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Hello and welcome to Spotlight. I'm Joshua Leo.
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And I'm Christy VanArragon. Spotlight uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
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Imagine that you are travelling through the mountains. Suddenly, you see a face in the mountains. It is the image of a man on a horse. But it is very large! This image is not finished yet, but it already covers the side of a mountain. So who is this man? Today's Spotlight program is on the Native American hero Crazy Horse, and the mountain memorial created for him.
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Crazy Horse was a member of the Oglala Sioux Lakota tribe. There are no records that give his exact year of birth. But people believe he was born around the year eighteen forty. Crazy Horse was called Curly when he was a child. His father was also named Crazy Horse. Curly showed bravery and courage in battle, so his tribe named Curly, Crazy Horse too. This showed that he was like his father.
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He was a brave and humble warrior. Because of this, his tribe chose Crazy Horse to be their leader. Often tribes have many leaders. But Crazy Horse would be a very important leader to the Sioux people.
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Crazy Horse and his tribe often had conflicts with the United States government. One particular conflict between the Sioux and the United States government was the Battle of Little Big Horn. The Sioux Native Americans defeated General Custer and his men at this battle. Although the details are not clear, many stories show the importance of Crazy Horse in this battle, and many others.
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Even though the Native Americans won the battle, their victory did not protect them. The United States government invaded their land. And United States soldiers killed their main supply of food, the buffalo.
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After a few months, with Crazy Horse's leadership, the rest of his tribe decided to surrender. The tribe did this to survive the long, cold winter months. It was a difficult decision. But because they surrendered, the tribe and their culture survived.
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Crazy Horse continued to have conflicts with some United States leaders. Finally, they arrested him. Documents suggest that he fought against the arrest. A United States Soldier injured Crazy Horse in the back with a knife. This wound led to his death later that night. He died on September fifth, eighteen seventy seven.
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A few years later, Native American leaders decided to create a memorial. They chose Crazy Horse as the model. They chose him because he was a loyal hero. He is remembered for his modesty, courage, and his love for his people. He is a hero because he died while serving his people. His leadership saved his people and their culture. The leaders and the people wrote to the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to start building the Crazy Horse memorial.
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Korczak Ziolkowski was born on September third, 1908. This was almost exactly thirty years after Crazy Horse was killed. Korczak is most famous for being a mountain sculptor. He forms and shapes material into statues or objects.
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In the summer of 1939, sculptor Gutzon Borglum asked Korczak to be his assistant. Korczak would help with a very special project - Mount Rushmore. This monument honours four early US presidents. Each man was important in shaping the country. So Borglum and his assistants shaped the mountain to show the faces of these presidents.
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News spread of Korczak's excellent work. Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote a letter to the sculptor. He asked Korczak to help build a memorial for the Native Americans. He explained his reason in a letter,
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"My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, also."
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The two men met and started looking for mountains to use for their statue. At age thirty four, Korczak devoted the rest of his life to the Crazy Horse memorial.
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Chief Henry Standing Bear and other Native American leaders had a particular area for the memorial. This was the Black Hills in the state of South Dakota. The Black Hills are very important to the Lakota tribe. Chief Henry Standing Bear chose the mountain in nineteen forty six.
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Korczak began designing the statue. He did not plan to create a statue that looked exactly like Crazy Horse. History tells us that there are no pictures of Crazy Horse. He never wanted his own picture taken. People often asked Korczak just how he would sculpt Crazy Horse with no picture. He answered by saying
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"Crazy Horse is being sculpted not to look like him, but more as a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse and to his people."
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Korczak wanted Crazy Horse to be riding a horse in the statue. He has Crazy Horse pointing his left hand over his horse's head. Korczak did this as a symbol of a talk Crazy Horse had with a European man. The man asked Crazy Horse where Crazy Horse's people were, because the US government had taken their land. Crazy Horse answered,
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"My people are where my dead lie buried."
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Korczak made his first mark on the mountain on June third, nineteen forty eight.
Korczak and other workers used bombs to help sculpt the mountain. They carefully planned each bomb. Today workers still use bombs to shape the memorial, as well as other tools. The bombs help to remove a great amount of the rock at the same time.
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Korczak and the Memorial Foundation refused to accept any money from the United States government. Today, they still refuse any government funding. Korczak believed that the public would appreciate his work. He also believed that the public would help pay for the project. He believed in individual work and wanted it to remain a memorial that the public helped build.
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Korczak died on October twentieth, 1982. His wife Ruth and seven of his ten children took over his project. The family and workers are still working on this mountain memorial today.
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No one knows when the memorial will be complete. Things such as weather, money and building equipment can decide how fast or slow the progress is. When completed, the memorial in the mountain will be six hundred and forty one feet long and five hundred and sixty three feet high. That is one big memorial!
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With the Native American community, Korczak started a memorial that would represent and honour all Native American tribes. He was not Native American. But he believed in the memorial. After death, his body was even buried there.
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Both Korczak and Crazy Horse are gone, but no-one will forget them or their goals. The Sioux culture has survived. And the memorial continues to tell the story of Native Americans tribes to every visitor.
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The writer of this program was Erin Layman. The producer was Joshua Leo. The voices were from the United States. All quotes have been adapted for this program and voice by Spotlight. For more information on the Crazy Horse Memorial visit the link on our website at w w w DOT english DOT net. This program is called "Memorial in a Mountain". |