Haven't signed into your Scholastic account before?
Teachers, not yet a subscriber?
Subscribers receive access to the website and print magazine.
You are being redirecting to Scholastic's authentication page...
Announcements & Tutorials
How Students and Families Can Log In
1 min.
Setting Up Student View
Sharing Articles with Your Students
2 min.
Interactive Activities
4 min.
Sharing Videos with Students
Using Junior Scholastic with Educational Apps
5 min.
Join Our Facebook Group!
Exploring the Archives
Powerful Differentiation Tools
3 min.
World and U.S. Almanac & Atlas
Subscriber Only Resources
Access this article and hundreds more like it with a subscription to Junior Scholastic magazine.
The Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota honors Crazy Horse, a Lakota Sioux chief who dedicated his life to protecting his people’s lands and way of life. Construction started in 1948. The newest addition is the arm, which at 263 feet long could fit 6 1/2 fire engines end to end.
©Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation
STANDARDS
Common Core: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.7, WHST.6-8.4, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.7, W.6-8.4
NCSS: Culture • Time, Continuity, and Change • People, Places, and Environments • Individual Development and Identity
Article Options
Presentation View
GEOGRAPHY
Carving a Legend
Crazy Horse, whose Indigenous name was Tasunke Witco, was a Lakota Sioux chief. In the 1870s, he led the fight to preserve his people’s lands and way of life against an increasing wave of White settlers and U.S. Army troops.
Today a figure of the legendary hero on horseback is emerging, bit by bit, from the top of a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota—land the Lakota consider sacred. Work on the Crazy Horse Memorial began 75 years ago, in June 1948.There is still a long way to go, but if completed, it will be the largest sculpture in world history.
North Wind Picture Archives via AP Images
Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who died in 1982, is buried at the base of the mountain. Ziolkowski’s model shows his vision for the finished memorial.
Setting a record wasn’t what drove the men who launched the project. Henry Standing Bear, a Lakota chief, and Korczak Ziolkowski, a Polish American sculptor, believed Crazy Horse deserved just as much recognition as the four U.S. presidents carved into nearby Mount Rushmore.
Not everyone is happy about the work. To some Lakota, changing the mountain disrupts the natural beauty of the land Crazy Horse dedicated his life to protecting. But other Lakota support the memorial, which includes museums and educational programs.
The goal remains as Standing Bear and Ziolkowski first planned: to help preserve the Lakota leader’s culture and heritage.
Charles Bennett/AP Images
Workers completed the face in 1998.
SKILL SPOTLIGHT: Reading a Map
Jim McMahon/Mapman®
1. Black Hills National Forest is in which states?
2. Which labeled city lies within the forest?
3. Crazy Horse Memorial and Rapid City are how many straight-line miles apart?