South Dakota III

Sioux Falls

The Falls here are quite impressive, but in all honesty there isn't anything else at Sioux Falls, and I certainly wouldn't be in a hurry to head back.

The Crazy Horse Memorial

To give some idea of scale, the whole of the
Mount Rushmore site would fit neatly into just Crazy Horses head.

The Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of Custer County, South Dakota. This huge mountain sculpture has been under construction since 1948 and is still far from complete. In 1929, Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota elder initiated the project to honour Crazy Horse. 

Crazy Horse was a legendary Native American war leader of then Oglala Lakota, he took up arms against the U.S Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and the way of life of the Lakota people. After surrendering to U.S troops in 1877, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a military guard while allegedly resisting arrest. 

The above picture gives some idea of how the finished sculpture will look and also how much rock has been removed, estimated to be at least 10 million tons. Since drilling and blasting started, care of the memorial has been in the hands of the Ziolkowski family. The project is funded only from visitor fees and equipment is donated from industry. 

The project is not without it's controversies and most of these originate within the Native American communities. Lakota Elders claim they were never consulted about construction of the memorial and that the Black Hills should never have been desecrated, the hills were there for them to enjoy and pray to. 

In Native American cultures pointing with your index finger is prohibited, it's believed to be rude or taboo, and has been likened to commissioning a sculpture of Sir Winston Churchill with an upraised middle finger.