Charles Michael Ray

The Slow Carving Of The Crazy Horse Monument

Charles Michael Ray — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 22:12:00 +0000

South Dakota is famously home to Mount Rushmore, but it's also been making room for a second colossal mountain carving that, when finished, will dwarf the four presidents.

The sculpture in progress is of the Lakota warrior Chief Crazy Horse astride a stallion with his arm and pointed hand stretched out over the horse's mane. It's taking awhile. The Crazy Horse Memorial — taller than the Washington Monument and well over two football fields wide — has been 64 years in the making.

Native Americans To Soon Receive Settlement Checks

Charles Michael Ray — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 10:04:00 +0000

Federal officials are working to send out $1,000 checks in the next few weeks to hundreds of thousands of Native Americans. The money stems from a settlement of the Cobell case, a landmark $3.4 billion settlement over mismanagement of federal lands held in trust for Native American people.

The case was brought by Elouise Cobell, a member of Montana's Blackfeet Tribe, and four other Native Americans in 1996.

On South Dakota's Native American reservations, reactions are mixed.

Near Wounded Knee, Years Of Alleged Injustice

Charles Michael Ray — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 10:31:00 +0000

In the late 1960s, Native Americans fed up with what they saw as years of mistreatment by the federal government formed an organization known as the American Indian Movement.

Founded in Minnesota, the group followed in the footsteps of the civil rights movement and took up protests across the country.