Crazy Horse Memorial Analysis

The Lincoln Memorial, the Statue of Liberty, the Washington Monument: These are just mere few examples of very well-known monuments and memorials across America. People have seen monuments, people have heard of monuments, people have even travelled extensive ways to just get one or two pictures of monuments. Monuments are immensely symbolic creations that are greatly cherished here in America. Conversely, people never consider the process in which groups/agencies go through in order to create one. There are very critical factors that go into creating a monument, and each of those factors represents something far deeper than one may originally think.
According to Kirk Savage, monuments are “pure representations” (Source A, Savage) of a person, a movement, or an event that’s purpose is to create personal connections with viewers and/or to pay homage to whomever/whatever it is

For example, In the placement of a memorial to the Indian-American war leader, Crazy Horse, there were conflicting opinions on whether “there were better ways to help Indians than a big stature” or whether “the memorial gave them free space to show and sell their work” (Source C, Downes). Nevertheless, The Crazy Horse memorial represented the respect Americans may have had for Crazy Horse and maybe even for Indians in general, despite the decades of conflict Indians and Americans had against each other. But despite all of this, could’ve the time, effort and money put into creating a memorial of Crazy Horse went into more beneficial things that would improve the lives of Indians, whose culture, pride and history was stripped without reason? Could’ve that land been used in better ways? A similar way that Lin illuminates it in her experience with creating a monument, “the idea of destroying the park to create something that by its very nature