or wannabes. They were elders who knew Crazy Horse as a living man, who rode into battle with him and saw their way of life slowly disappear with his death. They wanted the white man to know they had great heroes too.

The future of American Indians’ legal claims will not be decided by South Dakota but by national referendum, and it’s in Indians’ best interest that educated voters decide. The Crazy Horse Memorial is a tool toward that end. As it nears completion, more people will come to see it with each step of construction. And they will leave here knowing more about the American Indian. Their children may be encouraged by the visit to study the first Americans and understand the issues that face them. Maybe someday the people of this great country will be able to make amends.