“In 1948, I Started To Carve Into Its Face A Mounted Figure Of Crazy Horse”

Perhaps a photo of Crazy Horse from 1877, though authenticity is disputed.

Interesting 1961 episode of To Tell the Truth which featured sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who blasted and carved a mountain-scale monument of Crazy Horse in South Dakota. The artist was approached by Chief Henry Standing Bear who asked him to pay homage to a Native American hero. It began a lifetime work for the self-trained sculptor. Ziolkowski passed away in 1982, but his family has continued the construction.

An eyewitness report about the death of Crazy Horse from the September 27, 1877 New York Times: “The Schoharie Republican prints a private letter, addressed to Francisco Wood, of the village, by his son, Edwin D., who is in the Army, and as one of the guard, was present at the capture and killing of Crazy Horse. The writer said, under the date of September 16: ‘We have had considerable excitement here within the last two weeks on account of Crazy Horse. We started out on the 4th of this month with eight companies of the Third Cavalry to bring him and his band into the agency, but did not succeed in capturing him. The next day he was brought in by a lot of friendly Indians, who are enlisted and paid as soldiers. There were also a number of his own warriors with him. When the carriage drove to the guard-house, Crazy Horse got out and walked a short distance, the refused to go in. Then the struggle began. The guard surrounded him, and one of them stabbed him with a bayonet. He was then taken in the Adjutant’s office where he died in about six hours. There are all sorts of rumors about the way he was killed. Some of the papers say he stabbed himself, others say he was killed by another Indian, called Little Big Man, but I was one of the guards myself, and was there when he was stabbed, and know the man who did it. I think this was the only thing that saved a row, because there were a great many Indians there at the time, and one shot would have been sufficient to start a fight. But I think there will be no more trouble after this, because he was undoubtedly the greatest warrior that ever lived. His father was with him in all his battles with the whites; he was also with him at the time of his death. Crazy Horse was 37 years of age. He was born on the North Fork of the Cheyenne River. He fought closer to the whites than any other chief that ever lived. He has killed 37 white men beside what he has killed in battle. The other chiefs were all jealous of him. He could have been the chief of all the Indians, but would not; he only wanted to roam around the country with his band and fight the Snakes and the Crows and steal horses. The next morning he was taken to the Spotted Tail Agency, where he is buried.”

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