I’d like to write about the life of Crazy Horse, because today is his alleged birthday. Although, I can’t pretend to really know anything about him,(or anyone else I write about here), except for what I read in articles, and magazines, and books, written by other people who are giving accounts of him.
But from these accounts, I can say for certain he was smart, and he was brave.
His real name was Tasunke Witco. He was born in South Dakota, at a place on Rapid Creek, which is about 40 miles northeast of Thunderhead Mountain. That is where the “Crazy Horse” Mountain is now. A member of the Oglala Lakota tribe. All of this around 1840.
He spent a good part of his life defending his people. They had lived here in America for a long, long time. In fact, the first native people here, the “Indians” came thousands of years before. The Indians held / hold the belief that they have always been here. Right now we can say with assurance, that people were across the Americas by 15,000 years ago. There’s some evidence of people as far back as 30,000 to 40,000 years ago.
So. When white European men bumped their boats on the eastern shore 500 years back, they were very late to the dance. And when those white men came here? They claimed the land as their own. Imagine the surprise of the Native Americans.
Truthfully, this is one part of history that p!sses me off the most. We should just roll it all up, and give it back. But that’s not going to happen.
Anyway. Crazy Horse was determined to protect his people and and their lives here. He was a good warrior. A brave man.
He is best known, in our culture, for his part in The Battle of Little Bighorn. This all happened in 1876, when Crazy Horse led a band of Lakota warriors against Custer’s Seventh U.S. Cavalry battalion. It also became known as Custer’s Last Stand, and as this suggests, it didn’t turn out well for Custer. He, 9 officers, and 280 enlisted men, were all dead after the fighting was over. And on the other side, 32 Indians were killed. Crazy Horse and his followers played an integral part in all of this, along with Sitting Bull, and many others.
What happened next to the Native Americans was sad, and unfair. The United States Government would send scouts to round up any Northern Plains tribes who resisted. As a result, this movement forced many Indian Nations to be pushed across the country. They were always followed by soldiers, until starvation or exposure would force them to surrender. This is how Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce and Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota were forced into submission. Slowly, they were disappearing, or being herded into small, god-forsaken places.
In 1877, Tasunke Witco — Crazy Horse — entered into negotiations under the flag of truce. A misunderstanding occurred, where Crazy Horse’s words were incorrectly translated. At the end of the mess, Crazy Horse was dead, speared by one of the guard’s bayonets.
These days, they are carving his big face on a mountain in South Dakota, as we speak. I read where the project has been ongoing for seven decades. I imagine it will be quite sometime until it is finished, as his face is now 87 feet high. They haven’t started on his body, or horse yet. I’m not sure how this helps anything, and I wonder what Crazy Horse would have thought. If nothing else, I hope it brings awareness about the truths of our Native American populations.
Anyway, there’s a bit of his story. I imagine Crazy Horse’s life was rich with much more than fighting white men to defend against their violent advances. It all should be a lesson. One that we should never hope to repeat. And I hope our culture starts moving again in the direction of inclusion and acceptance. It is the right way to live. The right thing to do.
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“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
― Albert Einstein
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“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
― Alice Walker
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“Hate is a lack of imagination.”
― Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
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