americanwest

Just in Case

In case anyone wants to read the final version. *Warning* 18 Pages, with graphics. Download crazy_horse_final.pdf

Final Blog Post

So, this is the end of the semester, and I'm listening to my paper print out as we speak. I took suggestions from both Professor Petrik and my mother (English major and editor extraordinaire), and I'm fairly pleased with how it came out. I moved my discussion of earlier commemorations to earlier in the paper, and mostly adjusted my sentence structure, changed a few things grammatically.

I would have liked to have talked a lot more, because I didn't say everything I had to say. Professor Petrik wanted me to include more about the background of the two men, and how that influenced their thinking, as well as the artistic style of the monuments. I chose not to take that advice, because it's already 14 pages long, and I could write a book about the monuments exemplifying 1930s style, or about the backgrounds of Borglum and Ziolkowski.

I'm taking a copy of the paper out to Crazy Horse with me next month to hand present it to the sculptor's daughter who I interviewed.

It was a great semester, guys. We did it!

Footnotes

After a discussion yesterday about footnotes after class, I thought I'd make a little post since I just wrote a bajillion footnotes for my HIST 388 paper.

It goes something like this:

FirstName LastName, "Title," [usual bibliographical format], page numbers. That's the first time.
After that, you can use a shortened reference.

Lastname, "shortertitle," page numbers.

If you use the same work in two successive footnotes, the second time you can say,

Ibid., p. #s.

(Ibid is short for ibidem, meaning same place).

Examples:
Alan Trachtenberg, preface to Shades of Hiawatha: Staging Indians, Making Americans, 1880-1930, (New York, Hill and Wang, 2004), p. xxii.

Trachtenberg, Hiawatha, p. xxiii.

Ibid, p. xiv.

See Terabian p. 138 for more on this. Hopefully this helps people!

(I've been madly working since 1:30, *whew*)

Second Draft...

Well, my second draft is not quite where it should be. I've made some changes, but not all the changes I discussed with Professor Petrik yet, and the citations are still mostly missing.

The moral of this story is: don't leave it until the three days before it's due, because you might have a back injury that keeps you from getting up off the sofa and doing research. I'd left my notebook with editing notes in my school locker...however, I didn't go to school yesterday because of said back injury, nor did I go to the Library of Congress to get the correct citations for the Borglum letters for the same reason. If I'd been on top of things, this obviously wouldn't have been a problem. All the same, it's a bit frustrating.

I'm planning on going to the LOC next week (I'm not supposed to do much walking between now and then, or carry anything heavier than 5 lbs), and getting all the correct citations, and also making the required changes.

In any case, I'm attaching the changes I've made so far, but look for a "real" second draft sometime next week.Download hist_300_second_draft3.doc

(Official)Blog Post #7: First Draft

Nearly ten years ago, my parents visited the Crazy Horse Memorial for the first time and were absolutely floored. Their feelings towards the project inspired me to write this paper, which discusses the Crazy Horse Memorial as a reaction to Mount Rushmore and a Native American monument. I talk about the characteristics and motivations behind Mount Rushmore that cause offense to Native Americans and their supporters; Chief Henry Standing Bear, maternal cousin to Crazy Horse who dreamed of honoring his relative; the ways in which Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore are similiar and the ways in which they are different; the success of Crazy Horse as a Native American monument; and finally, whether or not Crazy Horse is successful as a reaction to Mount Rushmore.

Download hist_300_first_draft.pdf

Drafting and so forth

I'm sitting here, scribbling away on my draft accompanied by a pot of tea. (I usually write first drafts by hand), and my dad called with exciting information.

He spoke to the sculptor's widow, Mrs. Ziolkowski, who told him that the best person for me to talk to would be one of the daughters who is still very much involved with the project, Monique. I have a phone number, and just left a message for her. They are also going to send me some papers related to the project!

It's funny, I signed up for this class not knowing what to expect at all. It's not my period, or area of interest, and I've never really been interested in reading or writing about anything in the twentieth century. But this project has become extremely exciting to me. I'm actually enjoying researching and writing about it! 'Tis good to be a history major.

Of course all my students think I'm a really big dork for being so excited about history, but maybe I'll convert some of them too!

Blog Post #7

Technically, this isn't the 7th one, but it is the one with the outline.

Much of my current material is from on article called "Patriarchy Carved in Stone," which talks about the negative reactions of many Native Americans to Mount Rushmore. In fact, I learned while reading this article that at least two chiefs asked the sculptor of Mount Rushmore to include Crazy Horse as one of the heads. It seems like a natural train of thought from that to giving Crazy Horse his own memorial when that request was refused, and it was one of those same chiefs that started the project. Some of the paragraphs are kind of short now, and the paper will definitely need to be fleshed out through more research. Professor Petrik is kindly loaning me a book that I'm hoping will be very helpful in establishing further context for the memorial. I'm also still waiting on some stuff from my dad. He says that Chief Standing Bear had very particular reasons for choosing Korczak, but I haven't gotten any evidence for that yet. Download crazy_horse_outline.pdf

I still haven't posted my bibliography, so I'm going at this a little backwards. I just finished the outline, out here in San Francisco, and wanted to post it before life got too crazy again.

Blog Post 4: Thesis

The history of the American West involves the interactions of many types of people. Before white people came, there were already a vast variety of Native American tribes, who were then pushed back. The legacy of this encroachment has lasted to this very day, and has affected many parts of western culture. The Crazy Horse Memorial, honoring the Sioux leader, is a direct response to a white man’s monument, Mount Rushmore. Why did the Sioux decide to do this, and why did they pick a white man to sculpt the monument to the Lakota’s greatest leader? This is what I intend to explore, as well as the controversy this has caused within Native American tribes.

For sources, there is a wide array of material available. My father founded a society that has in recent years worked closely with the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation, and has formed a friendship with the sculptor’s widow and children. He believes that he may be able to obtain for me some of Korczak Ziolkowski’s papers. I have also found a lengthy essay that talks about Mount Rushmore as a symbol of white patriarchy, and the reaction of many Native Americans to that monument, that will back up my argument. There is also a newsgroup and archive especially for the memorial

Blog Post 3: Crazy Horse Monument

Download ProQuest_118621960.pdf

Primary Source: This is an article about the death of the sculptor who started the Crazy Horse project, and discusses a little bit about the project itself.

Korczak Ziolkowski, Sculptor Who Portrayed Crazy Horse
New York Times (1857-Current file); Oct 22, 1982; ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times (1851 - 2003)
pg. B10

Download 0-150-1.pdf

Secondary Source: This is a review of a book called "Common Ground: The Struggle for Ownership of the Black Hills National Forest. The review has a couple of tidbits, but I feel like the book itself might be helpful in underscoring the tensions that led to the creation of the Crazy Horse Monument as a reaction to Mount Rushmore.

I'm unable to get the citation at the moment, because J-Stor is "temporarily unavailable."

Download 0-150.pdf

This article is just wonderful for my topic. It's about Mount Rushmore as a symbol of white patriarchy, and talks about all the things that Native Americans did to vandalize it, and includes a really great quotation about everything that Mount Rushmore says to Native Americans. I think this will be really useful in backing up my claim.

I'm still looking for more sources, but I wanted to get something up this morning.

Happy Valentine's AND snow day, everyone!

Maybe some new inspiration?

My parents have both spent a lot of time out west, and they brought up the idea of writing a paper about the Crazy Horse Monument. They didn't have any ideas about a thesis, but the chief who asked the sculptor to do it said "We have our heroes too." It was in reference to Mount Rushmore. So I thought maybe I could write a paper about Crazy Horse as a response to Mount Rushmore and why certain choices were made as a result. My dad knows the wife and children of the sculptor, and thinks he might be able to get me an interview with them, and maybe some of the sculptors papers.

If I have sources, I will post them soon!