ONEOFMANYFEATHERS'

Great Leaders, Warriors and People

 

Crazy Horse

"A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky. I was hostile to the white man...we preferred hunting to a life of idleness on our reservations. At times we did not get enough to eat and we were not allowed to hunt. All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers came and destroyed our villages. Then Long Hair (Custer) came...They say we massacred him, but he would have done the same to us. Our first impulse was to escape but we were so hemmed in we had to fight."

Crazy Horse (Tashunkewitko) was born on the Republican River about 1845. He was a gentle warrior, a true brave, who stood for the highest ideal of the Sioux. Notwithstanding all that biased historians have said of him, it is only fair to judge a man by the estimate of his own people rather than that of his enemies.

The boyhood of Crazy Horse was passed in the days when the western Sioux seldom saw a white man and then it was usually a trader or a soldier. He was carefully brought up according to the tribal customs. At that period, the Sioux prided themselves on the training and development of their sons and daughters, and not a step in that development was overlooked as an excuse to bring the child before the public by giving a feast in its honor. At such times the parents often gave so generously to the needy that they almost impoverished themselves, thus setting an example to the child of self-denial for the general good. His first step alone, the first word spoken, first game killed, the attainment of manhood or womanhood, each was the occasion of a feast and dance in his honor, at which the poor always benefited to the full extent of the parents' ability.

Big-heartedness, generosity, courage, and self-denial are the qualifications of a public servant, and the average Indian was keen to follow this ideal. As every one knows, these characteristic traits become a weakness when he enters a life founded upon commerce and gain. In this way the life of Crazy Horse began. His mother, like other mothers, loving and watchful of her boy, would never place an obstacle in the way of his father's severe physical training. They laid the spiritual and patriotic foundations of his education in a way that he early became conscious of the demands of public service.

He was about four or five years old when the band was snowed in one severe winter. There was not much food, but his father was a tireless hunter. The buffalo, their main foodsource, were not to be found, but he was out in the storm and cold every day and finally brought in two antelopes. The little boy got on his pet pony and rode through the camp, telling the old folks to come to his mother's teepee for meat. It turned out that neither his father nor mother had told him to do this. Before they knew it, old men and women were lined up before the teepee home, ready to receive the meat, in answer to his invitation. As a result, the mother had to distribute nearly all of it, keeping only enough for two meals. On the following day Crazy Horse asked for food. His mother told him that the old folks had taken it all, and added: "Remember, my son, they went home singing praises in your name, not my name or your father's. You must be brave. You must live up to your reputation."

Another story told of his boyhood is that when he was about twelve he went to look for the ponies with his little brother. They came to some wild cherry trees full of ripe fruit, and while they were eating it, the brothers were startled by the growl and sudden rush of a bear. Young Crazy Horse pushed his brother up into the nearest tree and himself jumped on the back of one of the horses, which was frightened and ran some distance before he could control him. As soon as he could, however, he turned him about and came back, yelling and swinging his lariat over his head. The bear at first showed fight but finally turned and ran. The old man who told me this story added that young as he was, he had some power, so that even a grizzly did not care to tackle him.

At the age of sixteen he joined a war party against the Gros Ventres. He was well in the front of the charge, and at once established his bravery by following one of the foremost Sioux warriors, by the name of Hump, drawing the enemy's fire and circling around their advance guard. Suddenly Hump's horse was shot from under him, and there was a rush of enemy warriors to kill or capture him while down. But amidst a shower of arrows he leaped from his pony, helped his friend into his own saddle, jumped up behind him, and carried him off to safety, even tho they were pursued by the enemy. So he associated himself in his first battle with the wizard of Indian warfare, and Hump, who was then at the height of his own career, pronounced Crazy Horse the coming warrior of the Teton Sioux.

Young Crazy Horse was twenty-one years old when all the Teton Sioux chiefs (the western or plains dwellers) met in council to determine upon their future policy toward the invader. Their former agreements had been by individual bands, each for itself, and every one was friendly. They reasoned that the country was wide, and that the white traders should be made welcome. Up to this time they had anticipated no conflict. They had permitted the Oregon Trail, but now to their astonishment forts were built in their territory.

The attack on Fort Phil Kearny was the first battle of the new policy, and here Crazy Horse was chosen to lead the attack on the woodchoppers, designed to draw the soldiers out of the fort, while an army of six hundred was waiting for them. The success of this stratagem was further enhanced by his masterful handling of his men. From this time on a general war was inaugurated; Sitting Bull looked to him as a principal war leader, and even the Cheyenne chiefs, allies of the Sioux, practically acknowledged his leadership. Yet during the following ten years of defensive war he was never known to make a speech, though his teepee was the rendezvous of the young men. He was depended upon to put into action the decisions of the council, and was frequently consulted by the older chiefs. He won every battle that he undertook, with the exception of one or two occasions when he was surprised in the midst of his women and children, and even then he managed to extricate himself in safety from a difficult position.

Early in the year 1876, his runners brought word from Sitting Bull that all the roving bands would meet upon the upper Tongue River in Montana for Summer feasts and conferences. There was conflicting news from the reservation. It was rumored that the army would fight the Sioux to a finish; again, it was said that another commission would be sent out to treat with them. On June 25th, 1876, the great camp was scattered for three miles or more along the level river bottom, back of the thin line of cottonwoods -- five circular rows of teepees, ranging from half a mile to a mile and a half in circumference. Here and there stood out a large, white, solitary teepee; these were the lodges or "clubs" of the young men. Crazy Horse was a member of the "Strong Hearts" and the "Tokala" or Fox lodge. He was watching a game of ring-toss when the warning came from the southern end of the camp of the approaching troops.

The leader quickly saddled his favorite war pony and was starting with his young men for the south end of the camp, when a fresh alarm came from the opposite direction, and looking up, he saw Custer's force upon the top of the bluff directly across the river. As quick as a flash, he took in the situation -- the enemy had planned to attack the camp at both ends; and knowing that Custer could not cross the river at that point, he instantly led his men north to the ford to cut him off. In this dashing charge, Crazy Horse snatched his most famous victory out of what seemed frightful peril, for the Sioux could not have known how many were behind Custer.

From time to time, delegations of friendly Indians were sent to Crazy Horse, to urge him to come in to the reservation, promising a full hearing and fair treatment.

In July, 1877, he was finally talked into coming to Fort Robinson, Nebraska, with several thousand Indians, most of them Oglala and Minneconwoju Sioux, on the distinct understanding that the government would hear and adjust their grievances. General Crook proclaimed Spotted Tail, who had given much valuable service to the army, head chief of the Sioux, which was resented by many. The attention paid to Crazy Horse was offensive to Spotted Tail and the Indian scouts, who planned a conspiracy against him. They told General Crook that the young chief planned to murder him at the next council, and draw the Sioux into another war.

The friends of Crazy Horse discovered the plot and told him of it. His reply was, "Only cowards are murderers." His wife was critically ill at the time, and he decided to take her to her parents at Spotted Tail agency, where then his enemies circulated the story that he had fled, and scouts were sent after him. They caught him riding with his wife and one other but did not try to arrest him, and after he had left his sick wife with her people, he went to call on Captain Lea, the agent for the Brules, accompanied by all the warriors of the Minneconwoju band. The captain urged him to report at army headquarters to explain himself and correct false rumors, and on his agreement, gave him a wagon and escort. He went of his own free will, either suspecting no treachery or determined to defy it. When he reached the military camp, Little Big Man walked arm-in-arm with him, and his cousin and friend, Touch-the-Cloud, was just in front. Unsuspecting he walked in the direction of the guardhouse, when Touch-the-Cloud suddenly turned back saying : "Cousin, they will put you in prison!"

"Another white man's trick! Let me go! Let me die fighting!" cried Crazy Horse. He stopped and tried to free himself and draw his knife, but both his arms were held by Little Big Man and the officer. While he struggled, a soldier stabbed him through with his bayonet from behind. The wound was deadly, and he died during that night, his old father singing the death song over him and afterward carrying away his body, which they said must not be polluted any more by the touch of a white man. They hid it somewhere in the Bad Lands, his resting place to this day.

So died one of the most capable and truest American Indians. His life was ideal; his record clean. He was never involved in any of the numerous massacres on the trail, but was a leader in practically every open fight. The reputation of great men is bound to be shadowed by questionable motives and policies, but here is one pure patriot, as worthy of honor as any, who ever breathed the Creator’s air in the wide spaces of a new world.

 

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Photograph Controversy

Most sources question whether Crazy Horse was ever photographed. Dr. McGillycuddy doubted any photograph of the war leader had been taken. In 1908, Walter Camp wrote to the agent for the Pine Ridge Reservation inquiring about a portrait. "I have never seen a photo of Crazy Horse," Agent Brennan replied, "nor am I able to find any one among our Sioux here who remembers having seen a picture of him. Crazy Horse had left the hostiles but a short time before he was killed and its more than likely he never had a picture taken of himself."

In 1956, a small tintype portrait purportedly of Crazy Horse was published by J. W. Vaughn in his book With Crook at the Rosebud. The photograph had belonged to the family of the scout, Baptiste "Little Bat" Garnier. Two decades later, the portrait was again published with further details about how the photograph was produced at Camp Robinson, though the editor of the book "remained unconvinced of the authenticity of the photograph."

Recently, the original tintype was on exhibit at the Custer Battlefield Museum in Garryowen, Montana, who have promoted the image as the only authentic portrait of Crazy Horse. Historians however continue to refute the identification.

Experts argue that the tintype was taken a decade or two after 1877. The evidence includes the individual's attire (such as the length of the hair pipe breastplate and the ascot tie). In addition, no other photograph with the same painted backdrop has been found. Several photographers passed through Camp Robinson and the Red Cloud Agency in 1877 — including James H. Hamilton, Charles Howard, David Rodocker and possibly Daniel S. Mitchell — but none of them used the backdrop that appears in the tintype. After the death of Crazy Horse, Private Charles Howard produced at least two images of the famed war leader's scaffold grave, located near Camp Sheridan, Nebraska.

The only confirmed image of Crazy Horse is a drawing a forensic artist made while listening to his description by his sister. This drawing belongs to Crazy Horse's family, and has been publicly shown only once, on the PBS program History Detectives.

Source Wikipedia

 

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Hello!
There is no picture of Crazy Horse. There is no truth to how white people write about Crazy Horse. Only his people know the truth - that his spirit is alive through how he spoke through his heart. And there is his real life, his true life. And he is with the Great Spirit. He promised his people that he will be back. And the time is near. Only the Lakota people will know when that time comes. Movies and books will degrade the great leader. The movies will not bring the great leader back to life. They will only degrade a man who is a warrior for his people, a humble man. We hold this man very sacred. We ask all interested people about Crazy Horse to boycott the movies that are made about Crazy Horse. Media degrades good leaders today.
Thank you for your support.

Mitakuye Oyasin!
Bernard Ice
Lakota
Wounded Knee, SD
Spiritual Advisor for American Indian Science and Engineering Society
Boulder, CO

 

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