Up to 7,000 people attend ceremonies

By Pat Dobbs
West River Editor

Against the chill of snow and drizzle, speaker after speaker fired a crowd of thousands here Wednesday with challenges for racial solidarity to fulfill the dream of the 50-year-old Crazy Horse Memorial.

An estimated 7,000 people of many ethnic groups and nationalities watched the anniversary ceremonies, 10 times the 1958 gathering that started the world’s largest sculpture project.

Despite near-freezing temperatures and gray cloud banks that threatened to obscure the mountain, a small city assembled to see the completed face of Oglala Lakota warrior Crazy Horse, the memorial’s symbol.

And a standing ovation rose when the giant blue, yellow and white starred cover fell from the face on the mountain, a mile from the viewing area. A giant closed-circuit television screen gave the crowd a close-up view of the unveiling.

Daryl and Carol Hildreth, retired educators from Jasper, Mich., were among the huddled. They had left the 80-degree comfort of their home on Monday to return to the memorial for the first time in 18 years.

"We wanted to come see the event and to see what’s happened. …It’s a tremendous carving," Daryl Hildreth said, wrapped in a sleeping bag against the cold.

Across the aisle, Anthony Horse Looking of Rosebud was wrapped in a blanket over his sweatshirt. He and his mother, Mary Young Bear, and Jess White Thunder came to watch Don White Thunder and the Native American Post No. 1 Color Guard kick off the program.

It featured the likes of actor James Whitmore as American Humorist Will Rogers and national media leader Al Neuharth, who has followed the project from the beginning. President Bill Clinton also sent greetings for the gold anniversary.

The attention and the legendary warrior’s emerging image fills the dream of Oglala elder Henry Standing Bear, who persuaded Korczak Ziolkowski to carve the mountain in the Lakota’s sacred Black Hills, said Standing Bear’s grandson Dennis Compos of Fort Walton Beach, Fla.

"I know in my heart that the spirits of these three great men are here today. In fact, if you look up there now, you can see their spirits over the mountain. And these spirits are looking down at us today, and they re making an everlasting brotherhood. They are saying to us, ‘Thank you for a job well done. Never forget your dreams,’" Compos said. "By carrying on this dream, you honor all Native Americans, and we thank you."

Ziolkowski in 1948 proposed to carve the memorial "with just a few pennies," estimating a $5 million project taking 30 years of his life. He died in 1982 before the face was begun, but his family continues the work. The public has made it possible, contributing $22 million through admissions and donations. That has funded a visitor complex and education-cultural center with college classes. "We’re proud to have you here with us to celebrate the accomplishments that have come about the last 50 years. But the thing that I want to stress to each and every one of you, much as we’re proud of what we have done, we have an awfully long way to go. We value your friendship and your support, and we need it," Memorial Chairwoman Ruth Ziolkowski said to the a standing ovation.

Crazy Horse the man was born in the 1840s and was killed in 1877 without yielding to forced life on reservations. NASA astronaut John Herrington said the Crazy Horse saga is one that should be heralded to youth for his defense of liberty for his family, culture and country.

"I think it is this nation’s responsibility to hold him out as an example of what a hero is… because without heroes children can’t be inspired," he said. Billy Mills might not have won the 1964 Olympic gold medal without the inspiration of Crazy Horse.

"Crazy Horse challenged me to follow my dreams," he said, and follow the warrior code of self-responsibility, humility, generosity and spirituality.

"We’ve all heard Martin Luther King simply say, ‘I have a dream.’ Crazy Horse is challenging many, many Lakota people to simply follow their dream," he said. "I challenge you to go far beyond admiring this incredible work to take the spirit of Crazy Horse with you as we promote understanding, as we promote not only local or national but global unity through the beauty of diversity."

In his convocation, Monsignor William O’Connell worked the crowd like a congregation, getting a resounding yes to his questions: "Do you believe in dreams? …Are you willing to work for it?"

The Ziolkowski family priest said the effort will change the Crazy Horse epitaph, "My land is where my dead lie buried," to " My land is where my people have come to life, where my people have been resurrected," and a people - Indian and non-Indian - who are all relatives.

"That is the purpose of Crazy Horse," he said.