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South Dakota: F Faces on the Black Hills For the second century running American Indians and settlers are on conflicting sides in the Black Hills, on the border between South Dakota and Wyoming. Over time the confrontation has acquired some sculptural forms.
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Aleksei Dmitriev
Translation
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Shamil Garaev
or the Indian tribe of Lakota Sioux the Black Hills of South Dakota are sacred — this is their fatherland. In 1868 in Fort Laramie the US government signed an agreement with the tribal chiefs according to which the land was “set apart for the absolute and undisturbed use and occupation by the Indians”. But in 1874 the General Custer expedition discovered gold in the Hills and prospectors rushed in to tap the resources in violation of the Fort Laramie Treaty. The Army patrols, Custer’s soldiers, although under obligation to prevent the seizure of the Indian land turned a blind eye. It had been three years since the California gold rush and the economy of the American West was stalling. The Lakota Sioux began attacking prospectors and the Army, in turn, punished the Indians. The Black Hills War ensued; it was America’s last colonial war. In the Battle of the Little Bighorn the Indian coalition under the leadership of Sitting Bull defeated the Custer troops and killed the General. But the victory led to nothing: in 1877 the Indians were forced to surrender and the US government decided to appropriate the Black Hills. It was not until 1975 that the expropriation was deemed unconstitutional and in 1980 the United States Supreme Court awarded the Lakota Sioux retribution: $17.5 million for the land and an additional fine of $105 million with interest. The Indians refused to accept payment for their sacred land and instead demanded the return of the Hills. 35 years later and not much has changed. Most of the Lakota live in the Pine Ridge Reservation area. p. 121
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The Black Hills are now South Dakota’s main tourist attraction. There is a national park, named after General Custer , with buffalos; caves; a working railroad with an 1880 steam locomotive; and, finally, the most well-known sight, Mount Rushmore with 18 m sculptures of the heads of four United States presidents carved in stone and imbued with stately calmness. Granite George Washington, the first president and the commander-in-chief of the Continental Army; Thomas Jefferson, who managed to double the territory of the country thanks to the purchases of Louisiana and other “French” states; Abraham Lincoln, who kept America intact after the Civil War and advocated for human equality; and Theodor Roosevelt, who turned the US into a global power in the beginning of the 20th century. President John Calvin Coolidge, who oversaw the start of the project in 1927, said about the monument: “American in scheme, scope and significance.” A small path from the root of these gigantic sculptures leads to a museum of their creator Gutzon Borglum, who began supervising the construction at age 60 and died shortly before the monument’s opening in 1941. The museum sheds light on the fact that originally the project was set to feature the first American pioneers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, Wild West’s first showman Buffalo Bill Cody and even the Lakota Sioux chief Red Cloud. Borglum, however, thought a large-scale national monument was needed. The presidents were initially set to be depicted from head to waist, but the Second World War and the subsequent lack of funding forced an early end to the construction. Work on the mountain continued for 14 years. The names of 400 workers, who blasted and shredded granite in winter and summer, are carved out by the exit p. 122
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of the memorial complex. A long Polish surname stands out at the end of the list: Ziolkowski. The symbolic significance of the "Shrine of Democracy", as the Americans often call the sculpture, turns everything connected to the monument into politics. But the Indians do not share the patriotic emotions of the palefaces. “At first they tried to annihilate us by destroying our bisons and banishing us from our native land; then we were told to assimilate, our languages and customs were declared unlawful. Now the faces of the chiefs of the people who broke all the agreements they had made with us are carved in the stone of our sacred land. We are in dire straits, but we do not forget the will of our fathers, and we are capable of curing ourselves,” says Lakota Alex White Feather. The healing often takes unexpected forms, however. In 1939 the American sculptor of Polish decent Korczak Ziolkowski came to South Dakota to work as a carver for Borglum, but soon fell out with his employer and quit. The same year his sculpture of Polish pianist and composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski won first prize at the New York World's Fair, prompting a letter from Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear. The letter began with the following words: "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, too". Ziolkowski accepted the offer to create a monument of Lakota Chief Crazy Horse in the Black Hills. He was the last chief of Lakota Sioux who hadn’t signed a single agreement, didn’t speak a word of English and never lived on a reservation. In 1876 he fought against Custer and died under unclear circumstances. There is a story that before his death the chief was asked “Where is your land now?” to which Crazy Horse allegedly
replied: “My land is where my people are buried.” Ziolkowski bought the land with an appropriate 180 m cliff, but World War II disrupted the plans as the sculptor left for war as a volunteer. In June of 1948 in the presence of five Lakota Sioux veterans, who fought in the memorable Battle of the Little Bighorn, the master performed the first blast of the rock that marked the start of the Indian response to the "Shrine of Democracy". The sculpture was to become the greatest in the world: 172 m in height and 195 m in length. The head of Crazy Horse is 9 m taller than those of the presidents, located 25 km away. At first Ziolkowski blasted and chiseled granite almost single-handedly; he carved a 740-step ladder to the top of the cliff and went up and down several times a day. He refused to take a fee and twice rejected offers of $10 million for the project from the federal government, the same way he didn’t take any Indian money, earned in the legally operating reservation casinos. Incidentally, not every Lakota Sioux considers the monument their own and some are against human interference in the landscape of the sacred land. “Crazy Horse would probably not like it. It is like carving out Jesus Christ or Moses on Zion,” said the now deceased Indian activist Russell Means a few years back. Many are displeased with how the index finger of the sculpture is pointing towards the land where his people are buried — the Indian consider finger pointing a taboo. After Ziolkowski’s death in 1982 — like Borglum, he died aged 74 and is buried at the foot of the mountain where he spent 34 years — his widow Ruth and seven of their ten children decided to continue their father’s work. These days work on the monument is carried on
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by one master and four driller-blasters. Subsidized solely through entrance fees and donations, the work moves slowly. Entrance to the Crazy Horse Memorial is $10 — visitors can see a sculptor’s house, tour the Indian Museum of North America, a workshop where Indian decorations are manufactured and an exhibit depicting different stages of the monument’s creation. In 1998 the face of Crazy Horse was completed and the upper part of his hand was later outlined. Crazy Horse’s head is two times larger than
any of the Rushmore ones. Should it be finished, the sculpture will become the biggest monument in the world — its estimated height is 190 m and length more than 200 m. The only question is when the work will finish. Predictions vary. Some speak of 25 years, others of 50. Ziolkowski’s wife Ruth, an old woman, smiles at the questions regarding Crazy Horse’s completion: “If we lose faith, if the power of imagination disappears, if we stop dreaming, what is there left to do here?”
01 Gutzon Borglum, America's famous sculptor, seen in his studio at Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, is working on the head of Washington 02 Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski watching as part of the rock face is dynamited so he can begin a sculpture there 03 A model of Sioux Indian Chief Crazy Horse stands in front of Thunderhead Mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota 04 Mount Rushmore National Memorial
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