As an engineer, by schooling, by trade and by personality
and as a collector of quotes, one of my very favorite for many, many years has
been “The unexamined (un-analyzed) life is not worth living.” – Socrates. As we know, Socrates spent his life
questioning, examining and analyzing EVERYTHING, taking nothing at face
value. It was this very sentiment that caused me to be
an engineer; why do things work the way they do.
Everyone knows Mount Rushmore. We’ve flown there a few times (it’s one of
our go to places, when people come to visit us) and, no question, it is
impressive. This week, Jolene suggested
we fly back to South Dakota area and visit the Crazy Horse Memorial that is
still under construction. I went along
(which is what (smart) married guys do) but I expected it to be a cheesy copy
of Rushmore.
Flash back to 1937, the construction of Mount Rushmore,
subsidized by the US government, is nearing completion. A Native American chief, Henry Standing Bear,
wrote a letter to Korczak Ziolkowski, a sculptor who had just won an award for
one of his sculptures displayed at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. Very simply, the letter said, “My fellow
chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes
also.” In the letter, he entreated Ziolkowski
to design and build a monument to a great Native American chief in the Black
Hills of South Dakota. Henry Standing
Bear’s request had to wait. War intervened.
Ziolkowski’s military career took him to
the landing at Normandy. Upon his return
in 1948, Ziolkowski began work on the sculpture. When he started, he had $174 in his pocket
and an OLD second hand air compressor that frequently failed. As a result of his work, he sustained broken
bones, back injuries, four spinal operations, contracted diabetes, became
arthritic and suffered a heart attack necessitating quadruple bypass surgery.
At age 74, a final heart attack claimed his life.
Certainly, the rational being, the engineer or even Socrates
himself would have looked at this undertaking and its chance for success and
would have declined and moved on to something more certain of realization. Ziolkowski and Ziolkowski’s family have
worked on this monument to the red man for the past 67 years and, though the
monument is breathtaking, the end is nowhere in sight. This man dedicated his entire life, as have
his wife and children to this undertaking, knowing full well that he would
never see it completed. This is not
unlike the stone carvers of the great cathedrals of Europe who toiled on these
monuments that took 3 or 4 generations of stone carvers to complete. What drives such people? In Ziolkowski’s words, “When the legends die,
the dreams end; when the dreams end, there is no more greatness. Don't forget
your dreams.” “By carving Crazy Horse,
if I can give back to the Indian some of his pride and create a means to keep
alive his culture and heritage, my life will have been worthwhile.”
Here, in this picture, you can see the plaster model and, in
the background, the mountain carving.
So, how does this compare to Mount Rushmore:
Crazy Horse Memorial when completed
– 563 feet high by 641 feet long
Mount Rushmore – 60 feet high
Sphinx – 70 feet high
The pyramid at Giza – 481 feet high
The Washington Monument – 555 feet
high
When it is completed, the Crazy Horse Memorial will be the
largest sculpture on earth.
So how was Crazy Horse selected as a subject:
During his life he was a great
leader to his people. He did not have an equal as a warrior or chief. He gave submissive allegiance to no man,
White or Red, and claimed his inalienable rights as an Indian to wonder at will
over the hunting grounds of his people. He wanted only peace and a way of
living for his people without having to live in the Whiteman’s reservations.
Crazy Horse defended his people and
their way of life in the only manner he knew, but only after he saw the treaty
of 1868 broken. This treaty, signed by
the President of the United States said “As long as the rivers run and the
grasses grow and trees bear leaves, Paha Sapa, the Black Hills, will forever
and ever be the sacred land of the Indians.” He took to the warpath only after
he saw his friend Conquering Bear killed; only after he saw the failure of the
government agents to bring required treaty guarantees such as meat, clothing,
tents and necessities for existence. He was killed when he was only 34 years of
age, around midnight the morning of September 6, 1877. He was stabbed in the back by an American
Indian soldier at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, while he was under a flag of
truce.
The inspiration for the sculpture came from the words of
Crazy Horse, himself. After his capture,
he was derisively asked by a cavalry soldier, “So where are your lands now?”
Crazy Horse responded by pointing out over the
Black Hills and said:
“My lands are where my dead lie buried.” “One day I will be a part of this rock.”
Ziolkowski and his family have never accepted government
money for their work. The memorial is
entirely financed by private donations and revenue from the museum and gift
shop.
God bless Korczak Ziolkowski and others like him.
Socrates was wrong.
