I thought it was pretty cool that Buffalo Bill Cody had an entire town named for him, and Wild Bill Hickok had the card hand he died with memorialized, but DH was thinking bigger than that. Having your big head carved into a mountain was a much more unique and better way to be remembered in her view.

Mount Rushmore might be the only place in the world where this has actually happened (on purpose). After putting up with me (at very close quarters) on this non-stop 5 year trip and after visiting Mount Rushmore, I get where she might see her big head carved into a mountain as an appropriate tribute to her patience. More importantly, I also now get why Native Americans are not all that enthused about this particular set of carved famous faces in a mountainside. Just to recap:

-As a result of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, Indians are relocated to the 'Indian Territories' which included the Black Hills.

-Gold is found in the Blackhills. The United States unilaterally imposed the Manypenny Agreement, claimed the land, and officially removed the Black Hills from the Sioux Reservation

-Tensions with unwelcome prospectors and the need to follow the buffalo force many Indians to leave the reservation which is the pretext needed to send in the U.S. Military (including General George Custer).

-Custer's massacre is further used by the government to go to all-out war with the Indians and confiscate land including the gold-filled Black Hills.

-After the defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876, Congress responded by attaching what the Sioux call the "sell or starve" rider to the Indian Appropriations Act which cut off all rations for the Sioux until they terminated hostilities and ceded the Black Hills to the United States.

-A mountain within this confiscated land becomes Mount Rushmore with 4 U.S. Presidents standing vigil.

-Today, the Black Hills land claim case is still an ongoing issue.

The original motivation for Mount Rushmore was less about tribute and more about increasing tourism. U.S. presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln were selected because of their role in preserving the Republic and expanding its territory (In 1937, a bill was introduced in Congress to add the head of civil-rights leader Susan B. Anthony but no money was available- the original carving was to include bodies but once again, no money was available).

Native American concerns over Mount Rushmore led to the next stop on our journey- the Crazy Horse Memorial. Crazy Horse was a war leader of the Oglala Lakota and took up arms against the U.S. government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people. The massive statue is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain and will be about 3X larger than Mount Rushmore and is being privately funded- more importantly, it makes the timelines required for any of my home renovation projects look lightning fast. This thing has been in progress since 1948 and is far from completion. If it ever is completed, it may become the world's largest sculpture.

Regardless of the motivations and the many controversies, both of these mountain sculptures are awe inspiring and well worth the efforts it took to get here.