Crazy Horse Memorial

September 22, 2019 4:58 PM

Who Speaks for Crazy Horse? "Is the Crazy Horse Memorial, in South Dakota, a tribute to the Lakota warrior, or the strangest and crassest historical irony in a region, and a nation, that is full of them? ... The world’s largest monument is decades in the making and more than a little controversial." [Previously, Via]
posted by homunculus (13 comments total)

What To Know About Crazy Horse on the Anniversary of His Assassination
posted by homunculus at 4:59 PM on September 22, 2019 [8 favorites]

I have for a while sort of felt like the Crazy Horse memorial is totally great and should be there especially in answer to Mount Rushmore, but also like perhaps the amount of time and money being poured into it isn't necessarily a wise expenditure. It's hard to get into "wise expenditure" territory when it comes to art, though. Because, like, art takes money. And that carving, while not only being answer to Mount Rushmore, is definitely also art.
posted by hippybear at 8:47 PM on September 22, 2019

It's ironic that the Crazy Horse Memorial is just a big grift, with historic connections, just like Mt. Rushmore, and, TBH, pretty much the Black Hills in general. A shame, and probably, a blasphemy...
posted by Windopaene at 9:44 PM on September 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

A fascinating read.
posted by davidmsc at 11:05 PM on September 22, 2019

I recently went through the Black Hills on a road trip. We had already planned to stop at Rushmore but learned about the Crazy Horse Memorial® through road signs and flyers in local rest stops. We spent an afternoon there, did the bus tour and everything. It left me feeling conflicted and sad. To think of all the history in those hills, such a rich and proud legacy, and today it's bumper stickers and souvenir rocks and laser light shows.

So much has been lost.

.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 11:12 PM on September 22, 2019 [5 favorites]

The one single good thing about this goddamn timeline is that Teen Vogue has gone bomb-throwing radical.
posted by away for regrooving at 11:24 PM on September 22, 2019 [35 favorites]

I visited Crazy Horse Mountain a few years ago - on the day Johnny Cash died, as it happens - and came away with feelings of great goodwill for the project. I wish I could still feel that way after reading the New Yorker piece but ... nope.
posted by Paul Slade at 1:18 AM on September 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

I've been to the site twice, once as a little kid and then again as an adult. Even as a kid I knew something was off, the ambition seemed to be reckless and not up to the task at hand. As an adult I realized that it had become just a scam and the New Yorker piece just confirms it.

I was talking to a couple Native Americans many years ago (a member of my wife's family had married into a different tribe) and someone brought up the monument. One of them scoffed, "the thing of it is, if Crazy Horse saw that abomination he'd piss on it and walk away in disgust. Hopefully after he killed everyone involved."
posted by Ber at 2:17 AM on September 23, 2019 [14 favorites]

The description of that laser light show makes me feel so grossed out.
posted by theatro at 4:56 AM on September 23, 2019 [4 favorites]

I visited the Crazy Horse monument with my family when I was a kid (it was my idea). The monument was half-finished, and we could barely see it through the rain. We probably spent less then fifteen minutes there overall. Still, the one thing I took away from that visit was seeing the bullet holes in the sign leading up to the monument. That told me so much more than that huge, semi-abandoned sculpture.
posted by spoobnooble II: electric bugaboo at 6:00 AM on September 23, 2019 [4 favorites]

The monument was half-finished

If only.
posted by Paul Slade at 6:44 AM on September 23, 2019 [1 favorite]

The one single good thing about this goddamn timeline is that Teen Vogue has gone bomb-throwing radical.
Wow, that article! The "spirit of Crazy Horse" paragraph makes him sound like Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner!
posted by rhamphorhynchus at 8:54 AM on September 23, 2019 [2 favorites]

Still, the one thing I took away from that visit was seeing the bullet holes in the sign leading up to the monument. That told me so much more than that huge, semi-abandoned sculpture.

To be honest, most signs outside of town that can be used for target practice, will be, west of the Mississippi. That's why many signs - signs you may NOT see bullet holes on, also have an American Flag on them.
posted by alex_skazat at 11:21 PM on September 23, 2019