Crazy Horse News

CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL – This week’s traffic lights change at Crazy Horse Memorial signals its shift to winter seasonal operations.

But work continues daily as weather permits, and at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, a blast on the world’s largest carving in progress will remove 2,589 tons from the horse’s head area.

Travelers on Crazy Horse Memorial Highway, U.S. 16/385 between Custer and Hill City, are advised that state highway crews have switched the intersection lights to flashing mode at the memorial’s entrance. Motorists leaving and entering the memorial must first stop, but other traffic continues under flashing amber caution lights.

During winter, the memorial is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, including holidays, with the Laughing Water Restaurant open until 8 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, and serving brunch from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Sundays.

Weekend admission to the memorial through mid-June is free, with a suggested donation of three cans of food per person for the KOTA Care & Share Food Drive.

At dark nightly, spotlights illuminate the mountain carving for one hour. Admission to the parking lot is free during that period.

For more about the nonprofit Crazy Horse Memorial and its programs to honor Native Americans, call 673-4681.

Editorial Board
Argus Leader

Almost 27 years to the day after Korczak Ziolkowski’s death, another layer of his plan for the Crazy Horse Memorial is unfolding.

The site of his monumental sculpture is becoming a satellite educational affiliate of the University of South Dakota.

It’s practically a perfect match of mission and location.

The program will start next summer, if possible, with college prep classes and freshman-level college courses, including English, math and Native American cultural classes.

An important goal of the affiliate will be to boost educational odds for Native American students.

While college participation has been improving steadily for the past three decades, according to the Department of Education, Indian enrollment still is the lowest of any demographic group, and degree completion is about half that of the national average.

The combination of college-prep and freshman classes, with a potential to earn up to 12 college credits, will give students a leg up on both enrolling in and completing college.

All of this pleases Ruth Ziolkowski, Korczak’s widow and the president and CEO of Crazy Horse Memorial, because education was part of the couple’s vision for the monument from the beginning.

USD will benefit, too. What better place to teach Native American studies than at a site dedicated to remembering tribal history in the heart of the Black Hills, sacred to many tribal traditions?

Thanks to gifts from philanthropist T. Denny Sanford and Donna and Paul Christen of Huron, this program is a boon both for the memorial and USD – but above all, for Native American students’ potential success.

Additional Facts

THE FACTS

*     The University of South Dakota is opening a satellite educational affiliate at Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills.

*     Philanthropist T. Denny Sanford donated $2.5 million to build the complex. Interest from a $5 million endowment from Donna and Paul Christen of Huron will provide for operating costs.

*     Enrollees, mainly Native American students, will be able to earn six to 12 college credits.

The announcement came with a blast as The University of South Dakota confirmed earlier this month that Crazy Horse will become a satellite affiliate of USD. During Native Americans’ Day on Monday, Oct. 12, USD announced a new educational partnership with Crazy Horse, which coincided with a dynamite blast on the historic carving.

The partnership will include college preparatory classes and introductory freshmen courses at a new $2.5 million facility that will be built as weather allows. The goal is to offer classes as early as next summer, according to Jack Marsh, executive director of the Freedom Forum’s Al Neuharth Media Center at USD, Freedom Forum vice president and a board member of the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation.

“USD will hire special faculty, write curriculum, and teach preparatory and college-level courses primarily to Native American students,” Marsh explained. “The Crazy Horse and USD academic partnership will begin as a summer program.”

A $2.5 million donation from Sioux Falls, S.D., philanthropist T. Denny Sanford will pay for construction costs of a learning center, complete with classrooms and a residence hall. He was at the controls of a D-8 bulldozer on Sept. 27 to break ground for the complex. USD officials hope to launch the program when the facility is completed in mid-2010. The operating costs will be paid with interest earnings from a $5 million endowment from Donna “Muffy” Christen and her husband, Paul, of Huron, S.D. Marsh said the Memorial hopes the learning center will be fully operational by 2011.

“It’s really another step in a dream coming true,” Crazy Horse Memorial president and chief executive Ruth Ziolkowski said. She said her late husband, sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, envisioned more than the mountain carving, making a university and medical training center for Native Americans part of the nonprofit memorial’s mission.

The couple began awarding scholarships to Native American students in 1978, a program that has since awarded more than $1.2 million. Crazy Horse also has hosted university-accredited classes since 1996.

“The scholarships started the educational component of our overall plan, and now with the residence hall, we can have more young people working here, learning and being productive. And, hopefully, having some fun during the summer,” Ruth Ziolkowski said.

She said Crazy Horse will sponsor two distinctive features in the program: scholarships to qualified Native Americans to pay for tuition and books, and paid student internships. Students living on campus in the residence hall will experience the value of work at the memorial’s visitor complex. Learning objectives will be tied to various positions at the Crazy Horse Welcome Center/Studio complex.

According to Laurie Becvar, dean of the Graduate School and Division of Continuing and Distance Education at The U, students in the summer program can enroll in English, math and American Indian Studies culture classes, and earn from 6 credit hours up to 12 college credits from USD.

“This is part of an endeavor to make real a dream for Native American students that involves higher learning and ultimately, attaining a college degree,” said Becvar. “Through this partnership, Native American students can prepare for college in a number of ways and actually attain a semester of credit transferable to any college or university and applicable to degrees they intend to earn. Part of the program will involve making application to a college or university of their choice.”

While partnerships between tribes and academic institutions aren’t uncommon throughout the United States, according to Becvar, this is a first-of-its-kind approach in South Dakota, where the dream is to establish a college that celebrates the spirit of Crazy Horse.

“The Ziolkowskis want to share the story of Crazy Horse. The curriculum will embrace his prominence as a warrior, his perseverance and his leadership,” Becvar said. “It is our hope that the academic experience will instill in the hearts of students a grand dream and greater vision for themselves.”

The University of South Dakota expects to begin recruiting students for the program in January 2010. While the program is designed with external funding for Native American students, all applicants will be considered for the select number of student positions.

About The University of South Dakota

Founded in 1862, The University of South Dakota is designated as the only public liberal arts university in the state and is home to a comprehensive College of Arts and Sciences, School of Education, School of Health Sciences, the state’s only School of Law, School of Medicine, the accredited Beacom School of Business and the College of Fine Arts. It has an enrollment of more than 9,600 students taught by 400 faculty members. More information is available at www.usd.edu/press/news

Mrs. Ruth Ziolkowski, the CEO/President of the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, is presented a check from Mr. Vikram Pandit, Chief Executive Officer of Citi.  Mr. Pandit was a on a cross-state tour unveiling and presenting grants from Citi and the Citi Foundation.  The Crazy Memorial Foundation received a $25,000 check from Citibank South Dakota, which is intended to fund 25 $1,000 scholarships for Native American students to attend tribal or state colleges, universities, nursing schools or vocational-technical schools located in South Dakota.
[For more information on the grants, click here]

Thank you. Over and over, visitors expressed their gratitude in the guest book outside the tomb of Crazy Horse Memorial sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski.

About 150 people paid their respects during Korczak Remembrance Day on Tuesday, Oct. 20. Visitors included a local fifth-grade class, Black Hills area Native Americans and people from Alaska, California, Canada, Colorado, England, Florida, Indiana, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Texas.

The special event marked the third public invitation to remember the founder of the world’s largest mountain carving in progress since his death at age 74 in 1982. Admission to the memorial was free, with suggested donations of funds or three cans of food per person for the KOTA Care and Share Food Drive.

From the tomb area at the mountain’s base, those making the pilgrimage saw peeks of the colossal carving project through pine and aspen trees. Guests met with family host Adam Ziolkowski and in comments declared the setting “amazing,” “beautiful,” “peaceful,” “serene,” “wonderful,” but mostly “inspiring.”

Fog and rain somewhat reduced the view, but not the depth of sentiments.

“A tear for a great man,” wrote Richard Wenn of Yountville, Calif. The 91-year-old Air Force veteran walked the gravel road from the visitor center to the tomb during his first visit to Crazy Horse.

He served 23 years, including periods during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars. Wenn said he marveled at how much has been accomplished on the mountain carving.

“Stop and think about it,” he said. “The tools that he had in those days and the tools that they have today. It’s incredible.”

The salute culminated with a mountain blast removing 805 tons of granite covering part of the horse’s head below the eye.

“RIP. You are remembered,” wrote Molly Thunder Chief of Rapid City.

Korczak installed a knocker on the inside of his tomb’s steel door, joking that he would knock when he wanted out, in case work lagged on the projects he had mapped out.

Dale Oleson of California picked up on that humor, asking his fellow Army veteran to, “Send me an e-mail, Korczak.”

Lakota chief Henry Standing Bear and other tribal elders first invited the Boston-born Ziolkowski to carve a mountain memorial to honor Native Americans in 1939. The project, dedicated in 1948, continues with the nonprofit Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, led by Korczak’s wife, Ruth Ziolkowski.

Located on Crazy Horse Memorial Highway, U.S. 16/385 between Hill City and Custer, Crazy Horse is open every day. For more about the memorial, call 605-673-4681.

On Tuesday, Oct. 20, Crazy Horse Memorial visitors will have the rare opportunity to walk to the area outside of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski’s tomb near the base of his mountain carving in progress.

“Last year, we had such good weather and so many people participated, that we thought we would offer the walk again,” said his wife, memorial president and chief executive Ruth Ziolkowski.

This is just the third time since Korczak’s death in 1982 that his family has invited the public to the area of the tomb that he and his sons created. Last year, more than 200 people paid their respects, many leaving flowers at the gated door.

This year’s walk from the visitor center will be from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.

In additional tribute to Korczak’s life and inspiration, a 3 p.m. blast, weather permitting, will remove 800 tons from the horse’s head area on the mountain.

It’s been 70 years since hereditary Lakota chief Henry Standing Bear and other tribal elders first invited Boston-born Korczak Ziolkowski to the Black Hills to create a mountain memorial that proclaims “the red man has great heroes also.”

Standing Bear and Korczak dedicated the start of their dream in 1948. Korczak knew he would not live to finish it, and since 1982, Ruth and seven members of their family have led work on the nonprofit memorial’s cultural and humanitarian endeavors honoring all Native Americans.

Admission to the memorial will be waived on Korczak Remembrance Day in lieu of a suggested three cans of food per person for the KOTA Care and Share Food Drive.

The memorial’s guests through September had provided 26,407 pounds of food and $20,360.84 for the regional food bank, with the proceeds distributed through the Rapid City Food Pantry.

Located on Crazy Horse Memorial Highway, US 16/385 between Hill City and Custer, Crazy Horse Memorial is open every day.

The South Dakota Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure nonprofit organization honored breast cancer survivors at Crazy Horse Memorial on Native American Day.  The nonprofit organization provided activities, educational films and booths encouraging health screenings in hopes of early detection.

Vanessa Shortbull, a former Miss South Dakota who is pursuing a public health master’s degree, was honorary chairwoman of the group’s first run-walk “Race for the Cure” event.  She told a gathering honoring 16 Native American breast cancer survivors, designated by pink shawls, that “breast cancer is an enemy that is color blind.”

Selena Wolfblack, a four-time cancer survivor, urged women to get examinations and, if necessary, to force their doctors to talk with them, and that friends and families be supportive.  “You can’t get cancer by touching a person who has it,” she said.

Students at the Native American Day program listen to inspiring comments by Gerard Baker.

CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL – Twenty years ago, Gov. George Mickelson and tribal leaders in South Dakota mapped out a challenge in establishing the “Year of Reconciliation.” It’s time, he said in 1990, to turn to the future together and “teach others that we can change attitudes.”

Speakers at Monday’s 20th Native Americans’ Day program at Crazy Horse Memorial sought to enlist students in helping to make those changes.

Those who succeed will be the new warriors, Mount Rushmore National Memorial superintendent Gerard Baker told the packed house in the memorial’s Mountain View conference center. At more than 200 pupils registered, students were by far the largest group in the standing-room-only crowd.

Some got to dance with Native American youth from Rapid City and Chamberlain while the Eagle Valley Singers drum group of Rapid City performed. Oglala Sioux Tribe Fifth Member Myron Pourier, world champion hoop dancer Jasmine Pickner of Rapid City and the newly crowned Miss He Sapa Win (Miss Black Hills Pow Wow) Sunni Wilkinson, a member of the Three Affiliated Tribes from White Shield, N.D., also were featured.

A Mandan-Hidasta member of the Three Affiliated Tribes in North Dakota, Baker said males and females need to assume warrior-like leadership roles because our society and freedoms are threatened by enemies from outside and within. One threat is racism.

Baker put students on their warrior quest with several assignments. Their research begins, he said, with getting adults in their families to answer, “Who are We?” Knowing their background, Baker said, is a vital building block for the students in deciding who they will be.

It won’t be a one-time dinner table talk. He also said they will need to:

– Turn off their TVs and computers at night and talk with their families.

– At least once daily stop and listen to nature and its messages from the Creator.

– Respect their natural surroundings, others and themselves, shunning bad habits and words – and questioning others when they do or say something harmful to themselves or others.

– Say one good thing to at least one person every day, especially someone they are having difficulty with.

“That’s a sign of a good warrior,” Baker said.

They will win the fight when he, as an elder, will ask about prejudice and racism and no one will know the answer. “It’s up to you, your generation, to make that turn.”

Baker is the first Native American superintendent at Mount Rushmore and throughout his nearly 30-year National Parks Service career he has been an agent for change, seeking to include the Native American perspective to tell the more complex – and complete – story of our shared national heritage.

Oglala Lakota College instructor Marcel Bull Bear named Crazy Horse Educator of the Year.

He said one of the people he looked up to in college was Marcel Bull Bear. “He was always doing something good,” Baker recalled of their time at Mary College in North Dakota.

Bull Bear, now an instructor at Oglala Lakota College at Kyle on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, was named the seventh Crazy Horse Educator of the Year. His nominator, school development director Marilyn Pourier, said he was a “great leader and a great role model.”

The honor comes with a $1,000 stipend, and the surprised Bull Bear already had plans for how the money will help his students. He teaches history, family genealogy research and cultural classes, which he will tie together in archery lessons and field trips, thanks to the grant.

“Now I have some money to bring my students to the sacred places in the Black Hills,” he said.

The power of place is important in the Lakota culture, and Bull Bear joined Baker in challenging the students to take care of themselves and their world.

“There is no way around it, we have to do that for us to survive in the future,” he said.

Education is key in the reconciliation effort and the cornerstone of programs at Crazy Horse Memorial. The mountain carving produced another 750-ton blast in the horse’s head area for the holiday crowd, but out of sight is a key development.

A university and medical training center are in the memorial’s mission, and Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation director Jack Marsh said the school is no longer just a dream.

“From this day forward we will no longer talk abstractly about the university,” he said.

Thanks to a $2.5 million gift from philanthropist T. Denny Sanford of Sioux Falls and a $5 million permanent endowment being established by Donna “Muffy” Christen of Huron, a ceremonial groundbreaking recently started the memorial’s first university student living-learning center.

Marsh said the 40-unit complex will include four classrooms. It will be completed next year and a satellite campus operation of the University of South Dakota will be in full swing by 2011. The memorial will provide jobs to students and scholarships to qualified Native Americans.

“Together, we are advancing reconciliation,” Marsh said.

Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation Chairman Dick Tobias of Rapid City, left, presents the Dreamer Award to “steadfast” and “true friends” Elaine and Jim Emery of Custer for their longtime service and support of the nonprofit memorial dedicated to honoring North American Indians, their cultures and traditions. (Crazy Horse photo/Linda Uphoff)

A longtime Custer couple, Jim and Elaine Emery, recently won the coveted Dreamer Award from the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation board of directors.

The honor, the 14th since debuting in 2000, is reserved for individuals, businesses and organizations whose ongoing help significantly aids the 61-year-old memorial’s educational and humanitarian mission to honor Native Americans and their tribal cultures.

He was the foundation’s treasurer for more than half of its history and remains a director on the 27-member board. For nearly 20 years, she’s been the volunteer coordinator of the Crazy Horse Memorial Scholarship Fund and board meeting secretary.

In thanking Jim Emery for his guidance and counsel, the foundation’s award notes, “We are further honored to be part of your mission to carry on your father’s priceless efforts to preserve the Lakota language.”

With the help of memorial media archivist Mike Morgan, Emery preserved and converted the extensive recordings that his father, the late James E. Emery, made of Lakota stories, ceremonies and music from the 1950s to the 1970s. Copies of the digital archives have been provided to regional tribal and state colleges, as well as the Crazy Horse Memorial library.

Board members told Elaine Emery “we are blessed to have your passionate involvement in the Scholarship Fund. This inspiring program benefits greatly from your genuine and caring manner. We appreciate the assistance you provide at board meetings and your wonderful sense of humor.”

She works with foundation president and memorial chief executive Ruth Ziolkowski on the scholarship funding, which has exceeded $1 million since the fund began in 1978. The program this fall semester awarded more than $135,000 to South Dakota schools, which select the scholarships winners.

Married for 52 years, the Emerys are from the Lead-Deadwood area where they graduated from high school in 1952.

Jim Emery, a Lakota, served in the U.S. Army paratroopers and attended Black Hills State College at Spearfish and National College of Business in Rapid City.

He managed Black Hills Power & Light Co.’s Southern Hills offices from 1971 until retiring in 1996. He served on city councils in Hot Springs and Custer, on the Hot Springs Development Corporation, state Board of Education and in the South Dakota Legislature for 12 years.

His tributes include the Man of the Year Award from the Rapid City Jaycees and the President’s Award from Custer Area Chamber of Commerce.

Elaine Emery is a retired legal secretary who also worked in newspaper advertising accounting and as a consultant on several election campaigns in the state. She attended the University of South Dakota at Vermillion and South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City.

She was a charter member of the South Dakota Lottery Commission, serving seven years, three as president, on the panel supervising scratch ticket and other state-sponsored games. She also served six years, two as president, on the state Commission on Gaming, overseeing horse racing and casino-style gambling in the state.

She is a charter member of Custer County Republican Women’s Club, and member of Women of St. John’s Catholic Church in Custer.

The nation’s oldest state-sponsored Native Americans’ Day holiday ceremony will be held Monday, Oct. 12, at Crazy Horse Memorial.

The 20th annual event will be held regardless of weather. Snow spotted but did not stop the first program in 1990.

About 1,000 people watched as a dozen state and tribal officials circled spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse, 19th generation keeper of the sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe of the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota (Sioux) nation, as he prayed to the four directions and blessed the gathering.

A unanimous 1989 Legislature established Native Americans’ Day, officially replacing Columbus Day in South Dakota. Lawmakers said they did so for “the remembrance of the great Native American leaders who contributed so much to the history of our state.”

At the initial state holiday ceremony, the crowd applauded when Gov. George Mickelson said in Lakota, “Today I stand before you and shake your hand with a happy heart.”

Oglala Sioux Tribal Chairman Harold Salway reciprocated. “We must all live together. We must all survive together, so we must learn to live among each other and cherish each other.”

The “Year of Reconciliation” spirit endures at Crazy Horse. The private, nonprofit memorial honors all North American Indians everyday, but Native Americans’ Day is special, said memorial president and chief executive Ruth Ziolkowski.

“Gov. Mickelson at the first ceremony said while governments must work to resolve legal issues, ‘tolerance and understanding must come from the individual heart.’ On the holiday, busloads of school children come for the educational programs and get to meet our wonderful Native American artists and learn firsthand about their culture. Adults get to see and hear the amazing Native dancers and speakers. Then they all can get together at the free buffalo stew lunch for more conversation,” she said.
“This is what the memorial is all about: being a meeting place where learning — reconciliation if you will — happens on a person-to-person basis. The visitors can find out about the traditions and the historic heroes, like Crazy Horse, and see that the Native American culture is alive and vibrant and has contemporary leaders. That’s one reason why we think it is so important to recognize the annual Crazy Horse Educator of the Year.”

The seventh award winner will be named during a program that also features a Native American children’s dance troupe and drum and singing group from Rapid City Area Schools. Festivities get under way at 10 a.m.

A blast on the mountain carving is set for 11 a.m., weather permitting. Afterward, representatives of the Pink Shawl Project and South Dakota Affiliate of the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation will provide information about cancer awareness programs. Tests will be available at a mobile examination unit at the memorial.

Throughout the day, activities for students will include making miniature tipis, beading and simulated digs for historic artifacts.

Located on Crazy Horse Memorial Highway (U.S. 16/385 between Hill City and Custer), Crazy Horse is 17 miles southwest of Mount Rushmore. For more information about Crazy Horse and Native Americans’ Day, please call 673-4681.

Fast facts:

– There are 2.5 million Native Americans in the U.S.
– November is Native American Awareness Month or American Indian Heritage Month.
– South Dakota has the third highest proportion of Natives (behind Alaska and New Mexico), and the 8th largest Native population among states (Oklahoma leads with 179,524 tribal members.)
– South Dakota’s other holidays recognizing Native Americans are Little Big Horn Recognition Day on June 25, commemorating the 1876 battle, and Wounded Knee Day of Reflection on Dec. 29, commemorating the 1890 massacre.
– California Gov. Ronald Reagan signed a resolution in 1968 establishing the fourth Friday in September as American Indian Day, but the California Assembly didn’t approve the statewide California Native American Day holiday until 1998. Berkeley, Calif., substituted Indigenous Peoples Day for Columbus Day in 1992.
– Alabama observes Monday, Oct. 12, as Columbus Day, Fraternal Day and American Indian Heritage Day.
– Maryland observes American Indian Heritage Day on the fourth Friday in November.
– Nevada observes Native American Day as a working holiday on the fourth Friday in September.
– The 2004 Utah legislature established November as American Indian Heritage Month in the state and Indigenous People Day on the Monday before Thanksgiving.