8 miles from the National Monument of Mount Rushmore an even larger mountain carving is taking place. The Crazy Horse Memorial is also in the South Dakota Black Hills. When completed it will be the largest mountain sculpture in the world. Crazy Horse was a Lakota Indian and fierce warrior born in the 1840s. He resisted US Government attempts to encroach on his lands and eventually died after being stabbed by a US Army bayonet. "They broke every single treaty they ever made with us except one. They promised to take our lands and they did".
The base of the sculpture has the inscription "These are my lands where my ancestors lie buried"
Korczak Ziolkowski was a Polish sculptor who worked under Master Sculptor Gutzon Borglum on the Mount Rushmore mountain carving. Ziolkowski was contacted by Chief Henry Standing Bear asking if he would be interested in creating a mountain carving for the Native Americans to show that Indian Nations also have heroes. Ziolkowski began the sculpture in 1948. The dynamiting and bulldozing continues today. When we visited the dozers were actively pushing chunks of granite away from the base.
Mount Rushmore can fit into the forehead of Crazy Horse
The unfinished Crazy Horse Sculpture is unfinished after almost 70 years. Completion is expected to take 50 more years
We rode an old school bus run by the tribe on a dirt road to the base of the Memorial
The Crazy Horse Visitors Center is an extensive Native American Museum consisting of a series of buildings that are architecturally unique and very well done. I liked the Crazy Horse Memorial much better than Mount Rushmore.
I like this photo I took of the Crazy Horse marble model juxtaposed against the mountain carving
Indian Sculpture outside the Crazy Horse Visitors Center
The Crazy Horse Terrace at the Visitors Center
Nicely Landscaped Crazy Horse Terrace
