In 1939 Sioux Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote to Korczak Ziolkowski (pronounced jool-cuff-ski), a sculptor who had worked on Mt. Rushmore, and asked if he could begin work on a sculpture of the Sioux warrior Crazy Horse.

"My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, too," the chief wrote. Seven years later Ziolkowski began the project with the intention of carving the Black Hills of South Dakota into the world's largest sculpture.

Donations and tourist fees fund the project, which will include a university and medical training center for Native Americans at the base of the mountain. Ziolkowski declined all federal funds while working on the project. After his death in 1982, Ziolkowski's children took over the project. Crazy Horse's head is scheduled for completion in 1998, but the complete sculpture will probably not be finished in our lifetime.

It is interesting to note that before his death, Crazy Horse is believed to have told his people, "I will return to you, in stone."