[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 41 (Thursday, April 2, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Page S3173]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL

 Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I express my strong support for 
the sense of the Senate resolution commemorating the efforts of the 
Ziolkowski family over the past fifty years in their endeavor to honor 
the great Oglala Sioux leader Tasunke Witko, or Crazy Horse, through 
creation of the Crazy Horse Memorial. The Crazy Horse Memorial is a 
nonprofit cultural, educational, and humanitarian project dedicated to 
Native Americans throughout North America. The 50th anniversary of the 
first blast at the memorial site will occur on June 3, 1998, in my home 
state of South Dakota.
  Crazy Horse was one of this nation's greatest Native American 
warriors and spiritual leaders, who fought to defend the rights and 
lives of his people and all Native Americans throughout his short life. 
He is widely remembered for leading a force of Cheyenne and Oglala 
Sioux warriors to victory over George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of 
Little Big Horn. Crazy Horse was born on Rapid Creek in 1840, and was 
killed when he was only 37 years of age. During his life he was a great 
leader of his people. Native Americans agree he did not have an equal 
as a warrior or a chief. He gave submissive allegiance to no man, white 
or Indian, and claimed his inalienable rights as an Indian to wander at 
will over the hunting grounds of his people. He wanted only peace and a 
way of living for his people.
  In 1940, several Sioux Indian chiefs invited the late sculptor 
Korczak Ziolkowski to create a memorial to their great leader, Crazy 
Horse, by carving a tribute to him in the Black Hills on what is 
popularly known as ``Thunderhead Mountain.'' The Memorial was dedicated 
on June 3, 1948 with the first blast on the Thunderhead Mountain at 
which time Mr. Ziolkowski vowed that creation of the Memorial would be 
a nonprofit educational and cultural project, financed solely through 
private means, and wholly without government funding. Korczak 
Ziolkowski dedicated his life to creation of the Crazy Horse Memorial, 
up until his death on October 20, 1982.
  Once complete, the Crazy Horse Memorial will be the largest sculpture 
in the world standing 563 feet high and 641 feet long. I am pleased 
that the Senate will recognize June 3, 1998, as the 50th anniversary of 
the first blast on Thunderhead Mountain, the first step towards 
completion of the Crazy Horse Memorial. I would like to congratulate 
the fifty years of efforts of Korczak Ziolkowski, his wife Ruth 
Ziolkowski, and their children in creating the Crazy Horse Memorial and 
notethat the creation of the Memorial from its inception on June 3, 
1948 to the present day was accomplished through private donations and 
completely without federal funding.
  One of many great and patriotic Indian heroes, Crazy Horse's tenacity 
of purpose, his modest life, his unfailing courage, and his tragic 
death set him apart and above the others. Completion of the Crazy Horse 
Memorial will serve as a lasting tribute to the great Oglala Sioux 
warrior and spiritual leader, Crazy Horse, and to all Native 
Americans.

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