THE MAN BEHIND CRAZY HORSE | BY: DIZ GERWIN
May 12, 2020
Behind each work of art around the world, there is a talented and thoughtful artist who devoted their creativity and in some cases, their lives, to ensuring the beauty of their creation. In the case of the Crazy Horse Memorial in Black Hills, South Dakota, we have Korczak Ziolkowski to thank for the historical masterpiece. The monument is dedicated to Crazy Horse, the leader of the Lakota Indian tribe. Crazy Horse was a fierce protector of his people and his land; and because of this, Ziolkowski chose to build this monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota because it was a place that was sacred to the Lakotas. In the remainder of this article, I will be giving some background on Ziolkowski as a designer, the decisions he made in regard to the monument, and also comparing him to the designer of Mount Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum.
To begin, the reason that Korczak Ziolkowski became the lead designer for the monument was because of Luther Standing Bear. Standing Bear was the chief of the Lakotas at the time and he had contacted Gutzon Borglum, who created Mount Rushmore, in hopes of including Crazy Horse next to the four presidents. But, when Standing Bear did not hear back from Borglum, he decided to reach out to Ziolkowski because he had heard that he helped Borglum on the Mount Rushmore project, and also won an award for sculpting at the 1939 World Fair. After Standing Bears had secured Ziolkowski to design and sculpt the monument, they ran into a multitude of problems. The project didn’t official begin until 1948 because they struggled to receive funding from Congress and it was also the time period of World War II, in which Ziolkowski was a soldier. But after years of trying, Standing Bear and Ziolkowski finally made it to Black Hills in 1947 in search of the perfect spot to display their appreciation for a Native American hero.
Although the pair ultimately ended up agreeing on the perfect spot for the monument, it was not always the case. Ziolkowski first envisioned the memorial to be located in the Teton Mountains in Wyoming. But, Standing Bear was a persuasive man and convinced Ziolkowski that the memorial had to stay in close proximity to Mount Rushmore, so people could be reminded of Crazy Horse’s undeniable loyalty and bravery. They decided to build it into Thunderhead Mountain, and the project began. Ziolkowski worked with a devoted team of volunteers. In fact, he ended up marrying one of his volunteers, Ruth Ross, in 1950. Along with their 10 children and loyal volunteers, they continued to build the monument up until Ziolkowski’s death in October of 1982. As the project was not finished when he died, Ziolkowski left detailed instructions for the finishing of the monument as well as the hope that his wife will take over for him and lead in the process.
Although not as well-known as Mount Rushmore and other icons of our American culture, the Crazy Horse Memorial is a monument that our country and its citizens should be proud of, and we have the creative genius, Korczak Ziolkowski to thank for that.
3 Peer Reviewed
Jeffrey V. Pearson. “Tragedy at Red Cloud Agency: The Surrender, Confinement, and Death of Crazy Horse.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 55, no. 2, 2005, pp. 14–27. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4520691. Accessed 9 Mar. 2020.
This article essentially tells the history behind the end of Crazy Horse’s life and how his death came to be. The authors explain these historical facts in a way that make them almost seem like a fictional story. There are many quotes from Crazy Horse himself and from the people that were most important in his life. This information is going to be essential for our magazine because in order for people to understand the memorial in general, they need to learn about the man it is modeled after. Not only do people need to know the great things that he did, but it is also important to include negative things, like how and why he died. It is also going to be helpful because Crazy Horse had a plethora of important people in his life and it is imperative that our readers will get to learn a little bit about them as well.
Rumble, Walker. “Gutzon Borglum: Mount Rushmore and the American Tradition.” The Pacific Northwest Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 3, 1968, pp. 121–127. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40488512. Accessed 10 Mar. 2020.
Because there are not many peer reviewed articles on Korczak Ziolkowski, the designer of the Crazy Horse memorial, I am going to compare him to the designer of Mt. Rushmore, Gutzon Borglum. Both of these monuments are iconic to our American culture, so I thought it would be important and interesting to analyze the creators of both.
Gilbert C. Fite. “Gutzon Borglum Mercurial Master of Colossal Art.” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, vol. 25, no. 2, 1975, p. 2. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsjsr&AN=edsjsr.4517975&site=eds-live&scope=site.
This article is going to be useful in my research because it explains the life of Gutzon Borglum who was the designer of the infamous Mt. Rushmore. In my article I am going to focus on the designer of the Crazy Horse Memorial, Korczak Ziolkowski so to focus on a different angle I am going to compare Ziolkowski to Borglum. This information will help me to find similarities and differences between both designers and also to compare their artistic strategies.
2 General
Pound, Arthur. "CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL (BLACK HILLS, SOUTH DAKOTA)." Historic Sites and Landmarks that Shaped America: From Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero [2 volumes]: From Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero (2016): 129.
This source comes from a chapter about the Crazy Horse Memorial in the book, Historic SItes and Landmarks that Shaped America: From Acoma Pueblo to Ground Zero. The chapter focuses on the memorial itself, but a key point is that it also has a large focus on the designer of the memorial, Korczak Ziolkowski. It is important to note that in this chapter, the author explains what Ziolkowski was involved with the project in the first place, the inspiration he got for the carving, and some interesting points during his life. This source is going to be the primary source that will be used in the article that we are writing that is focused on Korczak Ziolkowski. In my opinion, this source is going to be a great addition to the research we are doing for our magazine because in order to truly learn why the Crazy Horse memorial is such an icon in our American culture, it is important to know about the man who created it.
LaRocque, Taylor Danielle. The Crazy Horse Memorial: a study of a sacred and contested landscape. University of Manitoba (Canada), 2014.
As the Crazy Horse Memorial is such an icon to not only American culture but also the culture of the Native Americans, I thought it would be an interesting angle to research the land that Korczak Ziolkowski, the designer of the monument, chose to build it on. This will add something interesting to my article because it is important to understand why it was placed in the spot where it is.