Crazy Horse

It's a beautiful blue sky day in the Black Hills of South Dakota, as I stand on the observation deck of the Crazy Horse Memorial, looking out at Thunderhead Mountain. This mountain of granite rock is being blasted, chiseled and carved, into a sculpture of the famous American Indian, named Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior. There is a smaller scale model of the sculpture, of how the mountain will eventually look, that sits on the deck, and it's about 15 feet high, and a pure white color. The observation area and museum are very busy and the visitors are milling about looking at the view and the exhibits, but it's a different kind of crowd and they seemed quiet and respectful.

This project was the dream of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and his family, and it was started in 1948. This massive sculpture will depict the upper body of Crazy Horse, his arm pointing to the east and the head and neck of his horse, and will be 563 feet high and 641 feet long. In comparison the carvings of Presidents on Mount Rushmore are 60 foot tall. The face of Crazy Horse is now completed and it's 87 feet high, and work continues on blasting and forming the rock. The Crazy Horse sculpture is a work of geometry, of lines, circles, triangles and curves, which is constantly evolving. A work of art, on an immense scale.

I spot something moving on the mountain just to the side of where the horses head is being carved, and at first I thought it was one of the workers on the mountain but it wasn't. It was an animal with 4 hooves, two black colored horns and its a whitish color; a wild mountain goat. The mountain goat is oblivious to his surroundings and he turns in a circle and lays down, only interested in taking a nap, in the shade of the cliff face, that eventually be formed into the nose of a horse. This is a place of refuge, on these high cliffs, where over the eons the mountain goats have sought refuge. Crazy Horse would approve of the presence of these magnificent animals.

Crazy Horse was born in 1840 and was killed in 1877, while a prisoner of the U.S. Government. Crazy Horse was a famed warrior that fought many battles with great distinction, and was known as leader and strategist in battle and he fought in many of the most famous engagements across the West including the Wagon Box fight, Fetterman fight, Battle of the Rosebud and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Crazy Horse fought for the Indian People and his tribe against the U.S Government, so save their way of life, their land and hunting grounds. His most famous encounter was with the 7^th Calvary at the battle of the Little Big Horn or the Battle of Greasy Grass Creek as the Indians called it.

General Custer and his command of 210 soldiers were attempting to flank the Indian Village along the Little Big Horn River, but they first had to find a ford and a way around the steep cut banks. Before that could be accomplished the Indians attacked their flank and pushed the soldiers back up the hills, where they fought a desperate last stand. Crazy Horse led a flanking assault, with a large group of warriors, at a place now called Custer Hill, which effectively ended the battle, and swept Custer and 210 troopers to their death.

Crazy Horse was very resolute in his determination to fight for his people, and their lands, even in the face of impossible odds, but he would never give up his fight, to keep the Black Hills. I see the Crazy Horse Memorial as more than a massive granite sculpture, but a permanent marker, a mountain of art and protest, a hard rock heap of determination, that the Tribes will not give up their struggle for the Black Hills. The eyes of Crazy Horse look out over the Black Hills, in a timeless gaze, watching over the creeks, meadows and ponderosa pine forests. A steadfast and stalwart lookout.

The shadow of a warrior on a horse, rides the pine forest late in the afternoon and wedges across the landscape, as the wind howls and curls around Thunderhead Mountain. The crackle and sound of footsteps in pine litter breaking sticks. I take one last look at the sculpted mountain, and stand it awe of the man, and the monument.