Custer - Crazy Horse Memorial

A few miles north of Custer is the Crazy Horse Memorial - a kind of Indian counterpart to Mount Rushmore National Monument. The initiative for this other gigantic piece of rock sculpture (606 ft) came from a Lakota chief named Standing Bear, who sought thereby to remind the world that the Indians too had produced great heroes like Crazy Horse, the real victor in the battle on the Little Bighorn River. Work on the monument was begun in 1947 by Korczak Ziolkowski (1908-82), a sculptor of Polish origin, and continued after his death by members of his family. It is still not completed, but as the head and upper body are finished the memorial was officially dedicated in 1998. The Indian Museum of North America also stands on the site.