July 16, 2013 Day seven

 

Up early for breakfast with Jeff and Maggie and then we all set out to a favorite place Crazy Horse Memorial.  This enormous sculpture in progress was started by request of several Native American chiefs who, after seeing Mount Rushmore, asked a scupltor to make this carving to show the white man that Indians have heroes, too.  He and now his family have been working on this piece, much larger than Mt. Rushmore, for about 60 years.   It was very special to be there with Maggie, because she has worked at the monument last summer and had the chance to get to know the family, staff and history of the memorial. 

We had been there numerous times before, and were really interested in seeing the progress.  The site is widely supported by local and national native American tribes.  Besides the memorial, there is a museum, an American Indian University, an amazing bookstore, and lots of wonderful interpretation and displays.

As part of their effort to educate visitors to Native American culture, a Lakota man was great in dispelling many false stereotypes of Indians.  He engaged the wide range of ages in the audience, including inviting many to join him in a snake dance.  He ended this time by dancing a traditional version of a Grass Dance.

Next we went over to Mt. Rushmore to pay our respects there.  The place was packed with people form around the world, and the US. We made some great progress on our license plate game. (We now have over 40 states, 5 Canadian provinces, and 2 Mexican states)  Although we have both seen these monument many times, it is still very stirring.  We very interested in learning about some of the upkeep of the faces.  A natural process for such sculptures is the development of cracks.  If these are not tended to, water will freeze in them during the winter, breaking off parts of the faces.  Of course these repairs need to be virtually invisible.  There was a display in the visitor center explaining this process.  Fascinating! We enjoyed seeing Rushmore up close, and then took a drive through a scenic area of the Black Hills which included more distant views of Rushmore.

That drive took us back into Custer Park for more delightful views and soaking in the green of the forest.  They have had such a rainy spring and summer that it has broken an eight year drought.  It was green!

As a fundraising for the state parks, we saw many fiberglass buffalo that had been turned over to artists to paint.  At the end of the summer these will be auctioned off to support the parks.  There was a wide variety of styles and ideas expressed on these buffaloes and we had fun strolling and looking at then.

Out for dinner and then back to Crazy Horse for the evening laser light show on the mountain.  It was quite impressive with lasers, projected images, music and narration telling the story of Crazy Horse and the dream of this project, and further freedom for Indian people.  It really supported people from all backgrounds getting along together.  It was moving and really terrific to share this with Maggie and Jeff.  What a great visit with friends.

“Hitler didn’t travel. Stalin didn’t travel. Saddam Hussein never traveled. They didn’t want to have their orthodoxy challenged.” — Howard Gardner