The Rapid City Journal provided extensive coverage of the 50th anniversary celebration and program.
The following articles are printed with permission from the Rapid City Journal

Photos of the celebration by Don Polovich

Mountain

Unveiling

Ruth Ziolkowski

Rev. Marrles Moore

couple huddled

crowd

walkers

Up to 7,000 people attend ceremonies

Against the chill of snow and drizzle, speaker after speaker fired a crowd of thousands here Wednesday with challenges for racial solidarity to fulfill the dream of the 50-year-old Crazy Horse Memorial.

An estimated 7,000 people of many ethnic groups and nationalities watched the anniversary ceremonies, 10 times the 1958 gathering that started the world’s largest sculpture project.  See full story

Visitors say Crazy Horse needed

They came for many reasons. Some to honor a great leader of their people, some to pay tribute to American Indians. Some came by accident. But once at the foot of Crazy Horse Memorial, they were all united by the same thought.

"This was really needed to honor the Indian people," said Bruce Iverson of Minneapolis. "It’s about time."

Iverson, like most of the estimated 7,000 people at the 50^th anniversary of the memorial’s dedication Wednesday, has been here before. In 1979, Inverson stopped by the mountain during a layover in Rapid City. The face of Crazy Horse was nowhere near as complete as now, but Iverson still has the same feelings for the carving.

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By Stephen Buchholz
Journal Staff Writer

How do you put on an event that’s been 50 years in the making?

With a lot of work, planning, help and lots and lots of stuff.

An estimated 7,000 people came to the 50^th anniversary of the dedication of Crazy Horse Memorial.

To accommodate all those people and the day’s events, organizers needed 750 volunteers (250 from Ellsworth Air Force Base alone), 150 off-duty police officers, 66 nurses, doctors and other medical workers, 45 Rapid City Area Chamber of Commerce representatives, 125 paid employees, 5,500 folding chairs, 15 planning committees, six months of planning, a 27-foot by 28-foot Jumbo Tron screen that showed all the festivities, a 57-foot-high outdoor stage (one of the largest outdoor stages in the Midwest), thousands of pounds of hot dogs and hamburgers, and a thousand other things too minuscule to name.

"Doing something like this takes a lot of planning, and you have to start early," said Al Cornella, co-chairman of the event. "But everything went well. It was a great success."

The official crowd estimate was 7,000, Cornella said.

"When you invite the whole world, you never know who’s going to show up," he said. "But the turnout was fantastic. And if you factor in the weather, it was even better."

The high temperature at the mountain was near 40 degrees, cold enough to see your breath but not cold enough to cancel any of the day’s events. Even the blasting of 500 tons of rock off the mountain went off without a hitch.

Organizers couldn’t guarantee the weather, but they had everything else planned to the tiniest detail. Vendors were hand selected, a constant caravan of buses hauled visitors from parking lots to the viewing area, golf carts shuttled workers from place to place and coffee was free to keep visitors warm.

Staging the event was difficult but worth the effort, said Anne Ziolkowski, the sculptor’s daughter and director of the museum.

"It’s a lot of work, but it’s a lot of fun, too," she said. "And it never gets boring."

By Stephen Buchholz and Pat Dobbs
Journal Staff Writers

The 50^th anniversary of Crazy Horse Memorial drew some 7,000 people for a day of events. Here are a few snapshots of the happenings.

Now that’s dedication: Crazy Horse Memorial is nothing new to Kaye Randolph Nichol, but that didn’t shade her enthusiasm Wednesday.

Nichol, of Alloway, N.J., has been to the mountain every year since she was 14 years old. Well, OK, she did miss one year, but that’s still 41 out of 42 years.

"I love it. It’s such a gorgeous and important undertaking," the counselor said. "It’s a great statement and tribute to Indians. This should have been done a long time ago."

Nichol came to the memorial on her honeymoon with husband Bill and brings a different set of friends with her every time she visits. The Nichols have even bought seven acres with a view of the sculpture where they plan to build a home.

"And we have it set up so we can see the monument out the window," she said.

"The lady:" Dock Jacobs and his wife, Joyce, of Pembrock, N.C., saw Crazy Horse last year and drove back 1,400 miles for the 50^th anniversary and a signature. Jacobs was backstage gathering autographs of dignitaries on a commemorative poster, getting questioned by security guards for not having a pass, but he explained, "I’ve got everyone. I’m just waiting for the lady (Ruth Ziolkowski)."

This way, please: Hundreds stood, but not because Felicia Watford, Anthony Matthews and their units from Ellsworth Air Force Base didn’t try to get them seated. The usher crews wiped rain and snow melt off about 5,500 chairs, a paper-towel task that left Watford’s hands freezing and her pleading with Matthews to warm them with his breath.

Korczak returns: Stage performers included the Two Bulls children of Pine Ridge — grass dancer Korczak (a champion at Wolf Creek School), and fancy shawl dancers Michelle Two Bulls (Miss Pass Creek and grades 6-8 champion at Pine Ridge) and Ashley (Junior Miss Lakota Omniciye and winner of events at Red Cloud and Pine Ridge). Nine-year-old Ashley, a whirligig in purple, won media photographers’ hearts as she spun in front of Ruth Ziolkowski and guest speakers Al Neuharth and Dennis Compos. That warmed me up, she said, but Michelle and Korczak shivered in the VIP tent before and after their performance, accompanied by the Porcupine Singers.

Six cups: Coffee and hot drinks were the biggest attraction at the visitor center, but ice cream stand workers Kellie Cullum of Custer and Dawn LaPlante of Eagle Butte said they had sold six cups of vanilla-chocolate swirl.

For sale: The vendors at Wednesday’s celebration were handpicked by the event’s organizers. That meant there was a large variety of items and no two tents selling the same things.

There were two tents that sold official 50^th anniversary Crazy Horse Memorial memorabilia. Those items just arrived a month ago and will be sold only this year. Among the things for sale were water bottles, pins, patches, coins, sweat shirts, T-shirts, limited edition blankets and rifles, belt buckles, videos, hats, posters and magnets.

The most unique items: The 30,000 Coca-Cola bottles with the Crazy Horse logo and the coffee cup with a design that changes when a hot beverage is poured in it. When cold, the cup shows a picture of Thunderhead mountain with no carving. Pour coffee or tea into it and the carving appears.

Coffee maybe helped: Mountain crews spent a snowy Tuesday night and early Wednesday draping the mountain with the blue, yellow and white parachute-like covering for Wednesday’s unveiling. The drape dropped on a 3-2-1 countdown.

"Their prayer was that the wind wouldn’t blow so they could get it up, and ever since it went up, they’ve been praying that it would come down," memorial chairwoman Ruth Ziolkowski confided to the crowd.

Some things never change: Fifty years ago it rained so hard the first blast was delayed, recalled former newspaper reporter Al Neuharth. It snowed and rained Wednesday, but the 50^th anniversary blast went as scheduled, but Neuharth donated his sunscreen to Ruth Ziolkowski. "She is so fair-skinned, she is going to need it," he joked.

No laughing matter: Stuart Kaler sat behind a table at the anniversary celebration telling anyone who would listen what a disgrace it is that the Crazy Horse name is used on a brand of malt liquor.

Kater is an attorney for the Crazy Horse estate and plans to file a lawsuit in federal court to get the company, Hornell Brewing, to stop using the name. The suit has already been pulled from tribal court on the Rosebud Indian Reservation because an appeals court ruled tribal court didn’t have jurisdiction in the case.

Kaler was asking for $50 donations to help pay legal fees.

"Crazy Horse stands as an icon for the defense of his people," he said.

"He was a teetotaler and spoke against drinking alcohol because he knew what it did.

"To have his name on a bottle of malt liquor is an absolute insult and outrage."

Olympian gold medallist Billy Mills also spoke against the use of Crazy Horse on liquor, comparing the insult to using Martin Luther King or Colin Powell in promoting alcohol.

"We are not mascots. We are people of dignity, we are people of character, we are a people of pride."