Crazy Horse Memorial...Crazy Horse, South Dakota

DATE:  October 7, 2025

SITE:  Crazy Horse Memorial

LOCATION:  12151 Avenue of the Chiefs, Crazy Horse, Custer Co., South Dakota  57730

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

“My lands are where my dead lie buried”…Crazy Horse

The area is beautiful and we’ve been so lucky with weather. This is as far north as we’ll be going and there hasn’t been a day where I needed to wear long sleeves all day. You can see the monument way before you get there. At first, it’s like “is that it?”, sort of like what I did at the Grand Canyon. But in this case, yes, that is it and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

 

If I heard one more time that the Crazy Horse Memorial was on private land, being built entirely with private funding, and was much bigger than Mount Rushmore, I was going to scream. Honestly, I do admire the fact that they are doing this without any public funding, and are, obviously, proud, but really? Do you really need to bash Mt Rushmore as “much smaller”?

Although it is the “Crazy Horse” memorial, it really is a tribute to all American Indians. Originally commissioned by a Lakota elder (Crazy Horse was an Oglala Lakota), it has been “in progress” since 1948 and is far from complete.

The land is considered sacred by the Lakota and the memorial is not only the sculpture, but also the Indian Museum of North America, the Native American Culture Center and ultimately a satellite campus for the University of South Dakota. But even the Lakota disagree on whether the sculpture should even exist as it can be considered a desecration of sacred land.

Crazy Horse was born in 1840 and became one of America’s most powerful Indian Chiefs, just behind Sitting Bull. He took up arms against the U.S. government to fight against the Indian lands and way of life being taken away and fought in some of the largest wars against the “white man”. 

After finally surrendering in 1877, Crazy Horse was led into a room with bars on the windows and

What finished sculpture will look like

although having never seen a jail, instinctively knew what this meant. Crazy Horse pulled a knife and an Indian near him tried to subdue him. There was a struggle and he cut the hand of the Indian. Shouts of “shoot him” rang out and a military guard stepped forward and bayoneted Crazy Horse from the back. Crazy Horse did not die right away. His father made it to his side before  Crazy Horse’s last words “it is no good for the people to depend on me any longer; I am bad hurt”…and he died.

Crazy Horse did not like being photographed and was buried where his grave would not be found so his likeness isn’t really known. He was chosen because he was not only a great Chief but also of great character and loyalty to his people.

But this isn’t just the story of Crazy Horse but also of Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor, and his family.

In 1931, Luther Standing Bear contacted Gutzon Borglum, who was then carving Mt. Rushmore and suggested that Crazy Horse was the only Indian truly great enough to be placed side by side with Washington and Lincoln. Bear never heard from Borglum.

Henry Standing Bear began a campaign to get Crazy Horse sculpted on Mt. Rushmore but in 1935, he also was frustrated over the lack of commitment for the project. In late 1939, he wrote Ziolkowski and told him that the white man needs to know “that the red man has great heroes too”.

To show his commitment, Bear offered to trade 900 fertile acres for a barren mountain. The U.S. government was pretty enthusiastic over the trade and the National Forest Service granted a permit for the project, and more important…a commission. The commission was turned down in favor of private funding by Americans interested in the welfare of the American Indian.

Ziolkowski was offered $10 million…twice, by the U.S. government but turned it down thinking that his loftier educational goals would be tampered with by the government if he took the money. This man was totally dedicated to this project. To hear the story of his early work is to understand just how difficult this must have been and what great shape this guy had to have been in.

Ziolkowski died in 1982 and his widow, Ruth, took up oversight of the project. She deviated off her husband’s plan in a major way…she had the face of Crazy Horse finished before the horse under him which is how her husband had planned. She was correct in thinking that the finished face would increase tourism and so increase funds coming in.

Ziolkoski’s family has always been involved in all aspects of the memorial as evidenced by 7 of the 10 children working on site, either on the mountain or in the educational center; even to this day.

In 1998, the face was completed. Ruth died in 2014 but saw her daughter, also a sculptor, take over the project.

An interesting aside…there is a group of Indians, Lakota and otherwise, who feel the people behind the memorial need to make a big correction while it can still be made. It is said that no American Indian tribe considers it ok to point with just the index finger. In fact, they point out (pun intended) that it was only recently in the white man’s world that it was ok to point. Remember as kids… “quit pointing” was the admonishment we’d get from our parents. I was unable to find whether or not the memorial group will/has or is considering this request.

Dirk and I took a bus up to the base of the carving. This thing is huge. We walked through the culture center and saw interesting exhibits and some amazing crafts being sold. Dirk got a beautiful arrowhead necklace that caught his eye. Ziolkowski, before he died, commissioned this huge double gate to be built with all the animals that exist or have ever existed in this area. It’s a spectacular piece of metal art.

 

It would have been real cool to have seen the blasting and they do when needed throughout the year, but there are 2 “ceremonial” blasts each year. One is on June 26^th and is called “Ruth’s Night Blast” and “Little Bighorn Anniversary”, celebrating Ruth Ziolkowski’s birthday and the anniversary of the battle at Little Bighorn and September 6^th, which is the “Crazy Horse & Korczak Night Blast” celebrating the death of Crazy Horse and the birth of Korczak Ziolkowski. I’m really glad we took the time to come here before moving on to Mt. Rushmore.