Mystery of Crazy Horse
Dave
CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL, SOUTH DAKOTA –– There is an erroneous date of
death for Crazy Horse to be found at Crazy Horse Memorial according
to
a former employee. He said that this information disseminated at the
Memorial reporting that Crazy Horse was killed on September 6, 1877
is
false.
Actually Crazy Horse was killed on September 5, 1877 at Camp Robinson
near the community of Crawford, Nebraska, according to former Crazy
Horse Memorial employee, Donovin Sprague. He said that this falsehood
was created to show that the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, born on
September 6, changed the date of the death of Crazy Horse to coincide
with his birthday.
Sprague said that this fictional story is perpetrated in books and
videos at the Memorial. He said one of the videos used daily states,
“Thus many Native Americans feel that he (Korczak Ziolkowski) was
destined to carve the mountain.”
Sprague said, “Your children need to know the truth because the books
and video are disseminated throughout schools everywhere.”
Crazy Horse Memorial director Ruth Ziolkowski said she always
believed
that Crazy Horse was stabbed on September 5, 1877, but died after
midnight on September 6. Sprague said this is false information
because his research shows that Crazy Horse died before midnight on
September 5.
Sprague insists that he has the correct information and he believes
Korczak Ziolkowski changed the date to coincide with his own birthday
to make it appear that he was destined to carve Crazy Horse on the
mountain.