Fall Volksmarch up Crazy Horse Memorial

CRAZY HORSE MEMORIAL – On Sunday October 1, was the 11th Fall Volksmarch, a bi-annual hike up Crazy Horse Memorial organized by the Black Hills Chapter of the American Volkssport Association (AVA) and hosted by Crazy Horse Memorial®. This event hosts thousands of hikers from all over the world who make the journey to see the biggest statue in the world here in the Black Hills. The routes were changed this year to invite more participants who couldn’t make the full 10k march. There is now an option for a 5k route to make it up and around the iconic arm of the historic memorial.

The changing of the leaves and the cool breeze through the trees is peaceful as there is no rush to make it to the top of the mountain. Hikers are allowed to sign in by 7 a.m. and have until 4 p.m. to make the hike. You will see all walks of life along the trail as parent’s, babies, grandparent’s, brothers, sisters and friends all join together to venture out on this colorful fun fall adventure. There are four check points where you can receive a stamp on your card signifying the 75th Anniversary of the Monument.

Indigenous descendants from the Battle of Little Big Horn hike the monument to help heal historical trauma.

“We are the Indigenous embodiment that we are still here as a people, living in our traditional ways of prayer,” Christopher Piña a descendent of the Sitting Bull Tiyosapye said. The descendants laid tobacco ties as they stopped four times along the way to pray. As they reached the top they Akisa and Lili to celebrate their victory of making it to the face of the Memorial. This event to them is very important because they want to show the younger generations that they can do anything they put their mind to, and that there is no mountain they can’t climb.

Black Hills Volkssport Association believes “that we live in beautiful country and would like to share our love of the Black Hills of South Dakota and Bear Lodge Mountains of Wyoming through our volkssport events. Some of our walks are on trails in the Black Hills National Forest (under special use permits), some walks are in historic Gold Rush towns, some walks visit military posts of the past, some walks feature the local community’s character–each event is unique and beautiful.

The Black Hills Volkssport Association was formed in Rapid City in 1982 and is part of the American Volkssport Association (AVA) in the International Federation of Popular Sports (IVV), which debuted in the United States in 1976.  Volkssporting, which means “the sport of the people”, originated in Europe in the mid-1960’s.
The mission of the AVA and IVV is to promote family fitness and fun through community participation in sanctioned Volkssporting events.  Volkssporting includes outdoor sporting events such as walking, cross-country skiing, biking, skating and swimming.
Their goal is to promote physical fitness and good health by providing fun-filled, safe exercises in a stress-free environment. Historic and scenic sites are selected for the walkers’ enjoyment and all events are non-competitive.

Crazy Horse Memorial was started in 1948 after Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote to Korczak Ziolkowski asking for assistance in building a Monument for Native Americans on November 7, 1939. The Memorial was dedicated June 3, 1948 with the first blast on the Mountain. Special guests included five of the nine remaining survivors of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Korczak promised Crazy Horse would be a nonprofit educational and cultural humanitarian project financed by the interested public and not with government tax money. He pledged never to take a salary at Crazy Horse. Korczak single-jacks bore four holes for the first blast, which took off 10 tons. According to crazyhorsememorial.org/story/pictorial-timeline

Crazy Horse, a principal war chief of the Lakota Sioux, was born in 1842 near the present-day city of Rapid City, SD. Called “Curly” as a child, he was the son of an Oglala medicine man, his mother a Miniconjou. His father, born in 1810, was also named Tȟašúŋke Witkó (Crazy Horse). Crazy Horse was named Čháŋ Óhaŋ (Among the Trees) at birth, meaning he was one with nature. His mother, Tȟašína Ȟlaȟlá Wiŋ (Rattling Blanket Woman, (born 1814), gave him the nickname Pȟehíŋ Yuȟáȟa (Curly Son/Curly) or Žiží (Light Hair) as his light, curly hair resembled her own. She died when Crazy Horse was only four years old. By the time he was twelve, he had killed a buffalo and received his own horse. According to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_Horse

Crazy Horse was born during a time when cultures clashed, and land became an issue of deadly contention and traditional Native ways were threatened and oppressed.  Crazy Horse responded by putting the needs of his people above his own, which would forever embed him and his legacy in American History.  He was killed at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, by a soldier around midnight on September 5, 1877.

In 1876, Crazy Horse led a band of Lakota warriors against Custer’s Seventh U.S. Cavalry battalion.  They called this the Battle of the Little Bighorn also known as Custer’s Last Stand and the Battle of the Greasy Grass. According to The history about Crazy Horse the man, crazyhorsememorial.org/story/the-history/about-crazy-horse-the-man

(Contact Christopher A. Piña at staffwriter3@nativesunnews.today)

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