Why Was the Crazy Horse Memorial Built?
- Korczak Ziolkowski was a sculptor who worked on the sculptures of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota during the 1920s. After the project was completed, Ziolkowski met with Chief Henry Standing Bear of the Lakota Sioux and they decided to undertake a memorial project to Native American heroes.
- Construction on the memorial has been underway since 1948. It includes a mountain sculpture of the legendary Lakota chief Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse was chosen as the symbol to represent all of the fallen Native American heroes because his character represented the values that many Native tribes held dear, such as bravery, dedication to his people and a modest lifestyle. When Ziolkowski died in 1981, his wife and children took over and are still working to complete the project.
- Chief Henry Standing Bear and Ziolkowski started the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation in order to raise funds for the project from private sources so that they would never have to accept federal money. The foundation is holding ongoing fund raising events for the project and accepting donations.
- Mount Rushmore is part of the Black Hills on Sioux reservation lands in South Dakota that were traditionally sacred among the tribe. The placement of the Crazy Horse memorial among these same hills is controversial among Native American leaders. Some feel that it brings balance, recognizing their own heroes as well as the white Presidents whose faces are carved there. Others feel that carving the sacred mountains is an insult and that the Crazy Horse Memorial does not equal out the wrong done by Mount Rushmore. Some think it is also disrespectful to depict the image of a man who refused to be photographed during his lifetime.
- The face of the warrior Crazy Horse was completed in 1998. The foundation is focusing on completing the head of the horse on which the warrior sits next, as well as building dormitories to house high school and university students who will do work-study projects at the memorial.