Lakota leaders in 1939 invited prize-winning sculptor Korzak Ziolkowski to create the Memorial. Seeking to honour all North American Indian people, the elders chose the symbolic representation of famed Little Big horn leader Crazy Horse to proclaim "the red man had great heroes also". Korzak, his wife and 7 of 10 children made it their life's work to complete. He died in 1982, she died in 2011 but the epic project continues now in its 65th year. The important thing to note is that it is a non-profit cultural educational quest that has never accepted a penny of government funding!
The interpretive centre lays out the intricate society that the tribes enjoyed before the Europeans came. Great leaders that promoted consensus instead of wars. Artists exquisite in their painting, fashion, beadwork, music and dance. Devoted parents and community activists in their own way. Their fatal flaw was that they trusted the white governments and military to keep their word. As one said, the only promise that the whites kept was that they would take all our lands, and they did. Crazy Horse himself was killed by a soldier who stabbed him in the back.
The presentation here is much more human, convincing and heart-breaking than the political taint to Mount Rushmore. The loss of native wisdom and culture is staggering. On a personal note, one of the historic photos shows a native mother with daughter in 1930. In that very same year, my mother was 17 with an infant daughter in primitive Saskatchewan. She used to tell stories of encountering Indians out in the fields, trading fish for salt. I cry to imagine the wonder if those two young mothers had lived and prospered side by side, sharing knowledge and joy that was not to be for either.
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