First thing we got up and sterilized the kids in the showers, very clean, the kids AND the showers. Then we headed to Mount Rushmore. Danko and I weren’t too keen on going, but how could we not stop by and see it being less than ten miles away. We assumed we’d take a quick peek, the kids would do their junior ranger program and we’d go back to Custer to relax at our tent site. I believe that Mount Rushmore has been given a bad rap and has acquired a kitschy reputation. Let me tell you, I was stunned at how moved I was by the carving and did not find it kitschy at all. The philosophy behind the art and the sculptor are very impressive and inspiring. He wanted to leave a time capsule, if you will, for the future to see the motives and achievements of a democracy. The sculpting itself is beautiful and moving and I have never seen it represented with such dignity as it itself conveys when seeing it in person. The inviting hills, the sweet smell of the Ponderosa pine, and the dignity of the mission all added to me becoming a fan of Mount Rushmore.
After a lovely half-day at Mount Rushmore, and the kids achieving their second Junior Ranger badges, we headed over to see the Crazy Horse Memorial. This is a work in progress that started in 1948 when Lakota elders asked a Polish American sculptor Korczak to sculpt into the Black Hills a monument to Crazy Horse, the Lakota war chief who refused to even touch the pen that would sign a treaty with the US government. He was successful in battle, but was stabbed in the back by an army soldier during a truce. The monument of Crazy Horse, when completed, will be the largest sculpture in the world, Mount Rushmore would fit into a small part of the head of Crazy Horse. The sculpture will depict Crazy Horse, mounted, and pointing into the hills. He was once asked after a battle “where are your lands now?” and he replied “My land lies where my ancestors are buried.” So that is to what Crazy Horse is pointing, the lands of the Black Hills, of the Lakota people, but for today’s native community he represents all native peoples.
The sentiment is moving, the sculpture is beautiful, but I do have some issues with the movement. Korczak the sculptor was offered several times millions of dollars from the federal government to complete the project. His project not only includes the grand sculpture, but a center of Native Studies and a medical school for Native peoples (not sure if it is meant to only teach natives, or perhaps focus on western and native medicine, either way a good idea, perhaps later requiring graduates to work on reservations). Korczak turned down all funds stating that the project belongs to the people and it should be funded by the people and not built by a handout. I understand the pride behind the philosophy, and it can be good thing, however, since the project is not just an artistic endeavor but includes important educational endeavors, I find the philosophy standing in the way of bettering the lives of many people.
A work of art is of value not only in completion, but during its creation. It can bring people together, generate interest, as many visitors come to see the grand scale of the work at Crazy Horse Memorial and spend time in the visitor center seeing the works of area artists, native and western, reading literature, and being exposed to native culture. But, the Crazy Horse Memorial project is more than just a sculpture carved into the side of a mountain. If the whole project is realized, it will give opportunities to young native peoples to better their lives, bring hope and dare I say progress to that which I have read to be hard conditions on reservations. These conditions were placed on them by an oppressor, a conqueror, and I understand the desire for self-preservation and even bitterness from broken promises. As Red Cloud said that the US government has kept all promises but one, that they would take all the land. I feel and sympathize, but when it comes to millions of our tax dollars given to realize a project that is completely conceived by Lakota for the betterment of their community, I am all for it. At the visitor center, the project leaders, Korczak’s wife, state the ideals of the work and ask for donations making the memorial every person’s memorial. In my eyes, tax dollars are my money. In each national park, as my kids are told by the rangers during the junior ranger program, each national park belongs to each American, from the youngest to oldest, and since we are all the owners of these national parks and monuments we need to take care of them, and so on. So, it seems to follow that if my hard earned taxes are given to the Crazy Horse Memorial, it becomes mine as do all the national treasures we have and as Korczak and his family would like us to think of the Crazy Horse Memorial if we became members. In other words, that government gift is a gift of the people, where does Korczak think the monies come from? US! The very same people from which the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation asks of donations, monetary and otherwise (time, artwork to sell, and the like).
That’s my thinking behind the memorial and a very interesting contrast to observe between Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial, which are less than 20 miles apart.
Curious fact about Mount Rushmore: there is a Hall of Archives behind Lincoln’s head which is to store important historical documents of American history, such as the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Roosevelt’s New Deal, etc… I hate to admit this, but I’m not sure if the documents, or rather copies of the documents, are there or not, but I praise the concept. It is prudent to place such important ideas into a mountain, to be preserved and found when time and civilization may forget what once was.
Also, neat fact: the movie National Treasure II is coming out this winter and they did film around Mount Rushmore, it’ll be neat that our kids will be personally familiar with the treasures in the next movie, as they were with the ones in the first movie. Very neat, I look forward to experiencing their reactions at the movies.
After visiting the monuments and having much deep philosophical struggles about the better of mankind or the principles of self-preservation, we had dinner: spaghetti (finally, pasta! Not common on western menus) and buffalo meat sauce, cooked and served at the famous five-star Nebesh tent-site at Custer State Park. After a delicious meal, we hit the lake, it was a bit cool and late, but very refreshing and we are grateful that the kids convinced us to go swimming. Then we had a campfire, ate marshmallows and brownies (Warning: roasted brownie bites are nasty! Don’t do it!), and a restful night’s sleep.
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