Mount Rushmore is a symbol of America. It shows four U.S. presidents on a mountain. Yet the United States also had Native American leaders. As Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote: “The red man had great heroes too.”
Chief Standing Bear was a chief of the Lakota people in South Dakota. In 1939, he sent his letter to a sculptor named Korczak Ziolkowski. Standing Bear wanted to honor Lakota leader Crazy Horse. Ziolkowski agreed. He started work on June 3, 1948. Workers began blasting on a mountain. It’s near Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
The heads on Mount Rushmore are 60 feet (18 m) tall. Crazy Horse is much bigger! The monument will be 641 feet (195 m) long. It will stand 563 feet (171 m) tall. That’s four times taller than the Statue of Liberty!
The memorial will show Crazy Horse on a horse. He points toward Native American land. People celebrated the anniversary June 2–4, 2023. There was music and speeches. However, the project is still not finished — after more than 75 years.
Ziolkowski died in 1982. Then his wife, Ruth, took over the project. Now their kids continue the work. Workers shape the mountain. But progress is slow. Only the face is finished. Still, the memorial teaches about Native Americans.
During the 1800s, the U.S. government tried to change the Native Americans’ way of life. That meant moving the Lakota people off their land. Crazy Horse fought in the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876 to protect the tribes. He led the native people against U.S. forces. U.S. Army leader George Armstrong Custer died. That’s why it’s called “Custer’s Last Stand.”
Crazy Horse became famous. But the United States sent more troops to the area. By 1877, the U.S. government had taken the Black Hills. And Crazy Horse was dead.
Ziolkowski said he wanted to “give back to the Indian some of his pride.” And he said he hoped to “keep alive his culture and .”
Updated June 5, 2023, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)
