Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse (Lakota: T‘ašunka Witko, pronounced t'khashúnka witkó), (c. 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a respected member of the Oglala Sioux Native American tribe. Noted for his courage in battle, he was recognized among his own people as a great leader committed to preserving the traditions and values of the Lakota way of life and for leading his people into a war against the takeover of their lands by the Federal government of the United States.

Early life

Crazy Horse's exact birth date cannot be determined. He Dog was also one of his former warriors, said during an interview on July 7, 1930, "I and Crazy Horse were both born in the same year and at the same season of the year.... I am now 92 years old." That would mean that Crazy Horse was born about 1838. Encouraging Bear, spiritual adviser to Crazy Horse, reported that Crazy Horse was born in the fall "in the year in which the band to which he belonged, the Oglalas, stole 100 horses." According to winter counts kept by Cloud Shield and White Bull, that year was 1840. His family's oral history passed down from Waglula and his surviving half siblings say he was born in the spring of 1840.

The ___location of Crazy Horse's birth is also debatable. A September 14, 1877, article in the New York Sun reporting Crazy Horse's death gave his birth place as the South Cheyenne River. All other sources point to either Rapid Creek, near present day Rapid City, South Dakota, or near Bear Butte outside Sturgis, South Dakota.

Crazy Horse's father, who was also named Crazy Horse (born 1810) but took the name Worm after passing the name to his son, was Lakota and his mother, Rattling Blanket Woman (born 1814), was Lakota. Rattling Blanket Woman was the daughter of Black Buffalo and White Cow (also known as Iron Cane). Black Buffalo is the one who stopped Lewis and Clark on the Bad River. She was the younger sister of One Horn (born 1794) and Lone Horn (born 1804). She also had an older sister named Good Looking Woman (born 1810) and a younger sister named Looks At It (born 1815), later given the name They Are Afraid of Her. Looks At It had a much bigger build than her two older sisters. She got her second name because she had married a man named Stands Up For Him. They had a child. When the child died of a disease, he tried to take her south away from her family. A fight ensued. She beat him up and thus the name They Are Afraid Of Her was bestowed on her. Rattling Blanket Woman also had another older half-brother named Hump who was born in 1811. Hump's mother was Good Voice Woman and Black Buffalo's second wife. Hump and Waglula became best friends. When Waglula began to court Hump's half sister, he presented three horses to the family head Lone Horn (the older sibling One Horn had died earlier after being gored by a buffalo, making Lone Horn the oldest male and head man of the family. Their father, Black Buffalo, had died in about 1820 near Devil's Tower, or as the Lakota called it Grey Horn Butte, of sickness.). In return for the three horses he hoped he could take Rattling Blanket Woman as his wife as was the custom. But the family's women wanted eight horses, and apparently they had the final say. So Hump volunteered to go on a raiding party with Waglula. They brought back 16 horses, four loaded with meat they had captured from a Crow hunting party and presented it to the family. Thus Rattling Blanket Woman and Waglula became husband and wife. Crazy Horse was born with the name 'In The Wilderness' or 'Among the Trees' (in Lakota the name is phonetically pronounced as Cha-O-Ha) meaning he was one with nature. His nickname was Curly. He had the same light curly hair of his mother. In 1844 Waglula (aka Worm) went on a buffalo hunt. He came across a Lakota village under attack by Crow warriors. He led his small contingent in to rescue the village. Corn who was the head man of the village (Catlin painted his picture) had lost his wife in the raid. In gratitude he gave Waglula his two eldest daughters Iron Between Horns (age 18) and Kills Enemy (age 17) as wives. Corn's youngest daughter, Red Leggins, who was 15 at the time requested to go with her sisters and all would become Waglula's wives. When he got back to his village and his wife, Rattling Blanket Woman, found out about his new wives she became distraught. She and Waglula had been attempting to conceive another child, but had failed. The arrival of the new wives made her think she had lost favor with Waglula because she could not get preganant. At the time they were camped along the White River. Without discussing it with Waglula she went out and hung herself from a cottonwood tree. Waglula mourned her death for four years and was celibate during that time. Upon hearing what had happened to her sister, Good Looking Woman, who also found she could not concieve, left her husband and came to Waglula to offer herself as a replacement wife for her sister. Waglula turned her down as a wife, but relented in allowing her to raise her sister's son, Crazy Horse. Later, Crazy Horse's other aunt They Are Afraid of Her helped in the raising of Crazy Horse. She helped teach him to hunt and take care of himself. They Are Afraid of Her was a very independent woman.

Crazy Horse had several half brothers and sisters. Red Leggins bore him his first sibling, a daughter named Shell Blanket. She died in 1874. She has no living descendants. High Horse was born in 1850 and was the son of Iron Between Horns. He was killed by a Crow hunting party as an adult. He has no living descendants. Kills Enemy had twins the same year, but died soon after birth. Red Leggins also had a daughter that same year, but she did not survive her first hours. In 1851 Red Leggins bore Waglula a son named Combing. He survived until 1932 on the Cheyenne River Reservation and took the first name Leo. He kept Waglula's sacred bundle until his death. There are still a few very old descendants of Combing living in 2006, but none of childbearing age. In 1856 Red Leggins bore another son to Waglula, Bear Pipe. He died of sickness in 1892. He had no heirs. In 1864 Red Leggins bore Waglula another son, Wolf. Wolf took the first name, Peter, upon moving to the reservation. He was gunned down by four masked men in 1920. It was witnessed by his wife and children. His family still survives today. In 1865 Red Leggins bore Waglula a daughter, Iron Cedar. She later married a man named Amos Heyoka. Heyoka is a Lakota name for Clown. So translated she became known as Mrs. Clown. She took the first name Julia. She inherited Waglula's sacred bundle from Combing and kept it until her death in 1936. She passed the sacred bundle to one of her sons, Edward Clown. Her descendants live today. In about 1866 Red Leggins bore Waglula his last child, a son named Comes Home Last. He was killed by an angry buffalo that wandered into their village in 1871. Many say that Little Hawk was a brother of Crazy Horse. This information is derived mostly from interviews with a 92 year old friend of Crazy Horse named He Dog. Little Hawk was actually a nephew of Crazy Horse's step maternal grandfather, Corn. Since the Lakota traveled together mainly in large extended family units in those days (not as much in bands...their family came first), Crazy Horse and Little Hawk grew up together and became very close. Because of this, Crazy Horse used to tell people Little Hawk was his 'little brother'.

As was the custom of the Lakota, his name changed over the years. When he was about 10 years old, Worm changed the boy's name to His Horse On Sight (also translated as Horse Stands In Sight, His Horse Looking or His Horse Partly Showing) after his son's role in the capture of wild horses in the Sandhills of Nebraska. Worm passed on the name Crazy Horse after his son bravely fought when he was about 18 years old.

Early warfare against the U. S. Army

Crazy Horse was in the Lakota camp with his younger brother, High Horse (son of Iron Between Horns and Waglula) and his cousin who he grew up with Little Hawk (Little Hawk was actually the nephew of his Minicojou maternal grandfather, Corn who was the father of Waglula's second, third, and fourth wives named Iron Between Horns, Kills Enemy, and Red Leggins...Crazy Horse, or Among The Trees which was his formal name at that time...Curly was his nickname...would tell those who asked that Little Hawk was his brother because they spent so much time together), when it was attacked by Lt Grattan and 26 other troopers during the 'Grattan Fight'. After witnessing the death of Lakota leader Conquering Bear, Crazy Horse began to get visions. His father Waglula (Worm) took him to what today is Sylvan Lake where they both sat to hemblecha (visionquest). A red-tailed hawk led them to their respective spots in the hills as the trees are tall in the Black Hills and they could not always see where they were going. Crazy Horse sat in between two humps that were at the top of a hill just a bit north and to the east of the lake. Waglula sat just a little south of Harney Peak. Crazy Horse's vision first took him to the South where in Lakota spirituality you go when you die. Then he was brought back. Then he was taken to the west in the direction of the wakiyans or thunder beings. He was a given a medicine bundle which contained medicines that would protect him for life. One of his animal protectors would be the white owl. The owl and the eagle had the ability in Lakota culture to extend life. He was also shown his make-up, which consisted of a yellow lightning strike down the left side of his face and some white powder that he would wet and with three fingers put marks over his vulnerable areas that when they dried resembled hail stones. The grandfathers from the south (the other side) gave him this medicine to help him protect himself, so that bullets would not harm him. His make-up was similar to his father's except his father used a red lightning strike down the right side of his face and three red hailstones on his forehead. Crazy Horse's put no make up on his forehead. He was also given a sacred song that is still sung today and told he would be a protector of his people. He did not wear a war bonnet.

Through the late 1850s and early 1860s, Crazy Horse's reputation as a warrior grew, as did his fame among the Lakota. Little written record exists because the Lakota were oral historians and had no written language. The very early things that are written were written by those from a culture that was not Lakota. His first kill was an enemy of the Lakota, a Shoshone raider who had killed a Lakota woman washing buffalo meat along the Powder River. He was in many battles between his people and their enemies, the Crow, Shoshone, Pawnee, Blackfeet, and Arikara among others. In 1864 after the Sand Creek massacre of the Cheyenne in Colorado, the Lakota joined forces with the Cheyenne against the military. He was present at the Battle of Red Buttes at the Platte River Bridge Station in 1865. Because of his fighting ability, Crazy Horse was installed as an Ogle Tanka Un (Shirt Wearer or war leader) in 1865.

On December 21, 1866, Crazy Horse and six other warriors, both Lakota and Cheyenne, decoyed Lt William Fetterman's 53 infantry men and 27 cavalry troopers under Lt Grummond from the safe confines of Fort Phil Kearney on the Bozeman Trail into an ambush. Crazy Horse persanally led Fetterman's infantry up what locals call Massacre Hill while Grummonds cavalry followed the other six decoys along Peno Head Ridge and down towards Peno Creek where some Cheyenne women were taunting the soldiers. At that moment, the Cheyenne leader Little Wolf's warriors closed the return route to the fort. They had been hiding on the east side of Peno ridge. The Lakota warriors came over Massacre Hill and attacked the infantry. There were additional Cheyenne and Lakota hiding in the buckbrush along Peno Creek behind the taunting women. Seeing that they were surrounded, Grummond headed back to Fetterman to try to repel them in numbers. They were wiped out. The warrior contingent was comprised of nearly 1,000 warriors. In present day history books it is known as "Red Cloud's War" however Red Cloud was not present that day. The ambush was the worst Army defeat on the Great Plains at the time.

In the fall of 1867, Crazy Horse invited Black Buffalo Woman to accompany him on a buffalo hunt in the Slim Buttes area in what is now the northwestern corner of South Dakota. She was the wife of No Water. He had a reputation among the tribe at the time as someone who spent alot of time near military installations drinking alchohol. It was Lakota custom to allow a woman to divorce her husband at any time. She did so by moving in with relatives or with another man, or by placing the husband's belongings outside their lodge. Although some compensation might be required to smooth over hurt feelings, the rejected husband was expected to accept his wife's decision for the good of the tribe. No Water was away from camp when Crazy Horse and Black Buffalo Woman took off on their trip. No Water tracked down Crazy Horse and Black Buffalo Woman in the Slim Buttes area. When he found them in a tipii, he called Crazy Horse's name from outside the tipi. When Crazy Horse answered he stuck a pistol into the tipi and aimed for Crazy Horse's heart. Crazy Horse's firat cousin, Touch the Clouds was sitting in the tipi nearest to the entry and hit the pistol as it fired, causing the bullet to hit Crazy Horse in the upper jaw. Several elders convinced Crazy Horse and No Water that no more blood should be shed and that, as compensation for the shooting, No Water gave Crazy Horse three horses. The elders also sent Black Shawl, a relative of Spotted Tail, to help heal Crazy Horse. When he saw that she cared for him, even with his ugly scar, he decided to make her his wife. They had a young daughter in late summer of 1868. They named her They Are Afraid of Her after his youngest maternal aunt (Good Looking Woman was the other maternal aunt). Because of the incident, Crazy Horse was stripped of his title as Shirt Wearer (leader). At about the same time, Little Hawk was killed by a group of miners in the Black Hills. Miners who were not supposed to be there.

On August 14, 1872, Crazy Horse, along with Sitting Bull took part in the first attack by the Lakota on troops escorting a Northern Pacific Railroad survey crew. The Battle of Arrow Creek ended with minimal casualties on either side.

Little Bighorn Campaign

On June 17, 1876, Crazy Horse lead a combined group of approximately 1,500 Lakota and Cheyenne in a surprise attack against Brig. Gen. George Crook's force of 1,000 cavalry and infantry and 300 Crow and Shoshone warriors in the Battle of the Rosebud. The battle, although not substantial in terms of human loss, delayed Crook from joining up with the 7th Cavalry under George A. Custer, ensuring Custer’s subsequent defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

At 3:00 p.m. on June 25, 1876, Custer's 7th Cavalry attacked the Lakota and Cheyenne village, marking the beginning of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Crazy Horse entered the battle by repelling the first attack led by Maj. Marcus Reno. After driving back Reno's force, Crazy Horse's warriors were free to pursue Custer. In the counterattack that destroyed Custer's detachment to the last man, Crazy Horse flanked the Americans from the north and west, as Hunkpapa Warriors led by Chief Gall charged from the south and east. Crazy Horse from the South East attacked Custer and Custer and Crazy Horse started fighting each other also while being surrounded by each others own men who were fighting each other.

On January 8, 1877, his warriors fought their last major battle, the Battle of Wolf Mountain, with the United States Cavalry in the Montana Territory. On May 8 of that year, knowing that his people were weakened by cold and hunger, Crazy Horse surrendered to United States troops at Camp Robinson in Nebraska.

Final years

Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, who had been with the cavalry at Little Big Horn and Wolf Mountain, went to Crazy Horse's camp near Fort Robinson and treated his ill wife. Crazy Horse took Nellie Laravie, a young half-French, half-Indian daughter of a trader, as his third wife. To encourage Crazy Horse to go to Washington D.C. to meet with newly elected President Rutherford B. Hayes, Lt. William Philo Clark made him a non-commissioned officer in the U.S. Indian Scouts on May 15, 1877. Crazy Horse still declined to make the trip.

The attention that Crazy Horse received from the Army elicited the jealousy of Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, two Lakota who had long before come to the agencies and adopted the white ways. Rumors started to spread in the Red Cloud Agency and Spotted Tail Agency about Crazy Horse's desire to slip out of the agency and return to the old ways of life. In August 1877, officers at Camp Robinson received word that the Nez Perce of Chief Joseph had broken out of their reservations in Idaho and were fleeing north through Montana toward Canada. Crook planned to send a large contingent of Lakota warriors to stop them and wanted Crazy Horse to lead the attack. Crazy Horse and 7-foot-tall Miniconjou leader Touch the Clouds objected to the plan, saying that they had been promised peace when they surrendered. Crazy Horse finally agreed to the plan, saying that he would fight "till all the Nez Perces were killed". But, Frank Grouard, who had a personal vendetta against Crazy Horse, was acting as the official interpreter, and reported that Crazy Horse had said that he would "go north and fight until not a white man is left". Uproar over the misinterpretation grew until it reached General Philip Sheridan, who ordered Crook to investigate the matter.

Spotted Tail and Red Cloud conspired against Crazy Horse by reporting to Crook that the next time he held council with Crazy Horse, Crazy Horse would kill him. Friends of Crazy Horse learned of the plot and informed him. He responded by taking his ill wife to her parents at the Spotted Tail Agency, where his enemies circulated stories that he had fled Fort Robinson. Crazy Horse then went to the Brulés agent, Capt. Luke Lea, who said that Crazy Horse should return to Fort Robinson and correct the false rumors. When, on September 5, 1877, he returned to Fort Robinson, guards attempted to arrest him. He resisted and William Gentiles, a 20-year army veteran who never rose above the rank of private, lunged at Crazy Horse with his bayonet, striking him near his left kidney. Crazy Horse died during the night in the Adjutant's Office, with Dr. McGillycuddy providing medical care and his father singing the death song over him. His body was taken away by his parents and laid to rest somewhere in the Badlands.

Controversy over his death

Monument

Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, who treated Crazy Horse after he was stabbed, wrote that Crazy Horse "died about midnight." According to military records he died before midnight, making it September 5, 1877. According to the Oglala Sioux, he died after midnight, making it September 6, 1877.It is also said that he died 2 days later which would make it September 8, 1877. The monument located at the spot of his death says September 5, 1877. Each year the Oglala Sioux meet at the spot of his death on September 6.

John Gregory Bourke's memoirs of his service in the Indian wars, "On the Border with Crook"' details an entirely different account of Crazy Horse's death. Bourke's account was from a personal interview with Little Big Man, who was present at Crazy Horse's arrest and wounding. The interview took place over a year after Crazy Horse's death. Little Big Man's account is that, as Crazy Horse was being escorted to the guardhouse he suddenly pulled from under his blanket two knives, one in each hand. One knife was reportedly fashioned from the end of an army bayonet. Little Big Man, standing immediately behind Crazy Horse and not wanting the soldiers to have any excuse to kill him, seized Crazy Horse by both elbows, pulling his arms up and behind him. As Crazy Horse struggled to get free, Little Big Man abruptly lost his grip on one elbow, and Crazy Horse's released arm drove his own knife deep into his own lower back.

When Bourke asked about the popular account of the Guard bayonetting Crazy Horse, Little Big Man explained that the guard had thrust with his bayonet, but that Crazy Horse's struggles resulted in the guard's thrust missing entirely and his bayonet being lodged into the frame of the guardhouse door, where the hole it made could still be seen at the time of the interview.

Little Big Man related that, in the hours immediately following Crazy Horse's wounding, the camp Commander had suggested the story of the guard being responsible as a means of hiding Little Big Man's involvement in Crazy Horse's death, and thereby avoiding any inter-clan reprisals.

Bourke goes on to relate how he double checked on Little Big Man's account by visiting the Fort and inspecting the guardhouse door, where he reported finding a deep hole that could only have been made by a bayonet.

This account is compelling, not only in that it is from the only Native American witness to the event, but in that it is consistent with Crazy Horse's reported last words to the camp Commander wherein he absolved anyone from responsibility for his death, claiming that it was entirely his own doing. Bourke's memoirs of his personal experiences and acquaintance with the pivotal figures of the events he reports on makes him an especially credible source of information on the Indian Wars of the 1870s and 80s.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Crazy Horse is currently being commemorated with the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, a monument carved into a mountain, in the tradition of Mount Rushmore. Korczak Ziolkowski began the sculpture in 1948. When complete, it will be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high.

Photo Controversy

There is much debate over the authenticity of the supposed photograph of Crazy Horse (above). It is one of several claimed to be of him. Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy stated very clearly that it was not a photograph of Crazy Horse, and that he doubted any photograph had been taken. This is because Crazy Horse resisted being photographed during his life because he had strong beliefs in preserving the culture and ways of the traditional Native Americans. (It is known that his brother, who was said to resemble him, was photographed.)

Accounts from those who met Crazy Horse, such as John Bourke and other writers, report that Crazy Horse had a very noticeable scar on his face, the result of being shot in a dispute over a woman many years before becoming a pivotal figure in the Plains Wars. Purported photos of Crazy Horse can be effectively dismissed for lack of a visible scar in the face.

The surviving Crazy Horse family says this is a warrior named No Neck. In the early days of photography a photographer had to make a living. So mislabeling photos and calling them Sitting Bull or Crazy Horse enhanced the value when they tried to sell them back east. For reseachers: check out the photos of noted old west photographer D. F. Barry. He has photos of Rain In The Face, Sitting Bull, and John Grass wearing exactly the same headdress. (Access these photos online at the Library of Congress) Why? Because Barry owned that headdress and asked his subjects to wear it as a favor. You see, they showed up without a headdress and many didn't even own one. He knew the easterners would pay more for a picture of an Indian that wore a headdress. That made them LOOK like a chief...whether they were or not was unimportant to the guy trying to make a living in a new medium. The Crazy Horse family has a detailed drawing based from a description by Crazy Horse's younger half sister, Iron Cedar. She concurred upon looking at it that it was exactly how she remembered him. It was stored in the family cedar chest for decades. The Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument has a copy of this drawing in their archives donated by the family.

External links

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