In the early 1940s a Lakota Indian Chief, Henry Standing Bear, wrote to the Polish-American architect Korczak Ziolkowski and asked if he'd be willing to build a monument to commemorate Native American history. The letter ended: "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red man has great heroes, too." But who was it they proposed to embody the epic history of their people? It wasn't Sacagawea - though a formidable woman, she personified cooperation with white America at a moment when Indian leaders wanted to express resistance. The recent completion of Mt Rushmore had enraged Native America. It was a monument to white presidents in the Black Hills of South Dakota - land sacred to the Natives of the region. Henry Standing Bear and his fellow chiefs wanted their counter-sculpture to represent an Indian who had fought against the American empire. The choice was easy - Crazy Horse (killed by American soldiers on this day in 1877).

and still under construction today . . .