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Caucheka
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Most of you should have heard at some point in your life that they are carving a giant monument of Chief Crazy Horse in the mountains near Mount Rushmore. At first, I thought it was a great thing, but after hearing a few things about it, I feel like this is a serious bad move. Before I go any further here is a picture.
http://www.tracks-trails.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/0/335909cd3e59fc8ace6ed030cc0b7c80/files/crazy_horse_memorial.jpg

The small figurine in the foreground is what it should look like when finished, and they've been working on it for over 60 years.


Anyway, onto the facts.

first, take a look at the picture. If I asked you just now who it was of, you would reply with Crazy Horse. However, Crazy Horse was so adamant about not having his picture taken that there is literally NO images, whether they be pictures or paintings, of Crazy Horse himself. So, not only do they not know if they are close to what he actually looked like, making the memorial kinda goes against his wishes to not be photographed.

The guy who is in charge of the project, Korczak Ziolkowski, was also the man who sculpted Rushmore. He decided to do the Crazy Horse memorial as a response to the controversy surrounding Mt Rushmore. It kind of misses the point about why defacing mountains in the middle of sacred Native American territory is a bad idea.

The actual pose of the statue is of an actual moment of history, in where a white man asks Crazy Horse "Where are your lands now?", to which Crazy Horse responded "My lands are where my dead lie buried."
The statue depicts Crazy Horse pointing, apparently to where his lands are. But hand gestures don't exactly mean the same thing in every culture. To most Native Americans, pointing a finger is considered "rude and aggressive."

now, knowing all of this, do you still feel the same way about the monument than you did 10 minutes ago?

I'll end with a quote by Lame Deer, a Lakota medicine man.

"The whole idea of making a beautiful wild mountain into a statue of him is a pollution of the landscape. It is against the spirit of Crazy Horse."
  • 25 Replies
Drace
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Drace
3,880 posts
Nomad

Oh god you reminded me of the awesome statues I saw in Armenia.

This one is located in the center of Yerevan city center.

http://www.whereislarry.com/arm1.jpg

Dragonz5
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Dragonz5
96 posts
Nomad

I agree with nevetsthereaper. Our (the ppl above me bcuz i dont think any of us are Native American) opinions do not matter much in this case. Its a statue depicting a NATIVE AMERICAN, and its on NATIVE AMERICAN land. Why dont we ask the NATIVE AMERICANS if they want it?????????? Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks thats a good idea!
And Drace, I think ur mssing the point of the thread..

wajor59
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wajor59
909 posts
Nomad

Please, correct me if I'm wrong but
I think the US is the last country to make reparations to the Native American Indians?
Australia made reparations to their Native Aborigines, Canada has made reparations to their Native Indian tribes, too.
I'm only going on the information of the OP so I assume the artist is privately funded and gained the proper permit(s) to permanently alter the face of the mountain?

The one thing that disturbs me is that the profile of the face of the supposed Indian in the sculpture, looks eerily Anglo-Saxon.

There's still time for another Indian Chief to be memorialized that we do have photos of, like Sitting Bull, for one.

With freedom of speech, artists will never please everyone's opinion of what should or should not be considered art.

valkery
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valkery
1,255 posts
Nomad

Look, we Americans feel bad about what we did to the Native Americans, right? At least once it gets down to the nitty-gritty. In the gace of that, we think that making as many memorials to the Native Americans as possible will somehow make us feel better. It is more of a pitty party for Americans than a monument to a great Indian Chief.

And about the pinting finger. If you go back to page one, then you will plainly see that the finger has not yet been sculpted. if that is the case, than we can simply blast the rock off where the finger is supposed to go, and redesign his hand.

wajor59
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wajor59
909 posts
Nomad

So true, Valkery! A memorial does not equal reparations. Our Native Americans are the poorest of them all and that should be rectified, now.

piester22
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piester22
975 posts
Nomad

Its a statue depicting a NATIVE AMERICAN, and its on NATIVE AMERICAN land. Why dont we ask the NATIVE AMERICANS if they want it??????????


We did.They chose Crazy Horse to represent them in the monument...
Google567
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Google567
4,013 posts
Farmer

My grandma saw Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse memorial when she went to visit her son who lives in South Dakota. I think it's funny that the US government has memorialized the chief of a tribe that they killed off. But not before they killed off some Americans.

nevetsthereaper
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nevetsthereaper
641 posts
Nomad

not the us gov, its private party.

tomertheking
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tomertheking
1,751 posts
Jester

I have a question... Why does it cost a lot of money? I can't phantom how it can take more that a million, even with high-tech sculpting tools.

nevetsthereaper
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nevetsthereaper
641 posts
Nomad

its the man hours involved. think about how long it would take to cut all that rock......

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