Crazy Horse Memorial
The Crazy Horse Memorial memorializes the Lakota warrior Crazy Horse. The carved memorial in the South Dakota Black Hills was originally commissioned by a Lakota elder, Henry Standing Bear in the in June 1948. Henry Standing Bear commissioned Korczack Ziolkowski, an important player in the Mt. Rushmore Presidents, to sculpt The Crazy Horse Memorial. Though Ziolkowski died in 1982, his wife Ruth took over the project and the memorial is still being sculpted today.
The Crazy Horse memorial will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, or Tasunke Witco, riding a horse and pointing to his tribal land. Crazy Horse is revered as a Native American warrior. Crazy Horse most famously led a band of Lakota warriors against Custer's Seventh U.S. Cavalry battalion in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Crazy Horse continually put the needs of his people above his own until his death at Fort Robinson, Nebraska on September 5, 1877.
The Crazy Horse Memorial, still in construction, is being carved on the former Thunderbird Mountain only 17 miles away from Mount Rushmore.
