Honoring Chief Crazy Horse

There are only a few names of the great Indian chiefs that most Americans will immediately recognize, and fewer that people will be able to tell anything about. Chief Crazy Horse is a fellow that is familiar to most of us -- indeed, he is destined to become the most famous of all the great Indian Chiefs when the Monument in the Black Hills, which honors him, is completed.

The Crazy Horse Monument is truly a work in progress. I was a student in 1948 when our family first visited the Black Hills in South Dakota. We were thrilled to see the faces of the four presidents at Mount Rushmore, but we got to see more than that. At that time one of the guides suggested that we travel a few more miles to see the sculpture of Crazy Horse at Thunderhead Mountain.

At Thunderhead we met the sculptor, one Korczak Ziolkowski, who showed us small statues of what the large carving would look like, and shared his dream of bringing Crazy Horse's likeness out of that mountain. He had worked with Gutzon Borglum on the Rushmore project and liked the Black Hills area. He said that he had received a letter from Sioux Chief Standing Bear in the late 1930s. Standing Bear had viewed the faces at Mount Rushmore, and wanted Ziolkowski to know that the Indian Nations had their great chiefs too, and he asked Ziolkowski if he might create a lasting memorial for his people (the Indians). Ziolkowski took Standing Bear's request to heart and vowed that he would indeed do something for the Indians.

Ziolkowski was truly a man on a mission, and he spoke that day with great passion as he described his dream -- of creating the world's largest sculpture -- a huge monument that would be 641' long and 563' high, transforming the entire mountain into a statue of Chief Crazy Horse pointing over his horse, into the distance. At that time, in 1948, he said the monument would be completed in another five or 10 years. Abruptly, at 2:30, Ziolkowski terminated his interview with us, and announced that he would have to leave, to supervise the day's TNT blast.

We got to see that TNT blast, a miniscule cloud of smoke, as the blast displaced a few rocks, but when the air cleared we could not see that the mountain had changed one iota. Later, we told our South Dakota relatives about visiting Thunderhead Mountain, and our visit with Mr. Ziolkowski.

An uncle laughed and said that Ziolkowski was a huckster, and that the tourists visiting the monument made his own private Social Security plan. Ziolkowski had scorned federal money (with its restrictions) that would have helped him complete the sculpture. My uncle predicted that Ziolkowski would not live long enough to see that sculpture completed. "Hell," he said. "None of us will live long enough to see the completed likeness of Crazy Horse carved out of that mountain". He may have been right. Mr. Ziolkowski died in 1982. The uncle and my folks are gone, and after more than 60 years, the sculpture is still not nearly completed, and there is no proposed completion date -- but they are making progress.

Crazy Horse was born in the Black Hills region of South Dakota in about 1840, the son of a Lakota Sioux Holy Man/Chief, who was also named Crazy Horse. As a youth, he showed great aptitude as a horseman and had the leadership qualities that were recognized early on and brought him quickly to the attention of the Old Men of his tribe. At age 13 he was already leading raids on the Crow villages to capture horses.

By 1865 Crazy Horse had gained enough stature among the Sioux and Cheyenne so that he was chosen as one of the leaders to oppose construction of the road that the white men were building, leading to the gold fields in Montana, which happened to pass through land that the Sioux considered sacred. When the Army, out of Fort Phil Kearny, in Wyoming, sought to protect that road, Crazy Horse led the 2000 Indian warriors who attacked Captain Fetterman's troop of 80 men, destroying it completely--The Fetterman Massacre.

In 1876 Crazy Horse was one of Chief Sitting Bull's Lieutenants at the Battle of The Little Bighorn. In this battle General George Armstrong Custer led the Army's 7th Cavalry, of some 700 troops. Five of the Seventh's Companies were completely annihilated. Custer, along with two of his brothers, a nephew, and a brother-in-law, were killed. Little Bighorn proved to be the key battle of The Great Sioux War of 1876-77, a great victory for Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. It marked the high water mark for the Indians in the Indian Wars, and led to sweeping changes of tactics and methods for the Army, in the prosecution of the War against the Indians in the Great Sioux War.

By 1877 the U.S. Army had pretty much succeeded in it efforts to subjugate the Indians, by killing the buffalo (the Indians main food source), improving military tactics, and by instituting a series of treaties with the Indians, which promised food in exchange for promises of peace on the Indians' part.

Crazy Horse, whose people were starving, finally surrendered his tribe of 800 in May of 1877, becoming one of the last of the Indian Chiefs to surrender to the Army. He and his band of Lakota Sioux were brought to the Red Cloud Agency, adjacent to Fort Robinson in Nebraska, which was to be their new home. For a time things were peaceful, while the Lakota attempted to learn to be wards of the government.

But things never were entirely good. The Indians who were already at the Red Cloud Agency were jealous of the attention that Crazy Horse got from the soldiers at Fort Robinson, and the soldiers were constantly on their guard, feeling that Crazy Horse would try to escape, to join other bands of Sioux, to do mischief to white settlers.

Things came to a head in September of 1877. In that month Crazy Horse attempted to leave Fort Robinson, to take his ailing wife to her aging parents, so that she might die in their village. General Crook, the Commandant at Fort Robinson, ordered his arrest, fearing that Crazy Horse was plotting a return to battle.

At first Crazy Horse went peacefully with the soldiers, explaining that he was finished with warfare and telling the reason for his leaving, but when it became apparent that the soldiers were going to lock him in the Guard House, he put up a resistance.

From this point the stories are mixed, so that it is very unclear just what happened. Some say that Crazy Horse was cut up with his own knife. Others say that one of the Guards stabbed him with a bayonet. At any rate, Crazy Horse was badly wounded with a knife of some kind. He was immediately taken to the Post Hospital at Fort Robinson and the Post Surgeon worked valiantly to save his life. But it was to no avail. By morning Crazy Horse was dead -- -at age 37.

Crazy Horse lived for just 37 years, but in that time he proved to be a major thorn in the Army's plan for the west, and a great hero to the Lakota Sioux. In double those 37 years perhaps the great memorial to this great Chief may be completed. It is a controversial project, as even Sioux Indians oppose it because it desecrates sacred Black Hills Land. Nevertheless, it promises to serve as an inspiration, dedicated to the independent nature and free spirit of all Indian people -- and to all men.