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August 2007
Crazy Horse 1840 - 1877
Oglala Lakota Nation
Crazy Horse was a respected war leader of the Oglala Lakota, who fought against the U.S. federal government in an effort to preserve the traditions and values of the Lakota way of life.
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Foreground: Model of Crazy Horse Memorial. In background: the partly-carved largest sculpture in the world, honoring the great Native American leader.
Memorial
Crazy Horse is currently being commemorated with the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota a monument carved into a mountain, in the tradition of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial (on which Korczak Zi?łkowski had worked). The sculpture was begun by Zi?łkowski in 1948. When completed, it will be 641 feet (195 meters) wide and 563 feet (172 meters) high. Some Native American activists, most notably Russell Means, have criticized the project as exploitive of Lakota culture and Crazy Horse's memory.
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Early life
The available evidence suggests that Crazy Horse was born in the fall of 1840. According to He Dog, a close friend, he and Crazy Horse "were both born in the same year and at the same season of the year", which census records and other interviews place at about 1840.[2] Chips, an Oglala medicine man and spiritual adviser to the Oglala war leader, reported that Crazy Horse was born in the fall "in the year in which the band to which he belonged, the Oglala, stole One Hundred Horses, and in the fall of the year", a reference to the annual Lakota calendar or winter count.[3] Among the Oglala wintercounts, the stealing of one hundred horses is noted by Cloud Shield, and possibly by American Horse and Red Horse owner, equivalent to the year 1840-41 .[4] Oral history accounts from relatives on the Cheyenne River Reservation place his birth in the spring of 1840.[5] Probably the most credible source, however, is Crazy Horse's own father. On the evening of his son's death, the elderly man told Lieutenant H. R. Lemly that his son "would soon have been thirty-seven, having been born on the South Cheyenne river in the fall of 1840."[6]
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.[5]
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Surrender and Death
Crazy Horse and other northern Oglala leaders arrived at the Red Cloud Agency, located near Camp Robinson, Nebraska, on May 5, 1877. Together with He Dog, Little Big Man, Iron Crow and others, they met in a solemn ceremony with First Lieutenant William P. Clark as the first step in their formal surrender.
For the next four months, Crazy Horse resided in his village near the Red Cloud Agency. 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 at 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. When asked by Lieutenant Clark to join the Army against the Nez Perce, Crazy Horse and the Miniconjou leader Touch the Clouds objected, saying that they had promised to remain at peace when they surrendered. According to one version of events, Crazy Horse finally agreed, saying that he would fight "till all the Nez Perce were killed". But his words were apparently misinterpreted by scout Frank Grouard who reported that Crazy Horse had said that he would "go north and fight until not a white man is left". When he was challenged over his interpretation, Grouard left the council. Another interpreter, William Garnett, was brought in but quickly noted the growing tension.
With the growing trouble at the Red Cloud Agency, General George Crook was ordered to stop at Camp Robinson. A council was called of the Oglala leadership, however, this was cancelled when Crook was informed that Crazy Horse had said the previous evening that he intended to kill the general during the proceedings. Crook ordered Crazy Horse's arrest and then departed, leaving the military action to the post commander at Camp Robinson, Lieutenant Colonel Luther P. Bradley. Additional troops were brought in from Fort Laramie and on the morning of September 4, 1877, two columns moved against Crazy Horse's village, only to find that it had scattered during the night. Crazy Horse fled to the nearby Spotted Tail Agency with his ill wife. After meeting with military officials at the adjacent military post of Camp Sheridan, Crazy Horse agreed to return to Camp Robinson with Lieutenant Jesse M. Lee, the Indian agent at Spotted Tail.
On the morning of September 5, 1877, Crazy Horse and Lieutenant Lee, accompanied by Touch the Clouds as well as a number of Indian scouts, departed for Camp Robinson. Arriving that evening outside the adjutant's office, Lieutenant Lee was informed that he was to turn Crazy Horse over to the Officer of the Day. Lee protested and hurried to Bradley's quarters to debate the issue, but without success. Bradley had received orders that Crazy Horse was to be arrested and forwarded under the cover of darkness to Division Headquarters. Lee turned the Oglala war chief over to Captain James Kennington, in charge of the post guard, who accompanied Crazy Horse to the post guardhouse. Once inside, no doubt realizing the fate that was about to befall him, Crazy Horse struggled with the guard and Little Big Man and attempted to escape. Just outside the door of the guardhouse, Crazy Horse was stabbed with a bayonet of one of the members of the guard. The mortally wounded war leader was taken to the adjutant's office where he was tended by the assistant post surgeon at the post, Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy. Crazy Horse died late that night.
The following morning, Crazy Horse's body was turned over to his elderly parents who took it to Camp Sheridan, placing it on a scaffold there. The following month when the Spotted Tail Agency was moved to the Missouri River, Crazy Horse's parents moved the body to an undisclosed location possibly somewhere on the present Pine Ridge Reservation. His final resting place remains a mystery to this day.
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