Popular
A variety of summer activities makes the new
Educational and Cultural Center enormously popular with Crazy Horse visitors.
The Center is providing space for Native American
artists and arts and crafts people to work in public view. The Center also provides a
location for the performing arts and accommodates educational workshops, conferences,
lectures and special exhibitions to educate visitors and students about American Indian
culture.
The performance and lecture
series, which includes Native American music in addition
to historical and traditional information from nationally known authors, lecturers and
artists is a popular addition to the Center during the summer months.
Such names as Arthur Amiotte, world renowned artist
and lecturer; Dr. Chuck Ross, author and Paul Laroche, nationally known musician
were among the many who brought the Native American culture to large crowds of Memorial
visitors the first two years and are scheduled to return.
Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation board member, Jessie
Sundstrom, served as Coordinator of Special Events for the new Center, the Library and
Museum the first year. Donovin Sprague, University Instructor is now working with Anne
Ziolkowski in planning programs & exhibits.
The Center quickly emerged as a living culture forum
for Native American arts and crafts people. Interacting with the artists one-on-one has
been informative and educational and one of the highlights at the Memorial, according to
many visitors.
The building also is the home of artifacts and art
previously held in storage or relocated from more crowded display areas elsewhere in the
visitor complex. One major display was given by the late Dr. Lawrence Massa, a long-time
member of the board of directors of the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation and physician to
three generations of Ziolkowski's.
The Building
Part of the Indian Museum of North America, the
Native American Educational and Cultural Center is the first new building at the Memorial
in over a decade.
The roof went on during the fall of 1995, and
interior construction continued steadily all winter and spring. The two-story building
measures about 50' by 80', and members of the Crazy Horse construction crew performed all
the work.
Apart from the people-to-people contact, visitors
also expressed keen interest in the unusual rock building whose walls are made from
granite blast fragments off the mountain carving.
Completion of the "bricks and mortar"
portion of the structure was assured with the successful completion in fall, 1995 of a
$400,000 fund drive to build the new Center.
A separate fund drive continues to furnish and fully
equip the new facility.
Restrooms and a pantry are presently under
construction. The roof of this area is a balcony leading off the upper floor of the
Center, which will provide visitors a safe, easy handicapped access.
University Instructor
Named
Native American educator, Donovin Sprague,
well-known in South Dakota and Iowa was named University Instructor of the Native American
Educational and Cultural Center.
Sprague, a Lakota born on the Cheyenne River Indian
Reservation in South Dakota, assumed the position in April of 1996.
"The Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation is pleased
to have a person of Donovin Sprague's outstanding qualifications to launch our new
Educational and Cultural Center and guide its operations" said Anne Ziolkowski,
director of both the Indian Museum of North America at Crazy Horse and the new Cultural
Center while making the announcement.
"He is an educator who also brings to this
position extensive experience in the important area of racial reconciliation, which is one
of the goals of the new Center," Ziolkowski said.
Sprague has held teaching positions with the
Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Reservation; with the Rapid City, S. D. School district
and at Black Hills State University, Spearfish, S. D. He served as American Indian
Coordinator for the Iowa Regents Universities, which includes the University of Iowa, Iowa
State University and the University of Northern Iowa. The Iowa Regents Universities have a
combined enrollment of some 75,000 students. During Sprague's tenure Indian student
enrollment increased at each of the Iowa universities.
Sprague has extensive experience as a
counselor-instructor-tutor in secondary schools, and served as Indian Education Resource
Facilitator for the Rapid City, S.D. Public School System.
The City of Rapid City honored Sprague by
proclaiming March 23, 1994 as "Donovin Sprague Day" for his leadership role in
improving race relations Those long-standing efforts also have brought him
numerous other awards and honors.
"Korczak was very wise in making Crazy Horse
Memorial more than the marvelous mountain carving in progress," said Sprague.
"The educational and cultural side make the Memorial whole, and I'm excited to have a
role in furthering those growing aspects of the project. The future is unlimited in that
regard." |
of North America in
1973 to accommodate increasing donations of gifts and artifacts to the
Memorial; two additional wings were added in 1984.