Crazy Horse Visitors Center
The Crazy Horse Visitors Center is actually an entrance hall into a very well one Native American Museum spread over several buildings. I liked this facility very much. It actually was quite a surprise find. The extensive collection of artifacts was so well displayed and the materials used to display everything was well selected to complement the displays. The museum is roomy with lots of space to reflect and study the objects on display.
Spacious Native American Museum Exhibits
Spacious Exhibits are a characteristic of the facility
A treasure in the museum is 16 of the legendary beads received for the original sale of Manhattan by the Canarsee Indians to Dutch Governor Peter Minuit..
Trade Beads received for the sale of Manhattan
I subscribe to the sentiment in the slogan seen here painted on the glass transom above the Visitor Center doors. This was the motto of the Sculptor and the Lakota Indians.
After a nice day of touring and hiking outside and then browsing the many buildings of the Indian Museum inside we had a nice meal in the Laughing Water restaurant . The restaurant is nicely integrated into the museum with a great panorama of windows overlooking the mountain carving. It has it's history from when when the sculptor and his wife, Korczak & Ruth Ziolkowski, often would have guests stay for dinner.
Our server was a retiree living in an RV and working here for the summer before moving on to Texas where he will work an Amazon warehouse for the Christmas season. I ordered the Indian Taco which I had previously on the Navajo Reservation where it was called the Navajo Taco. It looks like a pizza with a pizza crust and toppings but consists of home-made Indian fry bread topped with taco meat, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, onions and sour cream
Laughing Water Restaurant windows overlooking the Crazy Horse mountain carving
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