Rushmore and Crazy Horse

PSYCHE!!! No, George W. Bush has not been added to Mount Rushmore. These three busts were at a roadside stop on the way the granite wall with Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln.

This is what we know and see today

This is what was planned, however due to the fact that the type of rock changed, Mount Rushmore was left without the neck and chests being finished.

Mount Rushmore is iconic. The Black Hills, considered sacred by the Lakota, were left to the Native Americans in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. However, when gold was found in the Black Hills, the Americans wrested back the area in the Black Hills War. The Battle of Little Bighorn was one in an ongoing battle the Native Americans had with settlers and the American goverment. The carving of Rushmore was started with congressional funding in 1927 and was finished in 1941.

After 60 years, this is what has been finished of the Crazy Horse Monument. The white line outlines what will be the head and the hole will be increased in size to become the space between the arm and to horse.

In a direct response to the glorification of these American presidents, the Lakota Sioux commissioned the building of an even larger monument honoring all Native Americans by carving a HUGE representation of Crazy Horse riding a horse. In direct contrast to the federal funding given to create Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse monument relies solely on private funds ($10 a person to enter the complex even though you can see it from outside the gates, which makes it an INTERESTING example of the concept of public goods in Economics). The work is carried on primarily by the Ziolkowski family, mostly the sons and daughters of the original sculptor.

The ultimate goal is to have a huge complex for Native American housing, a museum as well as a Medical School to train Native American doctors. My guess however, is that this isn't going to happen in my lifetime.