The Crazy Horse Memorial

Just 8 miles from Mt. Rushmore, another monumental sculpture, The Crazy Horse Memorial, is taking shape. Designed and started in 1948 by sculptor Korczak Ziółkowski, the statue of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior riding a horse, will be the largest in the world when (or if) it is finished.

The face was finished in 1998, but the sculpture is a long way from being finished.

Ziółkowski died in 1982. The work is now being supervised by his wife Ruth. Jill took this picture of Ruth (in blue) in the visitor center’s restaurant.

Glenn and Ziółkowski’s first air compressor. Ziółkowski referred to it as the “Buda” but the compressor was actually made by Gardner Denver, a company still making air compressors. The engine was made by the Buda Engine Co.

The compressor was many years old when Ziółkowski acquired it. Stories were told about the engine stopping after Ziółkowski had climbed up the mountain only to have to climb back down to restart it.

KILI Radio 90.1 FM

100 KW, KILI “The Voice of the Lakota Nation -- on top of the mesa -- in Porcupine, South Dakota.” On the air since 1983, it claims to be "the very first Indian-controlled, Indian-owned and Indian-run radio station in the U.S." Now wind-powered.

Wounded Knee, South Dakota

The Wounded Knee Massacre was not one of the great moments in U.S. history. On December 29, 1890 500 U.S. Army cavalry troops had surrounded an encampment of Lakota (Sioux) Indians. They were the last Indians still at war with the U.S., but had finally agreed to stop fighting. During their disarmament, confusion with a deaf tribesman lead to chaos and mayhem.

When it was all over, about 300 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed. 25 US troops were dead, some probably killed by “friendly fire.” 150 Indians were thought to have fled, but many of them later died of hypothermia.

Inexplicably, the United States Army awarded the massacre’s participants the most “Medals of Honor” that have ever been awarded in a single engagement.

The bodies were unceremoniously dumped in a mass grave. Not until 1903 was a monument placed on the site by surviving relatives. The site, located in the “Pine Ridge Indian Reservation” (not a name used much by its residents) in southern South Dakota, has been declared a National Historic Landmark.

Though it is the eighth-largest reservation in the United States, larger than Delaware and Rhode Island combined, most of the land comprising the reservation lies within Shannon County and Jackson County, two of the poorest counties in the United States.