• Rating:
Introduction
I have never owned a gun or a rifle, not even a toy. When as children we played in groups of Indians and cowboys, my role was inevitably that of the wild Indian, and I had to resort to the legendary elder behind the house, from which I made a bow and arrows.
Chapter 1 The First Readings
Some comics came my way, and also some books about the American epic, about the frontier, and gradually with reading, a passion and a desire to know Native Americans or Indians, as we have always colloquially called them, exploded.
Chapter 2 The Knowledge
Over the years, the passion became almost an obsession, particularly towards the proudest inhabitants of the mid-west plains, the Lakota (or Sioux to put it better), and especially for someone who, in my imagination, but much more concretely in the spirituality of his people, embodied the struggle for the survival of a people. Cavallo Pazzo (as we would say) Crazy Horse (in American) Tashunko Witko (in Lakota language)
Chapter 3 The Journey
Custer is a small town in the heart of the Black Hills, the Pahá sápa for the Lakota, a sacred place, the home of Wakan Tanka, the great spirit. A small town whose name has been officially contested by the Indian community... G.A. Custer represents the worst to the Indian community and is, from their point of view, also a loser! From Custer, taking the US-16, you reach in a few minutes the heart of the Black Hills in a place where the largest sculpture in the world will arise: The Crazy Horse memorial. Tons of stone excavated by the Polish sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski with the approval and will of the Oglala community of Pine Ridge (the poorest place in the United States) will one day see the light, a statue dedicated to Crazy Horse, the answer to the 4 presidents of Mount Rushmore, a desecrating representation for the Sioux of the arrogance of the whites who further violated their sacred mountains. The statue will measure 170 meters in height and almost 200 in width, the head of Crazy Horse alone (the only part of the sculpture finished to date) 26 meters. Probably decades will pass and who knows if it will ever be completed, but it matters little to the Lakota; the important thing is to remind the whites that the natives also have their heroes and Tashunko Witko is the greatest.
Chapter 4 The Book
There are dozens of books about Crazy Horse, especially by American historians and writers. Vittorio Zucconi's book from 1996 is perhaps the most beautiful. In the meantime, it is not the usual chronological biography full of dates, places, etc. It is the extraordinary epic of a people and one of their favorite sons, the struggle of the Native Americans for survival, the story of a hidden genocide that only from the 70s has undergone a historical revisionism that has restored dignity and truth to the events related to the conquest of the West. It is almost a novel, and therefore easy to read and captivating, yet faithful to the events with an objective reconstruction and great emotional participation. Crazy Horse was alongside Sitting Bull, the last to surrender in the face of the supremacy of the Long Knives and the inevitable end of a system of values wiped out. These values emerge through the book's narrative and tell the lives of these extraordinary hunters, their spirituality, the pride of a free people wanting to remain free.
Chapter 5 The Figure of Crazy Horse
Zucconi says "I had to write the life of Crazy Horse as I had understood it and as it was told to me and as I believe it really happened, challenging the fear of offending his people and his spirit" ... because Crazy Horse is still a myth even after 140 years since his death. A military genius, an implacable and determined warrior, the "slayer" of Custer at Little Bighorn, the man who never came to terms with the white man, the man who never allowed himself to be photographed or portrayed, was above all a man who cared about nothing else in his life but his people. For this reason, the myth endures and the respect of his people for the spirit of Crazy Horse endures... and the spirits do not forget!
Chapter 6 Conclusion
The work on the statue continues slowly, worked on by volunteers and teams of workers when there are sufficient funds. After the face, it is the turn of the horse’s head and Crazy Horse's left arm stretched towards the center of the Black Hills, indicating where he was born and died. When asked how he determined his land, he replied: "My lands are where my dead are buried.” The burial place is unknown, and in this regard, Black Elk said: "I don't know where Crazy Horse is buried, and I don't care to know. His body has become prairie grass, and only his spirit lives. I want to be with his spirit, not with his bones."
Instigated by Falloppio, I dedicate this review of my 10 years on DeBaser to myself/you.
Loading comments slowly
