Monday, June 22, 2009 CRAZY HORSE, BEAR COUNTRY
Today we drove through the mountains to the Crazy Horse Monument. It is going to be beautiful when it is finished. So far they have only carved his face in the mountain, but when finished he will be sitting on his horse and pointing out over the land. The monument is depicting a quote from Crazy Horse when the white people asked him where are your lands and he said, “Our lands are where my people are buried.” They have a museum there and a lot of drawings and paintings done by Indians and a lot of Indian artifacts. Beautiful exhibits of beading and jewelry. There are a lot of Native Americans here selling their art and crafts. When you read some of the stories about how the US government treated the Indians it makes you ashamed.
The original sculptor who started the monument in 1948 has since died and his family is carrying on the work. They say the federal government has offered them money but the family has refused it. Good for them! We went to lunch at a little dinner in Hill City, another cute town in the beautiful mountains.
Next, we went to Bear Country. Ralph and Betty’s son Brent had been here recently and highly recommended it. It was so much fun. Sort of like a driving safari. We drove through these hills where they had large containments of different animals. They had mountain goats, mountain lions, arctic wolves, elk, reindeer, antelope, and of course bears. The bears were all around, some sleeping some walking down the road, some mating (ha! no really. Some were sitting in the ponds and they were so cute with just their heads sticking out of the water. Then we parked and when through an area that was like a zoo. It was the “baby section” and had baby raccoon, mountain lions, fox, otters, porcupines, wolves, and of course bears. The baby bears were so cute. Some of them were climbing up a pine tree and playing in it. It’s amazing how good their balance is and how good they can hold on. One little black bear was running up and down and hassling all the other bears in the tree . Then we went back to our trailer to check on the poor old dog who doesn’t get to take these trips (it would only make her nervous anyway).
Today we drove through the mountains to the Crazy Horse Monument. It is going to be beautiful when it is finished. So far they have only carved his face in the mountain, but when finished he will be sitting on his horse and pointing out over the land. The monument is depicting a quote from Crazy Horse when the white people asked him where are your lands and he said, “Our lands are where my people are buried.” They have a museum there and a lot of drawings and paintings done by Indians and a lot of Indian artifacts. Beautiful exhibits of beading and jewelry. There are a lot of Native Americans here selling their art and crafts. When you read some of the stories about how the US government treated the Indians it makes you ashamed.
The original sculptor who started the monument in 1948 has since died and his family is carrying on the work. They say the federal government has offered them money but the family has refused it. Good for them! We went to lunch at a little dinner in Hill City, another cute town in the beautiful mountains.
Next, we went to Bear Country. Ralph and Betty’s son Brent had been here recently and highly recommended it. It was so much fun. Sort of like a driving safari. We drove through these hills where they had large containments of different animals. They had mountain goats, mountain lions, arctic wolves, elk, reindeer, antelope, and of course bears. The bears were all around, some sleeping some walking down the road, some mating (ha! no really. Some were sitting in the ponds and they were so cute with just their heads sticking out of the water. Then we parked and when through an area that was like a zoo. It was the “baby section” and had baby raccoon, mountain lions, fox, otters, porcupines, wolves, and of course bears. The baby bears were so cute. Some of them were climbing up a pine tree and playing in it. It’s amazing how good their balance is and how good they can hold on. One little black bear was running up and down and hassling all the other bears in the tree . Then we went back to our trailer to check on the poor old dog who doesn’t get to take these trips (it would only make her nervous anyway).
Next, we took off to see “needles.” These are granite rock formations that stick up out of the ground like tall spires. There is one they call the eye of the needle because it looks like a needle with the eye and everything. Spent hours driving through the mountains on very narrow and windy roads. It is so beautiful here. The mountains only go up to about 7000 feet, not like our mountains in Utah, but I have to admit, they are even prettier than our mountains. Beautiful, green, millions of pine trees and quakes’. We got home pretty late and shared a roast I had put in the crock pot.
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