Crazy Horse and Rushmore

There are places every American should see at least once.  We paid two of them a visit today. 

Crazy Horse is a work in progress.  Started in 1948 by the late Polish sculpture Korczak Ziolkowski, (I dare you to try to say that ten times really fast), the project continues with several of his ten children leading the way.  The monument was commissioned by Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder, on land considered sacred by some Oglala Lakota. Privately held, the project uses no government money but relies on contributions and sales from the gift shop, on-site restaurant and tours.

Ambitious plans for a Native American university are in place and accredited college courses were offered with the first students graduating in 2010.  We toured the log cabin built by Ziolkowski decades ago.  His ten children were born and raised there and educated in a school house he brought in, along with a teacher.  The place even had its own tiny post office back in the day.

In the cultural center, reading accounts of the Indians native to the area, their heroism, suffering, and loss are remembered; I was moved.  A quote by Nez Perce Chief Joseph in 1881, his people virtually exterminated by the US government, haunted me:

“They will teach us to quarrel about God, as Catholics and Protestants do.  We do not want to do that.  We may quarrel with men about the things on earth but we never quarrel about the Great Spirit. We do not want to learn that.”  

The native peoples of this country have seen many an injustice; our United States have been procured at great price.  Too great, I sometimes think.  Sheltered in our modern and comfortable cocoons, it is vital we learn accurate history.  To honor the warriors of all races who have given us the freedoms we enjoy as our due, with little thought for what it cost.  In researching the project I came across one commentator, stunning in his stupidity, who labeled Crazy Horse an "insurgent" and undeserving of honor because he was "not an American."  Wow.  I would explain why I think those comments are idiotic but I do not believe any of my acquaintances (to which the readership of this blog is most likely limited) are asinine enough to need an explanation.

Supper in the restaurant while looking out massive windows at the face of Chief Crazy Horse memorialized on the mountain, was, appropriately, buffalo stew with fried bread.  Delicious.

We left for Mt. Rushmore hoping to take in the evening festivities there.  Only seventeen miles away we had time to check-in at our hotel in Keystone, SD before continuing another mile and a half to Rushmore.  As dusk fell two thousand people gathered to hear and see a presentation on the men whose faces are carved into the massive granite face of the mountain, high above the outdoor amphitheater. 

Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt (Theodore), their contributions to the “great experiment” that is our country, were remembered using their own speeches and writings.  Quotes uttered two hundred years ago were chillingly prophetic in their concern for our liberty and the potential loss there-of.  They warned of future leaders they feared would try to profit from the people or remove their freedoms.  The Constitution, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights were all carefully crafted in an attempt to insure our continuing freedoms, gained through great sacrifice.  Yet all of them knew the grave risks that would threaten those freedoms in the future, risks that would result from the insatiable need of a few to control the many.

I was encouraged to see the seats filled with fellow Americans wanting to learn how our nation came to be.  At the end of the program all veterans or those with family members who are, or have, served were asked to come to the front to assist with lowering the flag for the night. Ceremoniously folded, the Stars and Stripes were carefully stored away by several of the many servicemen and women who had gone forward. The complete silence throughout the amphitheater was broken as those stretching across the stage told their name, time served, and their branch of the military.  Even though this took some time, most of the 2000 people filling the bleachers remained in place.  After all introductions were complete a heartfelt standing ovation followed without any prompting by those in charge.

It's pretty easy to look back, hindsight being what it is, and recognize the brilliance of the country's founding fathers.  What is often forgotten is their courage and bravery in the face of incredibly poor odds.  Had their endeavors failed they would all have been tried for treason and executed.  And our flag would not have fifty stars on it.  This country would have, most likely, been severed into numerous territories held by various other nations to whom we would be paying homage and taxes. It would require complicated border crossings making our coast to coast travels much more difficult, less enjoyable, and maybe impossible altogether.  Commerce would be stifled, headaches would abound.  Even though the USA is increasingly less than perfect, it's still the greatest experiment in liberty and individual potential that has ever existed on this planet.  In my humble opinion, at least.