IS IT TOO LATE TO SAY WE'RE SORRY??

My other half and I just returned from a fabulous car trip out west to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial in S. Dakota and then the Devil's Monument in Wyoming. We were definitely in Indian Country and we loved it!! What saddened me, though, was how everyone knows of Mt. Rushmore (and it IS truly awesome!), but most DON'T know of Crazy Horse and it is even more impressive, both in scope and in story.

Would you believe that all four faces on Mt. Rushmore can fit INTO the head, face (and to be completed hair) of Crazy Horse, which happens to be the world's largest mountain sculpture?? When it is finished, which probably won't be in my lifetime, the carving will be a likeness of the Indian hero, on his stallion, all the way down to his waist, long hair flying back in the wind. This sculpture is to honor the culture and tradition of ALL the North American Indians, past, present and future and, IMHO, should be as well known and visited as Mt. Rushmore!

A Polish American sculpturer, Korczak Ziolkowski, was asked by a Lakota Chief, Henry Standing Bear, to design and make a mountainside sculpture to honor this Indian hero and said, "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, also." (1939).

The Indians had been forced off their land and onto reservations, but Crazy Horse refused to live on a reservation. When a white trader asked him, mockingly, "So where are your lands now?" [that you have been forced off] ,Crazy Horse replied, "My lands are where my dead lie buried." Therefore, the sculpture has him pointing, with arm outstretched and index finger pointing to such lands. (Just to show you how large this sculpture is, when the arm is finished, 4000 people will be able to stand on it!! Ooohhh, how I want to be able to see it before I die!!)

Crazy Horse was tragically bayoneted by an American soldier, at the age of 34, while visiting the soldiers under a flag of truce! These are my tears of sadness. But seeing this incredible monument built to him and to all Native Americans brings tears of joy to my eyes, too.

The sculpturer (who is a hero on his own, but that's a whole other story! Amazing!) not only designed the sculpture, but an Indian University and medical training center in the same area! Go onto www.crazyhorsememorial.org to learn more and to contribute, if you wish, since no government funds are accepted. It is all private enterprise. The more money they receive, the faster they can finish!