There are times when a famous person’s life and exploits are so embroidered by writers and historians that it difficult to get to the true story. Such a man was the Lakota Indian warrior Crazy Horse, who fought so hard to hold back the invasion of European settlers into his people’s lands which at the time stretched from Missouri to the Bighorn Mountains of Dakota.
Crazy Horse, or to give him his name in his native Lakota Oglala tongue, Thasunjke Witko, meaning “His horse is spirited”, is thought to have been born around 1840 near the present day Rapid City, South Dakota. There are conflicting accounts of the actual year of his birth, but the most likely is from his father who, speaking on the day Crazy Horse died, reckoned that, his son “Would soon have been thirty seven, having been born on the South Cheyenne River in the fall of 1840”. His parents came from two tribes of the Lakota division of the Sioux; his father, also called Crazy Horse, was an Oglala and his mother, Rolling Blanket Woman, was a Miniconjou. The boy’s name was originally “Curly” – a reference to his wavy hair – but his father passed his own name on to his son in the manner of the Sioux after the boy had proved himself in battle in a fight with the Arapaho in 1858. His father then changed his own to Wuglala, meaning “Worm”.
He was destined to become a legendary warrior and by the age of thirteen was already taking part in horse raids against the Crow tribe. Crazy Horse was born at a time when the Indian way of life was under increasing threat from white American expansion with wagon trains crossing their ancient hunting grounds, farmers and traders settling on the Plains and miners digging for gold. They brought with them sickness, liquor and lifestyles foreign to the Indians. To protect the migrants the US authorities sent soldiers who built forts along the trails as their bases.
Crazy Horse was fiercely determined to preserve the traditional way of life for his people and it is said that during his life he never signed his name, never allowed a photograph to be taken and never sat in a chair or at a table.
Through a series of treaties and sometimes through trickery, the US authorities took over much of the old tribal lands and tried to push the Indians into smaller areas and reservations. They appointed agents to handle Indian affairs and to hand out food, blankets and supplies in payment for Indian cooperation in allowing settlers to pass through their lands. Some Indians accepted the treaties and others did not. Crazy Horse and others moved their people northward into the Powder River area to avoid contact with whites. The agents appointed to deal with the tribes were frequently crooked and treated the Indians with contempt, causing much resentment among the tribes by issuing rotten corn, diseased meat and bad flour.
In August 1854, some 4,000 Brule and Oglala were camped near Fort Laramie in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of 1851. On the 17th, a cow which had wandered from the camp of a Mormon settler travelling along the Oregon Trail strayed into the Indian camp. A visiting Miniconjou Indian called High Forehead killed the cow and distributed the meat around the camp. When the Mormons complained, Lieutenant Hugh Fleming, an officer stationed at the fort went to consult with the Indian Chief, Conquering Bear, over the matter. Fleming was unaware, or chose to ignore the fact that such matters should be handled by the local Indian Agent, John Whitfield, who was due to visit the camp within the next two days bringing annuities with which any reparation could be made if necessary.
Conquering Bear offered to replace the cow with one from his own stock, but the Mormon refused and insisted on a payment of $25.00. High Forehead replied that “He would die first”. Fleming then asked that Conquering Bear arrest High Forehead and deliver him to the fort, but Conquering Bear refused as he had no authority over the Miniconjou and, furthermore, High Forehead was a guest in his camp. The talks ended in stalemate.
On the 19th, Second Lieutenant John Lawrence Grattan of the US 6th Infantry Regiment led a party of soldiers to the camp to take custody of High Forehead and bring him to the fort. The young Grattan was very inexperienced, keen to make a name for himself and, contemptuous of the fighting ability of the Indians although he had never before encountered the Sioux. The Fort Laramie commander was later to recall that, “There is no doubt that Lieutenant Grattan left this post with a desire to have a fight with the Indians and that he had determined to take the man at all hazards”.
Grattan’s force consisted of a sergeant, a corporal, 27 privates and a French half breed interpreter called Lucienne Auguste. By the time they reached the camp, Auguste was intoxicated from drinking on the way through fear of the coming meeting. He was no friend of the Indians and they, in turn, hated him. As he entered the camp he began taunting the Indians, calling the warriors women and saying that the soldiers were not there to talk but to kill them. All this was later confirmed by John Bordeau who owned a trading post nearby and observed the events.
The camp held some 1,200 warriors and Grattan now began to realise the peril he was in. He stopped to discuss the situation with Bordeau who advised him to talk direct with Conquering Bear and let him handle things. Grattan seemed to understand the wisdom of this advice, but then rode on to High Forehead’s lodge and ordered him to surrender. High Forehead said again that “He would die first”.
Grattan then went to Conquering Bear and demanded that High Forehead be handed over. The chief again tried to negotiate, offering five of his own horses, but the interpreter Auguste deliberately failed to accurately translate between the two while taunting the Indians. Conquering Bear asked that the trader Bordeau act as interpreter for the Indians who trusted him. When Bordeau arrived he could see that the situation had got out of hand. Grattan continued to press Conquering Bear as warriors began to move into flanking positions around the soldiers.
Grattan gave up and as he was walking back to his men a nervous private fired his rifle, killing a warrior. The Indians immediately began firing arrows and a general fight broke out in which Grattan, eleven soldiers and the interpreter Auguste were killed while Conquering Bear received wounds from which he would die some days later. The remaining soldiers tried to retreat to the safety of some rocks, but were quickly cut off and killed by a group led by a rising star in the Sioux camp called Red Cloud.
The killings caused outrage among the settlers and were made worse by newspapers whipping up anti Indian sentiments. Demands were made that the authorities act to better protect the migrants and resulted in the beginning of the Plains Indian Wars that were to last for another 40 years and only ended after the massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890.
All this was witnessed by Crazy Horse who lived in the camp together with his brother High Horse and his cousin Little Hawk. Following Conquering Bear’s shooting, Crazy Horse began to get trance visions and his father, following the Sioux custom, took him on a vision quest to Sylvan Lake, South Dakota, where through fasting and prayer they entered a mystic state. His visions took him to the land of the Thunder Beings. He was given a medicine bundle to protect him for life. One of his animal protectors was the white owl which would give him extended life. He was also shown his “Face Paint” for battle which was a yellow lightning bolt down the left side of his face and white powder which, when wetted was to be dabbed on all vulnerable areas to resemble hailstones. His paint was similar to his father’s which was a red lightning stripe and red dots on his forehead.
His reputation as a warrior grew and his first kill was a Shoshone raider who had murdered a Lakota woman who was washing buffalo meat in the Powder River. He went on to fight in the many skirmishes with his traditional enemies, the Crow, Shoshone, Pawnee, Blackfeet and Arickara, until 1864 when the 3rd Colorado Cavalry massacred Cheyenne and Arapaho women and children at Sand Creek. This cowardly act united many previous enemies against all US Military forces. A year later Crazy Horse fought in the Battles of Platte Bridge and Red Buttes, where because of his fighting ability he was named Ogli Tanka Un, (meaning Shirt Wearer, or War Leader) by the tribes. He also fought by the side of the Great War chief Red Cloud in the many battles to keep settlers out of Wyoming.
On December 21st 1866, Crazy Horse and a small band of six Lakota and Cheyenne decoyed a US force of 53 infantrymen and 27 cavalrymen into an ambush. The troops, commanded by Lieutenant Fetterman, had been sent out from Fort Phil Kearny to follow up on an earlier attack on a detachment that had been woodcutting and, seeing Crazy Horse and his warriors, the infantry followed them into a gulley while the cavalry scouted forward. The Cheyenne leader Little Wolf and a war party moved from a nearby ridge to cut off the foot soldier’s retreat while a large band of Lakota swept over the ridge and overwhelmed them.
Hearing the gunfire, the cavalrymen raced back to help, but suffered the same fate and all were killed. The incident became known among the white population as “The Fetterman Massacre”.
In August 1867, Crazy Horse was involved in what became known as “The Wagon Box Fight” when a band of some 1,500 Lakota attacked a wood cutting detail near Fort Phil Kearny. The soldiers retreated to a temporary camp of old wagons without wheels and began firing at the attackers. The Indians did not know that the troops had recently been issued with the new breech loading rifle and charged after the soldier’s first volley, expecting them to be reloading their old muzzle loading weapons. The improved firepower enabled the soldiers to drive off the attackers who suffered 120 killed and many more wounded.
Later that year Crazy Horse invited Black Buffalo Woman to accompany him on a buffalo hunt. She was the wife of No Water, known for his addiction to alcohol. Lakota custom allowed for a woman to divorce her husband by simply moving into another man’s lodge or by placing her husband’s belongings outside the tent. This would have been acceptable if No Water was present, but he was away from the camp when they left for the hunt.
No Water tracked them to the Slim Buttes area of North Dakota and, approaching the lodge, he called Crazy Horse’s name. When Crazy Horse answered, No Water pushed a pistol through the tent flap and took aim, but Crazy Horse’s cousin Lone Horn was sitting inside near the entry. He tipped the pistol upward and the shot struck Crazy Horse in the upper jaw. No Water fled, pursued by friends of the wounded Crazy Horse. He ran his horse until it died and continued on foot until he reached the safety of his own tribe. The village elders ruled that No Water was to give Crazy Horse three horses in compensation for the wounding. Crazy Horse was punished for being with a married man’s wife by being stripped of his title of Shirt Wearer.
The Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868 promised the Indians the land between the Black Hills and the Bighorn mountains, “For as long as the rain shall fall and the grass grow”. As with previous treaties, the US government promised much in return, but did nothing. Once it became known that gold had been discovered in the Black Hills the area known as Pa Sapa and sacred to the Sioux saw the trickle of miners coming to the area become a flood.
In 1871, Crazy Horse married a Black Shawl, an Oglala who had been sent to help heal his wounds. The couple had a daughter named “They are afraid of her” who only lived for two years. Black Shawl outlived Crazy Horse and died in 1927 of tuberculosis.
On June 17th 1876, Crazy Horse led a combined group of 1,500 Oglala, Cheyenne, Crow and Shoshone in a surprise attack on General Crook’s 1,000 strong force of US cavalry and infantry in what was to become known as The Battle of the Rosebud. The fight, although not high in losses, did delay Crook and prevented him from joining up with General George Custer’s 7th Cavalry and contributed to Custer’s defeat at The Battle of the Little Bighorn eight days later.
At 3pm on the 25th June, despite Crook’s failure to join him, the headstrong Custer launched his attack on a large encampment of Lakota and Cheyenne along the Little Bighorn River. The Indians were prepared however and, led by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Gall of the Hunkpapa Sioux, met them head on. Crazy Horse led the flank assault that eventually surrounded and destroyed Custer’s men. Indian survivors of the battle later spoke of Crazy Horse’s bravery and Water Man, one of a handful of Arapaho who fought in the battle recalled that, “Crazy Horse was the bravest man I ever saw. He rode closest to the soldiers, yelling to his warriors. All the soldiers were shooting at him, but he was never hit”. Another warrior called Little Soldier recorded that, “The greatest fighter in the whole battle was Crazy Horse”.
Sitting Bull and Gall took their people north to Canada to evade the US soldiers now hunting them out, but Crazy Horse remained with his people in the Black Hills.
Following the battle US General Phil Sheridan ordered Generals Terry and Crook to try to round up the hostile Indians and get them back to their reservations and in late summer, the two generals set out in pursuit of the Lakota and Cheyenne. Bad weather and poor supply lines forced Terry’s group to give up the chase and return to their base. General Crook’s force continued the hunt but they too began to run short of supplies and he put his men on half rations. As things became more desperate, the men began eating the horses and mules. A detachment of 150 troopers of the 3rd Cavalry commanded by Captain Anson Mills was ordered to make their way to the mining town of Deadwood in the Black Hills to seek supplies. En route they stumbled across the Miniconjou village of Chief American Horse (his name meaning “He has White Man’s Horse”).
On the evening of 8th September, the soldiers surrounded the village at Slim Buttes. The next morning they attacked, killing anyone who resisted. The surprised Indians fled, leaving a mortally wounded American Horse and fifteen women and children hiding in a nearby gulley. Three of these children were killed before the fighting ended. Those who escaped spread the word to neighbouring Sans Arc, Brule and Cheyenne villages, telling Crazy Horse and other leaders that they had fought about 150 soldiers, but unknown to them, Crook’s main force had also reached the village.
Crazy Horse and over 600 warriors immediately rode the 10 miles towards American Horse’s village. From a nearby ridge they saw a much larger force than expected and began firing down at the troopers. Crook quickly formed a defensive perimeter around the horses and mules and ordered the village to be torched. He then sent forward a line of skirmishers who eventually managed to drive off the attackers.
The soldiers seized 110 ponies in the village as well as supplies of dried meat that were distributed among Crook’s ill and wounded men. They also recovered a number of items taken at the Little Bighorn battle, including a 7th cavalry guidon, guns, ammunition and the bloodstained gauntlets of the slain Captain Miles Keogh.
With winter approaching, some Indians began to drift back to the reservations to acquire food and annuity goods from the US army which had taken over from the civilian agencies, a move which further estranged some warriors. The US authorities further enraged the Indians by demanding that they cede the Black Hills to the government in exchange for supplies.
One after the other the hostile bands were overcome. General Miles effectively defeated Sitting Bull’s Sioux warriors by December and General McKenzie’s troops finally defeated Chief Dull Knife and his Cheyenne. Crazy Horse decided to negotiate peace with the US army and sent a delegation to meet General Miles to discuss terms. The delegation was ambushed and murdered by US army Crow scouts and Crazy Horse demanded revenge.
Miles sent out a force to search for the hostiles and at 7pm on the 8th January 1877, made camp and set up a perimeter on a ridge in the foothills of Wolf Mountains. Crazy Horse and Two Moons with some 500 warriors found them and immediately attacked, but the discipline and firepower of the soldiers, coupled with heavy artillery fire forced the warriors to withdraw. It was now clear to most Indians that they were not safe from the army even in winter and harsh conditions and many drifted back to the reservations.
Crazy Horse and his people struggled on throughout the winter, weakened by hunger. He decided to protect them by surrendering and went to Fort Robinson in Nebraska. On the 5th May 1877 he and other leaders including He Dog, Iron Crow and his jealous cousin Little Big Man, met with Lieutenant William Clark in a solemn ceremony to mark the end of the fighting.
For a few months Crazy Horse lived in his village near the government sponsored Red Cloud Agency with a half breed woman called Nellie Larrabee who is now thought to have been bribed by the army to report on him. His celebrity caused jealousy and resentment among other Indians, particularly Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, two Lakota who had long before come to the agency and adopted its way of life. They spread rumours of Crazy Horse wanting to return to the old ways causing the army to keep a close watch on him. The army was also aware of Crazy Horse’s reputation and feared that his presence could start a general uprising.
When, in August 1877, news came of Chief Joseph and his Nez Perce warriors breaking out of their reservation in Idaho and fleeing through Montana towards Canada, the army asked Crazy Horse and his friend Touch the Cloud to join with them to hunt the chief down. Crazy Horse refused saying that he had promised to remain at peace after their surrender. What followed is controversial still, but it seems that he eventually agreed to help the army “till all the Nez Perce were killed”, but his words were misinterpreted by a half breed scout named Frank Grouard as “to go north and fight until no white man is left”. After being challenged over his interpretation, Grouad left and another interpreter called William Garnett was brought in who did little to correct the situation. Rumours abounded throughout the agencies and the army feared a general Sioux uprising. Crazy Horse was demonised by jealous Indians and nervous soldiers alike.
With tension rising, General Crook was ordered to the nearby Fort Robinson and a council was called with the Oglala elders, but was cancelled when Crook was informed (incorrectly) that Crazy Horse intended to kill him during the meeting.
Crazy Horse was ordered to be arrested and Crook departed, leaving military action to the post commander, Lieutenant Colonel Luther Bradley, who, on the morning of September 4th 1877, after ordering more troops from Fort Laramie, sent two columns against the village of Crazy Horse, but found on arrival that the occupants had scattered in the night. Crazy Horse himself travelled to the nearby Spotted Tail agency with his sick wife who was ill with tuberculosis and placed her in the care of her parents. He met with army officials at the nearby military post of Camp Sheridan and, after a discussion, agreed to return to Fort Robinson with Lieutenant Jesse.M.Lee, the Indian agent at Spotted Tail, his friend, the 7 foot tall Touch the Cloud, Little Big Man, plus some others.
The official version of his death states that on the morning of the 5th September Crazy Horse and the others departed for Fort Robinson and arrived that evening. Lieutenant Lee was ordered to hand Crazy Horse over to the Officer of the Day. Lee protested and went to Colonel Bradley’s quarters to argue the point but without success. Bradley had received orders that Crazy Horse was to be arrested and taken under cover of darkness to Divisional Headquarters. Lee was forced to turn Crazy Horse over to Captain James Kennington the post guard commander. Once inside the guardhouse Crazy Horse struggled with Little Big Man and a guard and attempted to escape. Just outside the door, he was stabbed with a bayonet by a guard. He was taken to the Adjutant’s office, where he was treated by the post surgeon, but died later in the night. Dr McGillycuddy, who treated Crazy Horse after he had been stabbed, wrote later “that he died around midnight”.
Another version of events is provided by John Gregory Bourke’s memoirs of his time during the Indian wars. He interviewed Little Big Man, both a relative and a rival of Crazy Horse, a year after Crazy Horse’s death. Little Big Man stated that when Crazy Horse was taken into the guardhouse, he pulled two knives from under his blanket and held one in each hand. Little Big Man, standing behind him, seized Crazy Horse by both elbows, pulling his arms up behind him. During the struggle, Little Big Man lost his grip on one elbow and Crazy Horse drove his own knife deep into his back. The chief fell and surrendered to the guards.
When Bourke questioned him about the popular account of the guard bayoneting Crazy Horse first, Little Big Man said that the guard, believed to be Private William Gentles, did thrust with his bayonet but in the struggle missed entirely and the blade lodged in the frame of the guardhouse door. He also said that in the hours after the stabbing, the camp commander had suggested the story of the guard being responsible to hide Little Big Man’s role in the death of Crazy Horse and avoid any inter clan reprisals.
There is little doubt that the army wanted Crazy Horse dead and to be killed while trying to escape would avoid any suggestion of an execution, leading many to believe that the whole affair was a set up. Little Big Man’s version is questionable as it is the only one of seventeen eyewitness sources from Indian and army individuals that fails to attribute Crazy Horse’s death to a soldier at the guardhouse. Perhaps he was looking for some fame or notoriety for having a hand in Crazy Horse’s death.
Perhaps the last word should go to an Indian witness to the event, “Crazy Horse, even when dying, refused to lie on the white man’s cot. He insisted on being placed on the floor. Armed soldiers stood by until he died. When he died, Touch the Cloud pointed to the blanket that covered the chief’s body and said, “This is the lodge of Crazy Horse”.
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