<P> The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is far from completion . If completed, it may become the world's largest sculpture as well as the first non-religious statue to hold this record since 1967 (when it was held by the Soviet monument The Motherland Calls). </P> <P> Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota . He took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people . His most famous actions against the U.S. military included the Fetterman Fight (21 December 1866) and the Battle of the Little Bighorn (25--26 June 1876). He surrendered to U.S. troops under General Crook in May 1877 and was fatally wounded by a military guard, while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present - day Nebraska . He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Native American tribal members and was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13 ¢ postage stamp that is part of its Great Americans series . </P> <P> Henry Standing Bear ("Mato Naji"), an Oglala Lakota chief, and well - known statesman and elder in the Native American community, recruited and commissioned Polish - American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to build the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota . In October 1931, Luther Standing Bear, Henry's older brother, wrote sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who was carving the heads of four American presidents at Mount Rushmore . Luther suggested that it would be "most fitting to have the face of Crazy Horse sculpted there . Crazy Horse is the real patriot of the Sioux tribe and the only one worthy to place by the side of Washington and Lincoln ." Borglum never replied . Thereafter, Henry Standing Bear began a campaign to have Borglum carve an image of Crazy Horse on Mt . Rushmore . In summer of 1935, Standing Bear, frustrated over the stalled Crazy Horse project, wrote to James H. Cook, a long time friend of Chief Red Cloud's "I am struggling hopelessly with this because I am without funds, no employment and no assistance from any Indian or White ." </P> <P> On November 7, 1939, Henry Standing Bear wrote to the Polish - American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski, who worked on Mount Rushmore under Gutzon Borglum . He informed the sculptor, "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too ." Standing Bear also wrote a letter to Undersecretary Oscar Chapman of the Department of the Interior, offering all his own fertile 900 acres (365 ha) in exchange for the barren mountain for the purpose of paying honor to Crazy Horse . The government responded positively, and the National Forest Service, responsible for the land, agreed to grant a permit for the use of the land, with a commission to oversee the project . Standing Bear chose not to seek government funds and relied instead upon influential Americans interested in the welfare of the American Indian to privately fund the project . </P>

When did the crazy horse memorial project began