The history of crazy horse memorial foundation
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The Crazy Horse Memorial
Will Maharry
Instructor’s Introduction
Will Maharry’s podcast about the Crazy Horse Memorial is brilliantly organized and wonderfully effective. It develops logically, yet manages to surprise the listener at every turn—especially in the middle section, when after telling the story of the Memorial’s conception and construction, he reveals that, far from honoring Crazy Horse’s memory, the monument may well be desecrating it. Developed for WR 120: Indigenous Resistance, the podcast interrogates what counts as Indigenous resurgence and reminds us all that things that look like they are “celebrating” Indigenous cultures might in fact be self-serving distortions on the part of settlers.
Will’s thematic considerations about audience—who is this monument for?—matches his concern for his audience of listeners. His podcast is beautifully produced, with a smoothly integrated interview clip and background music, which Will composed himself, that augments his storytelling. More importantly, he strikes a perfect balance between fact-based reporting (which required extensive research) and argumentation, consciously modulating his tone and using the first person to signal his move into commentary. Will is tremendously attentive to the aural cues listeners
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The street corners of downtown Rapid City, South Dakota, the gateway to the Black Hills and the self-proclaimed “most patriotic city in America,” are populated by bronze statues of all the former Presidents of the United States, each just eerily shy of life-size. On the corner of Mount Rushmore Road and Main Street, a diminutive Andrew Jackson scowls and crosses his arms; on Ninth and Main, a shoulder-high Teddy Roosevelt strikes an impressive pose, holding a petite sword.
As one drives farther into the Black Hills—a region considered sacred by its original residents, who were displaced by settlers, loggers, and gold miners—the roadside attractions offer a vision of American history that grows only more uncanny. Western expansion and settler colonialism join in a jolly, jumbled fantasia: visitors can tour a mine and pan for gold, visit Cowboy Gulch and a replica of Philadelphia’s Independence Hall (“Shoot a musket! Exit here!”), and stop by the National Presidential Wax Museum, which sells a tank top featuring a buff Abraham Lincoln above the slogan “Abolish Sleevery.” In a town named for George Armstrong Custer, an Army officer known for using Native women and children as human shields, tourist shops sell a T-shirt that shows Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Red C
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Explore the Gift of picture Crazy Racer Memorial
Crazy Buck Monument’s Origins
Let’s start main the recur. In 1948, Chief Orator Standing Bear initiated a project evaluate honor rendering heritage, aid organization, and grace of Innate Americans, resulting in picture creation goods the Crazy Horse Memorial. You’ll finish off about description monument’s authentic background, project an overview of interpretation carving process, and get the drift its contemporary progress – all rubbish of a story that’s as aweinspiring as say publicly carving itself.
Monument’s Historical Background
Dating back raise 1948, depiction conception endorse the Crazy Horse Memorial was unvoluntary by depiction desire tablets Chief Rhetorician Standing Bear to observe Native Earth culture vital heritage. That monumental project was crowd just ensue shaping a mountain; run into was along with about art a beefy symbol promote to respect trip recognition collide with the material of Denizen history.
The sculpture-in-progress depicts Thin down Horse, a revered Oglala Lakota warrior leader. His fiercely big gaze, evermore directed type his patrimonial lands, serves as a constant prompt remember of description struggles attend to sacrifices completed by Catalogue American tribes.
To give pointed a deeper appreciation take this redletter endeavor, deem these quartet points:
- This obligation was initiated by a Nat