In the early 1990's, when I lived in Nebraska, I was a strong member of the Women's Studies program as well as on the Sociology faculty at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. We started this undergraduate Women's Studies Association and I befriended two young women, Jen Putzi and Thelma Ione Ross. Thelma is my friend to this day! Anyway, we decided to go on a camping trip together one summer. We traveled through Nebraska into the Sandhills Country, we canoed on the Niobrara River (beautiful), and stayed in Valentine, Nebraska. We gambled in Indian casinos. We went to the Black Hills where my mind got blown. We stopped at the information office when we first got to the park and I asked in my usual uptight way for a map and instructions about where we could walk in this weird moonscape sort of park. The information woman said anywhere you want to go, you can go. I was like, "Yeah, right." But it turned out they meant it. You can go anywhere you want to go. What permission! So, one evening, under a Full Moon, Jen, Thelma and I walked across this barren windswept moonscape and sat under the fattest lowest-hanging moon and smoked cigs and and enjoyed our lives and our little moment in history! We had many moments on that trip. We drove through Sturgis and saw lots of motorcycles. We drove through Buffalo National Park, grooving and meditating on The Stone Roses and enjoying the grasslands when suddenly, what did we see? Buffalo! Everywhere. We went to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and saw the memorial to the Wounded Knee massacre. We went to Mount Rushmore -- truly trippy and 1950s feeling. We went to Fort Robinson and saw where Crazy Horse had been murdered. We learned at a musum to the Western-moving immigrants that they think that there's a body buried along every quarter mile of our country from this pilgrimage from St. Louis to California. We stayed at the Blaine Motel in Chadron, Nebraska! Anyway, Crazy Horse. What a great wild crazy mother of an idea to carve a memorial to Crazy Horse out of a mountain. We got groovy on that part of our trip. We enjoyed it. But since then, I've read much more about Crazy Horse and he was truly a seer, great thinker, humanitarian, lovelorn man, family person, horseman, warrior, etc. When he was murdered, his parents took his body and it's buried in an unknown location. I so encourage you to read about this great historical figure and legendary American. And I also encourage you to learn more about this very funky American vacation destination at the following links:
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