Carving commenced on the Crazy Horse Monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1948, and the project today is far from finished. Crazy Horse, of course, is the Sioux war chief who handed General Custer his butt at Little Big Horn. When the monument is completed, it will display Crazy Horse pointing his finger allegedly to where his dead countrymen are buried. While it is sincerely intended to be a tribute to the Sioux people and also to Native Americans in general, many of them are less than thrilled for a variety of reasons, including:
1. The massive sculpture will require the destruction of a mountain sacred to the Sioux.
2. Crazy Horse will actually be pointing his finger directly at a luxury hotel.
3. Finger pointing is considered very offensive by many Native American tribes. Their spokespersons have indicated that it is similar to depicting George Washington on Mt. Rushmore picking his nose.
4. Crazy Horse avoided having his picture taken in his lifetime, and he probably would not have wanted to be the subject of what will be the largest sculpture in the world--even bigger than Mt. Rushmore.
The below photo displays the model for the sculpture, with the actual mountain in the background. You can see that the sculptors have completed the face and top of the arm on the mountain.
No comments:
Post a Comment