Posted on 08/21/2006 5:19:32 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
CRAZY HORSE, S.D. - Crazy Horse Memorial will start its first national fund drive this fall.
The sculpture was started by the late Korczak Ziolkowski, who dreamed of honoring American Indians by carving a 563-foot-high likeness of Sioux warrior Crazy Horse into a granite mountain in the southern Black Hills.
The work began 1948. Ziolkowski died in 1982.
His widow, Ruth Ziolkowski, and their family have continued the work.
The sculpture now brings in millions of dollars every year, mainly through admission fees, and the family has held to Korczak's admonition to refuse government help to complete the project and instead rely on private enterprise.
Visitor numbers have grown to more than 1 million annually, the face of Crazy Horse is complete and the complex of buildings at the carving's base now includes a museum, education center and restaurant.
The goal of the national fund drive is to work toward the mountain carving's completion and expand cultural and educational programs at the memorial.
Crazy Horse plans to announce the fund drive Oct. 7, said Fred Tully, development director. The goal is to raise $16.5 million over the first three to five years and then another $10 million, he said.
The first project is a $1.4 million dormitory that will house 40 American Indian students who will work at the memorial.
The second phase will fund a hall that will recognize Indian heroes from the past and present, including an astronaut, soldiers, athletes and people from science and medicine.
An amazing project even though it's barely recognizable as what it will look like when completed. All of Mount Rushmore would fit comfortably on his outstretched arm.
They refuse any money from the U.S. government for exactly the reasons you would expect.
It is going to be a wonder of the world. A fitting memorial and an awesome project.
In scale alone,, it's hugh! and the workmanship&dedication in creating it, a fitting tribute to the artists... and teh subject.
Agreed. Looks like they have a lot of work to do. I doubt it will be finished in my life time.
Many American GIs, and many defenseless civilians are turning in their graves.
A lot of people do not realize this, but Mt. Rushmore is an unfinished work. Original plans were for the four to be viewed from about the belt line up. Only the heads were actually completed.
Balance is such a nice thing.
"Please, Mister Custer, I don't want to go...."
"Look into his [Crazy Horse} face and you can see all the Indians' hatred of the white man staring back at you...."
FYI
The Wounded Knee Massacre
White officials became alarmed at the religious fervor and activism and in December 1890 banned the Ghost Dance on Lakota reservations. When the rites continued, officials called in troops to Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota. The military, led by veteran General Nelson Miles, geared itself for another campaign.
The presence of the troops exacerbated the situation. Short Bull and Kicking Bear led their followers to the northwest corner of the Pine Ridge reservation, to a sheltered escarpment known as the Stronghold. The dancers sent word to Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapas to join them. Before he could set out from the Standing Rock reservation in North Dakota, however, he was arrested by Indian police. A scuffle ensued in which Sitting Bull and seven of his warriors were slain. Six of the policemen were killed.
General Miles had also ordered the arrest of Big Foot, who had been known to live along the Cheyenne River in South Dakota. But, Big Foot and his followers had already departed south to Pine Ridge, asked there by Red Cloud and other supporters of the whites, in an effort to bring tranquility. Miles sent out the infamous Seventh Calvary led by Major Whitside to locate the renegades. They scoured the Badlands and finally found the Miniconjou dancers on Porcupine Creek, 30 miles east of Pine Ridge. The Indians offered no resistance. Big Foot, ill with pneumonia, rode in a wagon. The soldiers ordered the Indians to set up camp five miles westward, at Wounded Knee Creek. Colonel James Forsyth arrived to take command and ordered his guards to place four Hotchkiss cannons in position around the camp. The soldiers now numbered around 500; the Indians 350, all but 120 of these women and children.
The following morning, December 29, 1890, the soldiers entered the camp demanding the all Indian firearms be relinquished. A medicine man named Yellow Bird advocated resistance, claiming the Ghost Shirts would protect them. One of the soldiers tried to disarm a deaf Indian named Black Coyote. A scuffle ensued and the firearm discharged. The silence of the morning was broken and soon other guns echoed in the river bed. At first, the struggle was fought at close quarters, but when the Indians ran to take cover, the Hotchkiss artillery opened up on them, cutting down men, women, children alike, the sick Big Foot among them. By the end of this brutal, unnecessary violence, which lasted less than an hour, at least 150 Indians had been killed and 50 wounded. In comparison, army casualties were 25 killed and 39 wounded. Forsyth was later charged with killing the innocents, but exonerated.
http://www.lastoftheindependents.com/wounded.htm
Thank you. "Civilian grave diggers bury Lakota dead in a mass grave" That was the caption under a copy of this picture at the http://www.lastoftheindependents.com/wounded.htm website.
Thank you for this thread. :)
Of course:
they ceased work when the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, died.
Now, what MANY people don't know is that Ziolkowski was originally an assistant to Borglum
No mention of the fact that Caterpillar has been a major supporter of this project since its inception.
What's the name of that dumb bunny flatteed by a D9 in Israel?
Rachel Corrie?
Wouldn't her parents be impressed by Cat's support of the indigenous population of this land?
LOL!
I have stood underneath the face of Crazy Horse on the monument many times.
All who can come to South Dakota should do so in the first week of June for the annual Volksmarch up to the arm of Crazy Horse
The profile reminds me of theface of Washington on Rushmore.
Yeah, yeah. Everybody's heard of Wounded Knee. But how many have heard of the Mankato Massacre? Or the Tuscorora War? Or the Yamasee?
The Indians gave as good as they got.
And Crazy Horse was no more a hero than George Armstrong Custer was.
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