Taylor Heger
Prof. Mary-Catherine Ferguson
HUM-100
05/29/22
Module 4-1 Short Answer: Monuments as Cultural Works: The Crazy Horse Memorial
1. Describe the monument selected.
2. Explain the behind the monument selected and how later original intentions
interpretations changed the meaning and cultural understandings.
3. Reflect on what you learned in the Resources section articles and compare your own
interpretation or understanding of the monument selected with the intent of authors
whose interpretations you chose to evaluate.
The monument that I have selected is the Crazy Horse Memorial. Upon reading the module
resources, my understanding of the original intent of this cultural work was to commemorate
Tasunke Witko, also known as “Crazy Horse”. Witko was a Lakota warrior recognized for his
portrayal in the reverberating triumph of Custer and the Seventh Calvary at the Battle of Little
Bighorn. In 1939, a fellow Lakota by the name of Henry Standing Bear, reached out to Polish
American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, wanting him to create something special to show “that
the red man had great heroes, too” (Jarvis, 2019) Aside from Witko, there were many famous
Lakota leaders from the era including Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Spotted Elk, Touch the Clouds,
