Our day had an exciting start with a T.V. interview with the local news in Rapid City, South Dakota. Watch it at http://www.newscenterone.tv/default.aspx. Its cool to have some media interest in our trip!
Following the interview, we continued on with a day full of monuments, beautiful prairie scenery, and some harsh history lessons. Because we packed Mount Rushmore National Monument and Crazy Horse Memorial in the same day it was really interesting to compare the two projects. Beginning a little more than 20 years of each other, the monuments although seemingly opposite, share a lot of similarities.
Both sites boast a strong emphasis on education. While at Mt Rushmore, I witnessed several families with young children having conversations about history which was inspiring to see that dialogue taking place. At Crazy Horse, they have plans to build a medical center and all kinds of educational programs. Additionally, both monuments also went to grandiose measures to honor a part of history-- just the nostrils on Crazy Horse are 30 ft in diameter! They even shared one of the sculptors Korczak Ziolkowski, who worked on Mount Rushmore, is the visionary behind Crazy Horse. I think our group also responded similarly to both monuments. While it was hard not to be impressed and somewhat surprised by the sheer size and work that went into both monuments, we also had a lot of questions that went unanswered. What does this form of herofication say about our society? Are we honoring history or some sort of subjective memory? We have come across several monuments on this trip--The Alamo, Central High School, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Portlandia--and most agreed that Central High School felt the most genuine and appropriate without all the bells and whistles.
After the monuments we headed to Pine Ridge and the cemetery for the victims of the Wounded Knee Masscre. As we trudged up the hill to the cemetery I was flooded with emotion. The landscape of rolling hills and prairie, even the smells, evoked a feeling of home to me that mixed with the heaviness and despondency in the air to make a disturbing combination. Reflecting on it now, I can see the significance of this experience. Despite always knowing that the Native Americans had and are still experiencing injustice, it seemed to be something that happened a long time ago, far away, and by others. Being there, I was faced with the nearness of it and a sense of ownership that was hard to swallow.