Crazy Horse was and is a legendary Oglala Lakota indigenous (aka Native American) warrior–hero. A 500+ foot memorial has been being carved in larger than life stone in his memory since 1948!–in the Black Hills of Custer County, South Dakota. Though we can finally put a face to it, this generation of dedicated builders say they’ll be dead before the epic Crazy Horse Memorial Still Being Built is fully finished.
The Crazy Horse Memorial Still Being Built will be 641 feet long and 563 feet tall at its completion. To compare, the iconic national monument of Mount Rushmore that’s also in South Dakota, (the giant stone replica of presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt’s heads) is just 60 feet tall per head. Even putting all four of them together still only fits inside* the one* Crazy Horse memorial’s head. Plus, his will show him riding his horse and pointing into the distance on top of that. (Now that’s how you stunt!)
What’s really ‘crazy’ is the Crazy Horse Memorial Still Being Built began when the sculptor of Mount Rushmore was asked by the Lakota chief to erect a monument in honor of the warrior. It was literally started by those hands and has been carried out since 1948–over 7 decades now. For the mass genocide of indigenous people in America to the now sovereign and segregated reservations, which still harbor a lot of pain though also pride and majesty, the memorial represents more than just Crazy Horse himself.
When asked ‘back in the day’ by a (hating) white trader, “where are your lands now?” it’s reported Crazy Horse pointed over his horse to what are now the private lands his memorial is being built on and said:
“My lands are where the dead lie buried.”
RIP
