NATIONAL NEWS
A Hero Carved in Stone
A memorial being built in South Dakota honors an American Indian warrior
B
oom! An explosion blasts
through the Black Hills of
South Dakota, causing dirt
and rock to rain down. When the
dust clears, workers check on
their progress. They're using
dynamite to slowly carve a giant
figure out of a mountain. It's a
memorial that honors an
American Indian chief and
warrior known as Crazy Horse.
A Great Warrior
Born around 1842, Crazy Horse
was a chief from the Lakota Sioux
(SOO), one of the tribes of the
Sioux Nation. The Sioux had lived
across much of the Great Plains
for thousands of years. But by the
1860s, the U.S. government had
claimed much of their land and
encouraged settlers to move in.
Crazy Horse bravely led the
Lakota Sioux in the fight to keep
their land. His most famous
battle took place in 1876 in what
is now Montana. At the Battle of
the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse's
warriors helped defeat troops led
by Colonel George Custer.
But that victory was the last for
the American Indians. They were
ultimately outnumbered by U.S.
troops and unable to match their
firepower. Crazy Horse was one of
the last chiefs to surrender.
A Huge Honor
In 1939, American Indian
leaders chose to honor Crazy
Horse with a mountain carving in
Word to Know
the Black Hills. They wanted it to
painstaking (PAYN-stayk-ing)
be even bigger than Mount
adjective, requiring great care and _ »^
Rushmore—the nearby
effort
-^'^
sculpture of the faces of
four U.S. Presidents.
Work on the 563-foottall memorial began in
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1948, but it has been slow going.
Carving details into the hard
rock is a painstaking process.
Problems with raising money to
fund the project have also led to
delays. So far, only the chief's
B7-foot-tall face has been carved.
When completed, the memorial
will show the Lakota Sioux chief
on horseback.
Cleve Janis, a Lakota Indian
who works at the memorial, looks
forward to its completion.
"Our people have experienced
nearly 400 years of... hardship,"
he says. "Having one of our heroes
honored on a mountain
is well worth the wait."
The Crazy
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