CHRONOLOGY OF CRAZY HORSE – “A Dream Changes a Life”

 famous Lakota Sioux Chief and Leader

A DREAM CHANGES A LIFE

In the Bible’s account of Joseph, his dreams and interpretations, as they played out during his life, made Joseph into a hero and savior for the Jewish nation.  Likewise, the entire story of Crazy Horse’s life is told through his dreams and interpretations, to become a hero and savior for the Lakota nation.

   This chronology is derived from Lakota winter counts, US military records, Judge Richter’s 1916-1917 interviews at Pine Ridge, Pine Ridge Reservation tribal papers and numerous interviews with Buffalo Horn Chips heirs.

Suggested references:

LAKOTA BELIEF AND RITUAL by James Walker

VOICES OF OGLALA ANCESTORS—CEREMONIES by Afraid of Bear Tiospaye

CRAZY HORSE, THE LIFE BEHIND THE LEGEND by Mike Sajna

THE DEATH OF CRAZY HORSE, A TRAGIC EPISODE IN LAKOTA HISTORY, compiled by Richard Hardorff

TO KILL AN EAGLE, INDIAN VIEWS ON THE LAST DAYS OF CRAZY HORSE, by Ed and Mabell Kadlecek

CRAZY HORSE and THE REAL REASON FOR THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIGHORN by A. Rosss Ehanaman

YUWIPI, VISION AND EXPERIENCE IN OGLALA RITUAL by William Powers

SEARCH FOR THE LOST TRAIL OF CRAZY HORSE by Cleve Walstrom

CRAZY HORSE, THE STRANGE MAN OF THE OGLALAS, A BIOGRAPHY by Mari Sandoz

THE KILLING OF CRAZY HORSE by Thomas Powers

THE CRAZY HORSE SURRENDER LEDGER edited by Thomas Buecker

IMAGES OF AMERICA, ROSEBUD SIOUX by Donovin Sprague

IMAGES OF AMERICA, PINE RIDGE RESERVATION by Donovin Sprague

CHIPS COLLECTION OF CRAZY HORSE MEDICINES by Larry Belitz

The Lakota word “wotawe” refer to objects made by a medicine man to contact spirits.  For variety in this article, words “amulet”, “talisman”, “effigy” or “medicines” are used interchangeably.   Wherever useful, a page number of a mentioned wotawe will be referenced in my CHIPS COLLECTION OF CRAZY HORSE MEDICINES book to show the medicine item.

The names of Crazy Horse’s medicine man are varied in his life, such as “Woptuha”, “Buffalo Horn Chips”, “Yuwipi”, “Chips”, “Encouraging Bear”, “Old Chips”, or just “Chips”.  The name refers to a fight between two buffalo bulls.  Their clashing heads sometimes cause splinters of black horn to fly off to suggest the name “Buffalo Horn Chips”.

The wotawe for Crazy Horse were the personal property of Woptuha, their maker; not that of Crazy Horse.  Crazy Horse paid Chips, with horses and guns, the right to use Woptuha’s power of crafted medicine figures. 

Events for Crazy Horse’s life and crafted wotawe between 1855-1877

1500’s-1700’s   Sioux people gradually move westward from the South Carolina area, as European people arrived and stronger tribes pushed the Sioux westward.  They followed the Ohio River Valley to eventually arrive in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

1776  Sioux first arrive in the Paha Sapa (Black Hills), depicted on a winter count with a drawing of a pine tree.

1800  Lakota Sioux grew in numbers, so a tribal council meeting decided each of the seven bands should separately choose a historian to draw a picture of the most important event of the year, as a method to record their history.  (Studied and recorded by the Smithsonian and available in THE YEAR THE STARS FELL book.)

Autumn, 1842 near Bear Butte, a sacred site, Curly was born (Today, this is near Sturgis, SD).  He was light-skinned and light-haired, indicating he was partially white in his lineage.  Later he was named Crazy Horse.

1843  Crazy Horse’s brother, Little Hawk, was born.  Their mother dies soon after, thought to be a suicide.  (During a Yuwipi Night Ceremony, the medicine man Woptuha learned a Night Cult member killed her and led people to think she killed herself.  The killing was gossiped by Lakota because Curly appeared “white” that the mother had an affair; criticism caused her to commit suicide.)

1843  Crazy Horse’s father marries a sister of Spotted Tail, who helps raise Curly.

1849  Oregon Trail brings thousands of whites across Sioux land on their way to California.  This was the first time for Crazy Horse to see white people and hear of dislike for the newcomers.  An outbreak of cholera by travelers caused an epidemic to whites and Indians.  Oglala Sioux belief was whites used magic to kill them, so Oglala and Brule bands moved to White Cliffs near Bordeaux’s trading post (today near Chadron, NE).

1851  Great Fort Laramie Treaty Council to establish roads and miliary posts and to bring peace to Plains tribes in return for annuities.  The Oglala and Brule earlier had vengeance on the wagon trains.

August 17, 1854  Brule and Oglala bands, including Curly’s (Crazy Horse’s) family were camped close to the Oregon Trail, on the south bank of the North Platte River, a few miles east of Fort Laramie.  When a lame, trail-worn cow wandered into camp, High Forehead shot the miserable animal; it was cooked and eaten.  The next day the cow’s owner, an emigrant, reported the incident as theft at Fort Laramie.

Conquering Bear offered the post commander, Lieutenant Fleming, a choice of any of his horses as payment, but the cow’s owner refused. 

August 19, 1854  Lieutenant Grattan, new out of West Point, wishing to show power against the Indians, marched with 30 men and 2 pieces of artillery to arrest High Forehead.  After 45 minutes of dialog between Chief Conquering Bear and Grattan, the impetus Lieutenant grew angry when Conquering Bear said he would rather die than surrender High Forehead.  Grattan then ordered his men to fire into the Indian camp and Conquering Bear suffered three wounds.  Curly watched as hundreds of Lakota Sioux attacked and killed the entire command.

September, 1854  Curly sees wounded Chief Conquering Bear die.  This incident of Grattan attacking and killing an innocent chief affected Curly the rest of his life.  As a rather shy boy and wishing to understand what he had seen, the pensive Curly goes to a remote location.  After three days without food and water, he falls asleep having a vision.  He was awakened by his father and those searching for him, but Curly does not tell anyone about his dream.

November, 1854  Hump schooled Curly about the skills of a hunter and warrior.  Curly was able to shoot his first buffalo in a chase and, although it took four arrows, brought down a second buffalo.  Hump praised Curly for his daring in the Indian camp.

June, 1855  In a raid led by Chief Spotted Tail, his uncle, Lakota clashed with the Omaha band.  Curly in the battle saw someone crawling through the brush and shot an arrow at the escapee.  When Curly turned the body over to take a scalp, he saw he killed a young girl who resembled his sister.  He was repulsed and could not take a scalp.  Later, he endured jeers of his comrades for killing a young woman.

September, 1857  Curly’s name is changed to that of his father, Crazy Horse, and his father took the name “Worm”.  The vision of young Crazy Horse is told to Worm, his father.  Worm is a medicine man, who made a new pipe for himself, with a carved speckled worm atop his red Catlinite bowl.  As a medicine man, Worm did not interpret visions within his family, so asked young Woptuha , a relative who was a few years older than Crazy Horse, to listen to the vision and interpret it.

Woptuha, who revisits his own young vision that he is to help his people, hears Crazy Horse tell of his “Man from the Lake” vision of two men emerging from a lake.  One man has a stone behind the ear; the other with a stone under his left arm.  Both medicines, on the left side, protected each as a thunderstorm attacked the men with lightning and large hail.  A circling red-tail hawk flew above the men.  The hawk protected the men and eventually the storm abated, and the men went back into the lake.  After repeated questioning by Woptuha, who was 4 years older than Crazy Horse, he understood the details correctly of the dream. Woptuha interpreted that Crazy Horse could be protected from the storms of life if he wore a protective stone behind his left ear and a heart stone under his left arm (p. 104).

Due to his dream of a storm, considered one of the most powerful of dreams, Crazy Horse was invited to become a Heyoka, if he provided a large feast and thereafter, if accepted, do his activities in reverse or contrary manner.  Doing the opposite would protect Crazy Horse from being killed by a storm such as its wind, hail, lightning caused by a Thunder Being.  The Thunder Being called “Wikinyan” was a huge bird who rose high in the air, by an updraft of a storm, whose flapping wings caused the noise of Thunder and from whose eyes came Lightning.

Woptuha had been born in Canada and was somewhat familiar with the Ojibway Rattling of the Tipi Ceremony, using stones to predict the future and heal the sick.  Over the years, Woptuha, who had many name changes such as Encouraging Bear, Horn Chips and Yuwipi, brought this ceremony to the Lakota.  Using smoked hide, Woptuha fashioned stone bundles and began the Stone Dreamer Society.  He began the Night Cult where tied medicine men would secretly come unbound.  They then could heal and predict the future.

Woptuha had been a Thunder Dreamer himself and took the responsibility of teaching Crazy Horse about the role of a Heyoka or Contrary.  Woptuha began making careful buckskin figures, each with a quartz stone inside, to protect Crazy Horse.  After hearing the Man from the Lake vision, Horn Chips made a stone bundle to tie criss-cross fashion in loose hair behind Crazy Horse’s left ear and a large Heart Stone, tied to a sling, and worn on his heart-side.   Chips predicted these two stones would protect him in battle if he rode horseback, always keeping the Heart Stone between himself and the enemy.  Additionally, he was to be humble and let others take scalps to have the glory.  These protective medicines, called “wotawe” in Lakota, “amulet” or “talisman” in English were believed to keep Crazy Horse safe in 23 battles and many raids from 1855 until 1877. Woptuha predicted through his Night Ceremony, also called Yuwipi, that Crazy Horse would not suffer harm in battle, but would be harmed twice when his hand was grabbed by one of his own people, a prediction which proved true.  This person proved to be his friend, Little Big Man.

September 3, 1855  General Harney told Indians that they must, by the 1851 treaty, remain south of the North Platte River in Nebraska or be considered hostile.  As Harney approached the Bluewater camp from the south, Little Thunder and Spotted Tail, Crazy Horse’s uncle, came under a white flag of truce.  General Harney told them to return to camp since he had come to fight.  The fleeing Indians ran to the south to escape, came headlong into the soldiers.  Casualty to the Sioux was 86 and 70 captured, most of which were women and children.  Curly heard the gunfire and saw smoke in the distance.  He followed the trail of escaping Sioux and looked over a butte to see destruction to the camp; he never had seen soldiers attack before in such force.  As Curly rode the trail of escaping Indians, he heard a whimper coming from a pile of buffalo robes.  It was a young mother with a newborn baby.  He helped her and, as they traveled north, she told Curly about the attack.  Her name was Yellow Woman and later he would take an interest in her, although she was a Cheyenne.

1855-1856  General Harney told Lakota to come to Fort Laramie as punishment for being at Bluewater.  Chief Spotted Tail came in and was incarcerated.  After his release, his uncle told Crazy Horse that there was no way to fight the military with all their firepower and many soldiers and still be peaceful.  Curly found it difficult that such a powerful leader would surrender.

Summer of 1857  Crazy Horse, after a lengthy visit with Yellow Woman’s camp, rode to Bear Butte, a site near where he had been born about 15 years previous.  There was a huge gathering of all seven Lakota bands for a people’s council.  There Curly met many distinguished Teton Sioux leaders such as Red Cloud, chief of the Bad Faces.  He was particularly attracted to Red Cloud’s niece, Black Buffalo Woman.  She showed interest in this handsome Oglala with hazel eyes and aquiline nose.  Curly also became acquainted with his seven-foot cousin, Touch-the-Clouds.  Also, attending was the Hunkpapa chief, Sitting Bull.  Present also were Thunder Dreamers (Heyoka or Contrary) with whom Horn Chips and Crazy Horse shared a kinship with Gall and Rain-in-the-Face.  These Heyoka would avert a storm by holding a bow and walking backwards to a storm, and act contrary as much as possible, such as sitting backwards on a horse or wearing a buffalo robe on a hot day.  The result of this Council, decision was to not allow whites to cross the boundaries of their lands—boundaries defined in the 1851 treaty.  Later these Lakota chiefs would become a big part in Crazy Horse’s life.  Years to come, and Crazy Horse seemed invincible, Horn Chips would fashion protective stones for notable chiefs, including Red Cloud, Gall and Rain-in-the-Face, which not one became injured in battle.  Amulets with opposite-colored black and white quartz stone bundles were made for these Heyoka individuals to protect them during thunderstorms.

Summer, 1858  A small war party group of Hump, Curly and brother Little Hawk rode to the west to attack the Arapahoe.  In the thick of battle, bullets and arrows flew around Curly, but he was never hurt.  He succeeded in killing two Arapahoe and, in his excitement, took their scalps.  While remounting, he was hit in the leg with an arrow.  Immediately, he threw these trophies away, remembering from Woptuha not to be proudful to take scalps.  The wound was not serious, but Crazy Horse became convinced the wound was punishment; he must abide with what Horn Chips told him to follow rules of wotawe made by Horn Chips for medicines to work.

Horn Chips made medicine amulets for Crazy Horse of horses and red-tailed hawks and tied them to his bow/quiver set to protect his backside in battle; he already had medicines for his front.  Inside this bow/quiver case, Chips added a black stone to the top of the bow and a white-headed stone at the other end.  His arrows had three wavy-lined grooves starting at the feather fletchings, ending at the stone points, representing Lightning of the Thunder Being.  These, so-called “blood grooves”, were believed, like a lightning strike, ensured each arrow would strike its target (p. 45-46).

Summer 1858  After the Arapahoe victory, warriors recounted their deeds and were lauded.  Although Curly could have boasted of his exploits, he said nothing.  That was his way.  The others, though, praised him for his courage and bravery. 

The next day the name “Curly” ceased to exist.

Crazy Horse often had nightmares in teen-age years over his mother’s suicidal death, thinking due to his looking “part-white” in heritage, she killed herself.  Woptuha investigated during a Night Cult (often called “Yuwipi”) ceremony, seeking knowledge dealing with the death of Crazy Horse’s mother.  He discovered she did not commit suicide, but was killed by a Night Cult member, whom he thought Crazy Horse’s mother had an affair with a white man.  Crazy Horse was relieved to know he had nothing to do with his mother’s passing.  Chips made an effigy of the killer and his horse to show Crazy Horse the man responsible, but never named the man, lest Crazy Horse might kill him (p. 98).

Summer, 1862  Crazy Horse often visited Red Cloud’s camp.  This gave opportunity to see Black Buffalo Woman, considered the prettiest woman in camp.  He was nineteen, time to take a wife.  He courted Black Buffalo Woman in front of her tipi, in Lakota fashion, by placing his blue courting robe over their heads, offering privacy to whisper and hug.  Crazy Horse intended to marry Black Buffalo Woman since he was growing in fame, but he was from an ordinary family and wielded little power in tribal politics.  For his niece, Red Cloud wanted someone more important who could elevate his own position, someone like No Water, whose older brother, Black Twin, was a long-time member of the tribal council. 

As Red Cloud was organizing Lakota warriors for a raid against Crow Indians, Crazy Horse decided to go along as Red Cloud’s lieutenant.  After a short trip by the group, No Water complained of a toothache and his bear teeth medicine would currently not offer him safety in battle, so he turned back to the Lakota camp.  Following the raid, Crazy Horse returned to the village to learn Black Buffalo Woman, in his absence, was given by Red Cloud as wife to No Water.  Then, for three days, Crazy Horse left camp alone, telling no one where he was going or when he would return.

Summer, 1863  Telegraph wires to the Pacific Coast had been completed.  This ended the short-lived Pony Express to carry messages.  At an interval along the white man’s singing wires, there developed a friendship between Crazy Horse and a telegraph operator at Deer Lodge, where Indian agent Thomas Twiss set up an agency.  The operator, Mr. Collister, introduced Crazy Horse to Lieutenant Casper Collins, who operated a garrison nearby.  Soon Collins and Crazy Horse were hunting buffalo together and often Collins visited Crazy Horse’s camp to learn the Lakota language.

Summer, 1863  Gold was discovered in the Montana Territory and John Bozeman staked out a trail to the gold fields.  This Bozeman Trail branched off the Oregon Trail to run directly through the heart of Lakota hunting grounds east of the Big Horn Mountains.  Distressed by the number of people invading their land on the Oregon Trail, this was yet another encroachment and violation of the 1851 treaty.  When Bozeman tried to escort the first wagon train over the trail, Crazy Horse, under Red Cloud, gathered warriors in a great semicircle on the bluffs for a week, always leaving the bottom of the circle open at the south, so whites could go back home where they belonged.

Summer, 1864  Crazy Horse made a daring raid on Ft. Laramie by leading a small party of Lakota through Ft. Laramie, stampeding the soldier’s horses off the parade ground and driving these horses to the north.  Arriving at camp, Crazy Horse gave captured horses to those who needed them, especially those of the Orphan Band, who lost their parent(s), as such happened when Crazy Horse was a two-year-old.  This earned Crazy Horse support of the Orphan Band of Lakota, who eagerly followed him.

February 2, 1865  Colonel John Chivington led a massacre against a Cheyenne village far to the south on Sand Creek.  Yellow Woman and friends of Crazy Horse were killed in the raid.  Indian retaliation began immediately against white settlements with a vengeance, but the garrison holed up in their stockage and lost only 18 men.  Indians then pulled down telegraph wires and looted warehouses before riding away.

June 14, 1865  Major General Dodge ordered the entire Indian community, now staying at Fort Laramie, consisting of two thousand Indians with 15 lodges, to be removed under guard to Fort Kearny, about three hundred miles to the east.  Spotted Tail was understandably bitter that his people were treated cruelly by soldiers on the march.  Among other depredations, children were beaten and women raped.  Spotted Tail sent word to his nephew, Crazy Horse, to help Lakota escape.  Crazy Horse and the warriors found the captives camped at Horse Creek.  That night, they placed stakes in the North Platte River to mark a suitable crossing.  Before dawn, Spotted Tail and his people quietly waded the Platte, leaving their lodges and most of their belongings behind.  Their friends waited on the other side with horses and soon the freed Lakota were making their way north, guarded by a Lakota warrior contingent.

July 25, 1865  The combined Cheyenne and Lakota forces descended on a small garrison at Platte Bridge on the Oregon Trail.  Crazy Horse and a few other warriors acted as a decoy to lure soldiers out.  A small detachment of soldiers appeared, but impetuous warriors broke from hiding before soldiers were close to fire at them.  Realizing the trick, soldiers withdrew to the stockade, cheating Indians of a fight.  The next day soldiers were prepared for a fight.  Lieutenant Collins, Crazy Horse’s close friend, happened to be leading a troop across the bridge.  Red Cloud tried to warn Collins, who befriended Indians, that warriors were hiding behind the ridge.  Collins was warned too late and was killed along with several of his troop.  The death of his friend, Collins, deeply distressed Crazy Horse.

August, 1865  General Connor, Colonel Cole and Colonel Walker commanded three columns of troops to punish Indian camps along the Tongue, Powder and Little Missouri Rivers.  Many of the soldiers were Easterners who transferred out West to serve out their Civil War enlistments and had no appetite to fight Indians.  The cavalry only engaged Indians on rare occasions, as they traveled about to fight scattered camps.  Crazy Horse and his band tracked the columns of cavalry up the Powder River and eventually stole 80 cavalry horses.

September, 1865  Hundreds of the army’s horses and mules froze to death in ice storms.  Without draft animals to carry stores, pull wagons and miserable soldiers, the army burned supplies or left them on the ground and hurried from the unfriendly country.  Indians gathered many abandoned guns and much ammunition.

From this occasion, Crazy Horse acquired a Yellow Boy rifle and soon was nicknamed “Takes the Shot”, since he would dismount to take careful aim in battle, not use random shooting as many Lakota. Horn Chips added three medicine stone bundles to Crazy Horse’s gun to be effective in battle and told Crazy Horse to scratch the lead points of bullets with an “X” to ensure they would hit their target (p. 47 ).

Late September, 1865  At a ceremony by the mouth of the Little Powder River, the warriors Crazy Horse, Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses and Sword became Shirt Wearers because of their bravery and leadership.  They were in charge of Lakota warriors at all times, maintaining order and safeguarded the rights of tribal members.  Essentially, the ceremony made the Shirt Wearer a “chief”, but without a war bonnet.  The so-called “war shirt” worn by Shirt Wearers was highly embellished with porcupine quill-wrapped hair ties.  Each person that supported a wearer would donate a lock of hair to be wrapped with red porcupine quills.  The hair was to embue the Shirt Wearer with power, which came from each supporter (p.21).

The designation was a special honor for Crazy Horse, a commoner.  Rarely was anyone other than a chief’s son chosen to wear the shirt.  At the ceremony, Crazy Horse was singled out and praised for his concern for others.  A generous man, he always gave to the needy, the goods and horses he obtained on raids.

No Water thought that he would be honored and presented a war shirt as a Shirt Wearer.  He was jealous that Crazy Horse was given the honor, rather than he. 

Horn Chips, as Spiritual Helper of Crazy Horse, began in earnest fashioning additional protective medicines for Crazy Horse, now a Shirt Wearer.  The amulets or talisman all followed the initial dream of Crazy Horse called “Man from the Lake” vision.  Chips concentrated on Ear and Heart stones from the dream (p. 101). Nightly, ceremonies by Horn Chips and Crazy Horse were conducted to keep the power of the objects active.  When their power was determined by Horn Chips as becoming weak, new buckskin talisman would be fashioned.  The power source was believed to come from a large, round Master Stone, safe-guarded by Chips.  Each effigy had a personal name and a song in the ceremony.

Early in his career, Crazy Horse had a vision near the hidden entrance to Mini Kata (“Water Hot”, now called “Hot Springs”) where tall sandstone walls lined a fast-flowing Fall River leading to a valley with a hundred warm-water springs (p.  17).   Here Crazy Horse had a vision of Little People known as “Wiwila”.  These 18-inch-tall people, who carried small bows and arrows, lived near water, especially springs, and had a long history among the Lakota. 

These creatures were even reported to Lewis and Clark, as they came into present-day South Dakota, where the explorers even climbed a tall hill to search for them.  Indians told Lewis and Clark to watch out for them since they were said to have killed nine of their warriors.  While considered dangerous, it was believed if they were appeased, they could use their power to help.  Chips fashioned rawhide figures of the Little People with Lightning mouths and long hair.  The Lakota believed these appeased Wiwila kept Crazy Horse’s life spared in battles, as they knocked away bullets and arrows shot at him.  Being small in stature, soldiers could not see these Little People.  Colonel Dodge reported watching Crazy Horse ride back and forth, riding far ahead of his warriors, in front of soldier sharp shooters, but their bullets could not hit him or his horse.  Horn Chips made protective medicines for the horse used in battle with a stone bundle tied to the hair of the forelock of his horse, to see better and another wotawe tied in the mane, behind the horse’s left ear, to hear better.  (p. 101).  Additionally, painted on a horse of a Heyoka or Contrary, there was a lightning streak placed on the horse’s flank and mole dust rubbed over the horse.

Spring, 1866  Red Cloud and other Lakota leaders were asked to come to Fort Laramie for a peace council.  The whites hoped to persuade the Indians to open the Bozeman Trail.  For two years the Indians allowed no one, except a few miners, to use the road.  The peace council ended when the Indians learned that Colonel Carrington had arrived to build forts along the trail.

July, 1866  Crazy Horse watched as the first fort on the Bozeman Trail, Fort Phil Kearny, at the eastern foot of the Big Horn Mountains, was being built.

Late July, 1866  Crazy Horse, Hump and Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses led war parties as far south as Fort Reno to attack wagon trains using the Bozeman Trail.  On these raids, warriors captured all the guns and ammunition they could get.

December 21, 1866  Fort Phil Kearny was built several miles from a supply of wood.  This made it necessary for soldiers to accompany woodcutters when they went out to the timber.  On a bitter cold day, Captain Fetterman took a detachment of cavalry and infantry to relieve a small detail with the woodcutters.  Fetterman once boasted that he could ride through the entire Sioux nation with fifty men.  He had specific orders not to go beyond Lodge Trail Ridge where his troop would be out of sight of the fort.  Fetterman was familiar with the Indians’ decoy trick.  Nevertheless, when Crazy Horse appeared with a small band of warriors, they succeeded in luring Fetterman away from the direction of the woodcutters.  Crazy Horse pretended to have trouble with his horse and would often dismount and check his horse’s hoof, keeping out of rifle range.  Once when soldiers lagged too far behind, he stopped, built a fire and warmed his hands over it.  Crazy Horse acted like he was going to surrender, but when soldiers came, he sprang on his pony and dashed over the crest of Lodge Trail Ridge into the valley beyond.  At a signal, waiting Lakota sprang from the brush.  In a short time, all the soldiers were dead.  In the fight, Crazy Horse found Lone Bear, a childhood friend, wounded and partly frozen, who died in Crazy Horse’s arms.

Due to the numerous wars and raids, seeing many people killed, greatly troubled Crazy Horse.  Horn Chips began the Cleansing Ceremony to purify a person having “blood on his hands”. A tourniquet with a bound white and black stone was placed around the head of Crazy Horse, and when the blood vessels swelled, a buffalo horn skewer poked the vein to collect blood for a cleansing offering (p. 96-97).

March 1, 1868  Spring found Crazy Horse back on the North Platte River engaging in small raids on whites.  With him were his brother and Little Big Man, an old friend.  During one raid Crazy Horse and 70 Lakota Sioux came upon the Horseshoe Ranch stagecoach station.  Immediately they were fired upon, two Lakota were killed, and several others wounded.  The warriors set fire to the station, but the personnel crawled through a secret tunnel to a ranch building and escaped by horseback.  Crazy Horse’s band easily caught up with the escapees and fired on them.  The whites fought back fiercely and soon only four of them were left and surrounded.  Crazy Horse said there had been enough fighting and he made the sign for peace, approaching the whites.  Lighting his pipe, he offered it to them; they accepted.  They told Crazy Horse about goods they had hidden and said he could have them, if he let them go.  The whites did not cower or show fear.  Impressed by their determination and bravery, Crazy Horse agreed to their proposal.

July, 1868  For a year, a stalemate existed between the Indians and the US government.  The Indians would not sign a treaty until the whites abandoned the forts along the Bozeman Trail.  Reluctantly, the whites concluded the time had come to concede to Indian terms.  This is the only time the Indians won an agreement on their terms.  The so-called “Red Cloud’s War” was won by the Lakota.

An order went out to abandon the forts.  After the soldiers left Fort Smith, Crazy Horse, Red Cloud, and other warriors burned it to the ground.

October, 1868  At a council by Bear Butte, the Indians decided to designate a spokes-person and empower him to sign treaties on their behalf.  Red Cloud was appointed and given the title of Treaty-Chief.   Horn Chips fashioned a special buckskin-bound, round stone for Red Cloud, tied to the prayer peace pipe of the chief.

November,  1868  Now that the Bozeman Trail forts had been abandoned, Red Cloud signed the government’s treaty, but he did not fully understand its ramifications.  Government officials deliberately avoided explaining the provisions for the establishment of the reservation system.

Summer, 1869  Because Red Cloud signed the treaty, most Lakota went about their lives as before the troubles with whites.  Crazy Horse and He Dog organized a large war party to set off toward the Big Horn Mountains looking for their Crow enemies.  Crazy Horse led an assault and drove the Crow back to camp and, after a week of fighting, the Oglala Lakota celebrated their great victory.  For two years they lived happily, as they had before the coming of the white men.

Both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail were told to go to a reservation.  Red Cloud did not comply, but Spotted Tail did, moving his people onto the Whetstone Agency Reservation on the Missouri.  By 1870, Spotted Tail’s people had been living on the reservation for almost two years.  But they were not happy there, away from their traditional home.

Eventually, both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail wanted permission to meet with the President in Washington.  Spotted Tail wanted permission to move his agency to the White River—familiar country where his people would feel at home (today’s Rosebud Indian Reservation).  Red Cloud wanted to communicate his distress and what he thought where provisions of the 1868 treaty were not carried out.  He also wanted permission to trade at Fort Laramie and there establish his own agency.

In the spring of 1870, the government arranged for both men to travel to Washington.  To safeguard Chief Red Cloud, his supporters made a Leadership Shirt for him with each supporter donating a lock of hair, attached to the buckskin shirt.  It was painted at the top with blue ochre, representing the power of the sky and the bottom with yellow ochre as the power of the earth.  Beaded hail spots were to protect him from bullets.  (This Leadership Shirt is now in the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum in Wyoming).

After the trip, Spotted Tail eventually got what he wanted; Red Cloud did not.  In disgust, Red Cloud insisted that he be taken home.  On the way, at the Cooper Institute in New York City, Red Cloud made an impassioned speech to a group of Indian-cause sympathizers.  His new friends rallied to his aid, making an uproar that the government eventually listened.  Red Cloud received an agency near the North Platte River, close to Fort Laramie, where he and his people remained for two years.

Summer, 1870  Crazy Horse’s people were camped near No Water’s people at Rawhide Buttes (SW of today’s Lusk, Wyoming).  Crazy Horse had not yet married due to his previous attention on the constant fighting with whites heading West and the Bozeman Trail embargo.  The time of peace had come, and Crazy Horse began an interest in Black Buffalo Woman, niece of Red Cloud, but she had been given to No Water as a wife.

 One morning, those in camp went in their morning tradition to wash in a stream, women one direction, men another.  Crazy Horse noticed from a hill above the river that Black Buffalo Buffalo Woman below him was holding a spider effigy.  The spider, called “Iktomi”, was often sought for its Wisdom.  Crazy Horse knew the only person making such an amulet was Horn Chips, his Spiritual Advisor.  Upon questioning, Chips replied to Crazy Horse that Black Buffalo Woman was having trouble with No Water and was seeking his advice through his spider effigy.  Horn Chips said Crazy Horse only thought about fighting and needed a love in his life.  Then Chips asked Black Buffalo Woman to be a Keeper of the Pipe in his Night Ceremonies which he and Crazy Horse used to keep medicines of Crazy Horse effective.  Woptuha cleverly conducted this plan to allow the couple to be together nightly without the husband, No Water becoming suspicious.  In Lakota practice, married women should not talk or look at a man so spend time working at the back of tipis, away from men.  As time progressed, Chips made love medicines, many of Ear Stones that Black Buffalo Woman tied behind her left ear, hidden from view by No Water.  Some other love medicines for her were small rawhide shields with sandwiched snake or turtle rawhide cut-outs, only seen if held to the sun (p. 62).  Chips used ancient symbols in his medicines for love when an elk figure represented a man’s sexual prowess, since a bull elk can call a female miles away.  A turtle represented a woman because its shell had segments for the months of the Sioux year.  He also used a hare for a woman as it was to bring fertility.

Horn Chips turned his attention, now that the turbulent war years abated, to make buckskin cut-outs of 405 creatures of power.  He believed, whether it was tiny as a wasp or huge like a buffalo, each had power which he could use.  He also made rawhide cutouts of 85 plants for healing.  Woptuha believed that a harvested herb/plant would not be effective for healing unless a corresponding plant effigy was called upon with a tobacco offering (p. 11). 

Crazy Horse was concerned about many dangers, beyond war, so Horn Chips made various rawhide figures such as a tree, cave, and mountain people that wherever Crazy Horse went, he would be safe (p. 55-56).  In winter, small, 18-inch Wiwila could not help, being frozen in water, so Chips fashioned a buckskin Sasquatch or Big Foot to help rescue Crazy Horse in the cold of winter (p. 53-54).

News came that Chief Red Cloud was going to Washington to talk with the President.  Many Lakota left the camp of Crazy Horse to see Red Cloud, who was a hero by winning the so-called “Red Cloud’s War” by closing the Bozeman Trail to the Montana gold fields.  No Water left camp with about 500 Lakota to see Red Cloud depart for Washington, so Crazy Horse’s village was almost empty.  When Horn Chips learned that No Water would be gone for some time to Fort Fetterman, he fashioned love medicines for the couple, an aroused elk for the love of Crazy Horse toward Black Buffalo Woman; a turtle for Crazy Horse to demonstrate her love for him (p. 60).  Additionally, there was a charm to protect Crazy Horse if the husband caught the couple.  Also, an amulet was made of an aroused horse, carrying a peace pipe and a turtle.  The excuse for leaving the village was that Crazy Horse, Black Buffalo Woman and a few followers were going to war against the Shoshone.

With protective medicines, Black Buffalo Woman left her three children with relatives and rode proudly away with her lover.  It was the right of a Sioux woman to leave her husband, if she was not happy with him, especially if he mistreated her.  A Lakota husband should honor this separation, but No Water resented taking his wife, considered one of the prettiest Lakota women.  Additionally, No Water was jealous of Crazy Horse’s popularity, as a successful war leader, plus Crazy Horse received a Leadership Shirt from his people, while No Water was passed over for this honor.  Crazy Horse was about 31 years old, as was Black Buffalo Woman.

No Water’s friends sent word to him about his wife and Crazy Horse eloping.   It took two days to find the couple in a double tipi.  The front was not fully pinned, allowing a view into the lodge.  There were five men plus their wives at the rear of the tipi, with a fire in the middle offering a little light.  At the center back was Crazy Horse, as the guest of honor, with seven-foot-tall Touch-the-Clouds, as the host.

No Water had borrowed from Bad Heart Bull a .41 breechloading Derringer, a single shot pistol which was an inaccurate weapon, due to its short barrel. It was likely obtained from an attack on an emigrant group heading to California where Derringers were in demand by gamblers and ladies of the evening.  No Water, peered into the tipi, saw the number of people and realized he needed to get next to Crazy Horse to kill him.  As No Water entered the opened tipi, he had the trigger cocked.  Seeing the danger as his enemy approached, Crazy Horse rose to grab his knife to strike No Water.  Little Big Man restrained the arm of Crazy Horse.  (Horn Chips had predicted he would be killed when Crazy Horse’s arm was held twice by his own people).  Touch-the-Cloud reached for the pistol as No Water fired.  According to the Chips family, the ball struck the left side of Crazy Horse’s face and broke the lower canine tooth, deflected to loosen top back teeth, removed a portion of his jaw to lodge in front of the back molar before Crazy Horse fell unconscious.  Immediately, No Water fled on a mule.  All thought Crazy Horse was dead.  Chips was credited that this point-blank shot into Crazy Horse’s face did not kill him, due to an earlier protective stone given him.  This type of Derringer killed Abraham Lincoln.

The subsequent healing of Crazy Horse was conducted using bear medicine, a large rubbing stone and echinacea root placed next to the gum to numb Crazy Horse’s toothache.  He drank echinacea tea to deter infection.  Several medicines were given to heal the wound during the months ahead.  Bear effigies were made for healing, since a bear is difficult to kill, because according to Lakota, it could heal its own wounds.  A talisman of an open right hand holding an echinacea flower beside a head-down horse was fashioned to recover Crazy Horse (p.77). 

The firing of a black powder Derringer produces a large flash, considerable smoke, and much noise.  Following the shooting, Crazy Horse became deaf in his left ear.  Chips made an effigy snake-tail bundle for wearing inside the left ear of Crazy Horse to cure deafness.  The hearing of Crazy Horse returned weeks later.

Effigies were made showing Crazy Horse to the spirits for their help representing before and after the shooting.  One figure shows Crazy Horse as a successful warrior holding his bow, knife, and war whistle.  He is shown wearing buckskin leggings with narrow fringe, just as in his vision.  Another cut-out is Crazy Horse after the shooting, showing his left face swollen and holding no weapons, being too ill to be a warrior (p.78).

July, 1870  Black Buffalo Woman returned to No Water with a promise that he not mistreat her. She lived apart from No Water and No Water took another wife.  Although No Water intended to kill Crazy Horse, now to make amends and keep peace in the Lakota camp, No Water gave three fine ponies to Crazy Horse.  According to custom, this ended the matter, but it did nothing to change Crazy Horse’s dislike for No Water. 

Crazy Horse was troubled.  He went off to hunt, relax and clear his mind.  He asked He Dog to accompany him.  When he returned, he found he had been stripped of the honor of a Shirt Wearer.  It was deemed that, with the Black Buffalo Woman incident, he had disrupted the peace of the people.  After this, the Lakota Sioux discontinued the practice of choosing a Shirt Wearer.

Later, Black Buffalo Woman had a light-skinned daughter, which most assumed to be the child of Crazy Horse.  Horn Chips made a mummy-shaped effigy for the baby, although Crazy Horse could not be part of the child’s life (p.65).

August, 1870  While Crazy Horse was hunting on the Yellowstone, his brother Little Hawk joined a war party in Snake country.  When Crazy Horse returned, he learned that Little Hawk had been killed, not by a Snake enemy, but by a white miner.  Due to a fast getaway, Little Hawk’s companions had been unable to recover his body.

September, 1870   A Lakota woman in camp, who was about the same age as Crazy Horse, had not yet married.  Her name was Black Shawl, the sister of Red Feather, one of Crazy Horse’s close friends.  Both Red Feather and He Dog encouraged Crazy Horse to take Black Shawl for his wife.  With little fanfare, Black Shawl moved into Crazy Horse’s lodge as his wife.

Shortly after their marriage, Crazy Horse and Black Shawl traveled to Holy Road in Snake country to look for Little Hawk’s remains.  When they found the body, they wrapped it in a blanket and laid it on a scaffold.

October, 1870  Crazy Horse had more than his share of troubles in recent months.  With Hump, he led a war party far into Snake country.  When they met the Snake at Badwater Creek, a steady cold rain turned the ground to ankle-deep muck, so their horses had trouble maneuvering.  As they encountered the well-armed Snake, they retreated, and Hump was killed.  The Snakes were so close that the body of his friend could not be retrieved.

Autumn, 1871  A daughter was born to Black Shawl and Crazy Horse.  Believing she would grow up to have great powers, Crazy Horse named her They-Are-Afraid-of-Her.  This put aside the grief for the loss of Little Hawk and Hump as Crazy Horse spent much time playing with his daughter.

Summer, 1872  The annual council and Sun Dance took place at a camp by the Yellowstone River.  As was his custom, Crazy Horse did not participate in the dance.  At the gathering, he renewed his friendship with Sitting Bull.  They were of the mind that neither wanted to be near the whites.  They only wanted to be left alone and were prepared to fight for their land. 

For Sitting Bull’s Sun Dance, Horn Chips made buffalo hair-on wrist and leg wraps for the participants, instead of using sage.

August 4, 1873  General George Armstrong Custer attacked Black Kettle’s peaceful village of Cheyenne camped near the Washita River.  Many of the Cheyenne rode north to join Crazy Horse.  Some were with Crazy Horse as he rode to scout the railroad crew for the Northern Pacific Railway.  Crazy Horse had over three hundred warriors, but with few guns they could not effectively challenge Custer’s troops that guarded surveyors.  Crazy Horse’s decoy trick to lure soldiers into an ambush did not work since some warriors fired too soon to alert the cavalry and spoil the attack.

Winter 1873-1874  Crazy Horse again had a winter camp on the Powder River in today’s Wyoming.  It was a bad time for him and his people.  Black Shawl, his wife, was sick and coughed much of the time with tuberculosis.  The people had little to eat and there were fewer buffalo since white buffalo hunters had killed buffalo for hides and tongues.  Also, the Lakota learned that Red Cloud’s agency had been moved north from the North Platte River to the White River.  This meant many whites would be bringing supplies to the agency to travel illegally over Indian lands.

February, 1874  Troubled by many things, Crazy Horse sought a vision.  He went up a high point near the Little Bighorn River near the later Little Bighorn Battle.  In his quest, he did not seek preparation from Horn Chips to have a buffalo skull with him.  On the hill there came a vision of horses, but Chips was upset for the hasty attempt at a vision without his help.  Horn Chips then made seven horse effigies with attached hair of Crazy Horse to spare the Thunder Being from causing trouble for Crazy Horse (p. 22).

Spring, 1874  When the weather improved, Crazy Horse and his warriors went off again to fight the Crow Indians.  When they returned, the camp had been moved.  They had no trouble finding the new camp since their people had sticks on the ground pointing the way to go.  On arrival, there were no shouts of greeting; silence pervaded the camp.  Worm, Crazy Horse’s father, gently told his son that his daughter had died.  The death of his beloved child filled Crazy Horse with inconsolable grief and intensified his anger toward white people.  They-Are-Afraid-of-Her died of whooping cough, a new disease brought by whites.

Crazy Horse traveled back many miles to his daughter’s death scaffold.  He climbed it and held the tiny banket-wrapped burial bundle for three days and nights, neither eating nor sleeping.  When he returned to camp, he was even more withdrawn than usual.  He had always been quiet, but now he rarely spoke.  This would be his mood for the rest of his life.

May, 1874  Warriors of Crazy Horse noticed their leader was more reckless in battle, almost as though he was seeking death.  He often went out alone to raid, harass and kill whites.

1874   For years it was known that there was gold in the Paha Sapa (Black Hills) of western South Dakota.  With pressure mounting, General Sherman and General Sheridan on June 8, 1874, authorized Colonel Custer to lead an expedition into the Black Hills as a reconnaissance of the area.  Equipped with 11 wagons, 3 Gatling guns, 16-member mounted band and an expedition of about 1,000 armed men, they entered the Paha Sapa.  The Lakota could only watch as this huge number of people and equipment came into their territory.

Some gold was found by Custer’s miners and news went out on August 3, 1874, to Fort Laramie.  The report was telegraphed and picked up by Eastern newspapers and sensationalized reporting gold was in the grass roots.  Within days, mining parties headed out for the Black Hills, although this would be a violation of the treaty.  Crazy Horse attacked gold-seekers alone to seek and scare those coming to the Black Hills.  In April, Crazy Horse had silently ambushed the Metz group as they traveled the Red Canyon Road, near present day Edgemont, SD.  The husband, wife and driver were killed, along with their black cook, found with an arrow in her back.

September 4, 1875  Crazy Horse’s raids did not stop the miners; the hills were swarming with them.  Government officials summoned Red Cloud and Spotted Tail to Washington to clear up the misunderstanding about the Black Hills.  They returned with news the government wanted to purchase the Black Hills from the Indians.

On September 4, government commissioners arrived at the Red Cloud Agency.  Crazy Horse dispatched his delegation, but did not attend, keeping up his usual practice of not associating with whites.  Crazy Horse and his delegation threatened to kill the commissioners, saying the Black Hills were not for sale.

The commissioners left a few days later without reaching any agreement, even though Red Cloud and Spotted Tail offered to sell the Black Hills for seven million dollars.  The commissioners concluded that the Indians should be taught a lesson.

February, 1876  In Washington, officials wanted control of the Black Hills and President Ulysses Grant ordered all non-agency Indians after his December 6 proclamation, to move to agencies by the end of January.  Messengers carried the news to all Indian bands in the north.  Crazy Horse and many Lakota did not think the order applied to them.  He Dog decided to obey the order, a decision he knew would upset Crazy Horse.

March 17, 1876  He Dog and his people left Crazy Horse’s camp to join Two Moons and his Cheyenne at the agency.  General George Crook, along with a force of eight hundred men, went against Indians not at agencies.  At dawn, Crook sent Colonel Reynold to attack Crazy Horse’s village.  Many Lakota escaped, but many Indian horses were captured.  Indian tipis and their contents were burned.  Indians who planned to go onto reservations, changed their mind, due to the attack by Reynolds.  Instead, the chiefs called a war council.

April 3-8, 1876  Oglala Lakota knew to maintain their freedom they must fight together.  They needed what they had never had before, one chief to lead all the people.  Only one among them commanded this level of respect—Crazy Horse, with his powerful medicine.

The Lakota Sioux prepared for a great celebration.  They erected sweat lodges and two large ceremonial tipis to make Crazy Horse their new leader and a war council was to be held.  Indians from far and near gathered to attend the council.  Thousands of agency Indians left to join Crazy Horse, one of them was Red Cloud’s own son.

June 5-7, 1876  Crazy Horse had never taken part in a Sun Dance and again he did not.  The most note-worthy participant was Sitting Bull.  He hoped to have a vision during the dance.  Sitting Bull prayed to Wakan Tanka (“Large Holy One”), the Great Spirit.  He vowed to give one hundred pieces of his flesh as an appeasing to foretell the future of the Lakota people.  After staring at the sun for two days without food and water, a vision came to him.  He saw soldiers falling from the sky, upside down, into a large Indian encampment.  This was interpreted to mean the soldiers would attack the camp.  A great battle would take place and the Indians would be victorious. 

Horn Chips, as well-known and powerful medicine man, was asked to conduct his Night or Yuwipi Ceremony to foretell the future.  At night a session was conducted and the entire sky lit up.  He was told there would be a great victory if the major Heyoka dreamers would work together, rather than separately seek glory.  There had been a comradery among the Contraries, all who had a vision of Thunder and Lightning from the Thunder Being.  This close-knit group consisted of Crazy Horse, Gall, Rain-in-the-Face and Chips.  A medicine piece was made by Chips showing all three chiefs tethered together to succeed (p. 102).

June 15, 1876  With the promised victory from Sitting Bull , the Indians made their way to Ash Creek which flowed west from Wolf Mountain.  Normally, the Lakota broke into smaller camps to allow grass for their large horse herds, but many realized this might be their last chance to be together, so they stayed as one large camp with a horse herd likely of 5,000 ponies.

At a council, tribal leaders asked Crazy Horse to lead warriors in battle.  He agreed—but only if they fought differently from the usual way of touching an enemy for counting coup and showing bravery through reckless deeds.  It would be a battle for killing.

June 17, 1876  General Crook’s detachment stopped to rest at eight o’clock in the morning in the valley of the Rosebud River, not far from its headwaters.  With a war party of some fifteen hundred Lakota and Cheyenne warriors, Crazy Horse rode to attack Crook’s column as it prepared to move down the river.   

(Francis White Lance told me that his grandfather, Chief White Lance, said being with Crazy Horse and his protection effigies gave a warrior courage, ending “jitters” of getting hurt or killed in battle.)  Crazy Horse appeared invincible wearing an Ear Stone behind his left ear, Arm Stone on a sling over his neck held in place over his heart on his left side, a Spirit Stone inside his left ear to hear the spirits and breechclout with attached medicine stones.  His horse had a tied Forelock Stone and an Ear Stone behind its left ear, Lightning streak on the horse’s legs and its body covered with mole dust.    Plus, Crazy Horse’s face and chest were painted with Hail dots and Lightning streaks.

Crazy Horse urged his warriors to attack Crook’s detachment saying: “Be strong!  Brave hearts to the front; weak hearts to the rear!  This is as good a day to die as any day!”

The battle raged all day on the hills and in the valley.  Eventually the Indian attack waned when they began to run out of ammunition.  The next day, having incurred considerable casualties and the loss of many supplies and horses, Crook retreated south to Good Creek.  Neither side gained nor lost decisively, but the battle was significant since it was the first time Lakota had fought as a single, cohesive force.  It was Crazy Horse’s leadership that had united them (p.101). 

June 18, 1876  The Indians made camp in the valley of the Little Bighorn River, where they hoped to find a plentiful supply of game and more grass for the ponies.  The villages of the various Sioux bands, along with some Cheyenne, extended for three miles along the west bank of the river.  Having used up much of the scanty ammunition supply in the fight on the Rosebud, the warriors sent older boys back to glean the battlefield for scattered ammunition, empty cartridges, bits of lead, jammed guns that had been cast aside, and arrows or arrowheads—anything they could use in the next battle.  They knew there would be one.  The recent fight on the Rosebud had not fulfilled Sitting Bull’s vision of soldiers falling into camp.  This Battle of the Rosebud was fought only eight days and thirty miles from the later Battle of the Little Bighorn.

June 25, 1876  (This day, June 25th, is celebrated as a holiday on the Pine Ridge Reservation.)  Custer moved quickly to reach the large Indian village one day before other cavalry came, so he might receive the full glory of a victory.  Orders instructed Custer to arrive the following day under the command of Terry and Gibbon in a pincher-movement to converge and trap the Indians.  Custer carried news reporters with him since, if he pulled out a victory by the centennial celebration on July 4th, he was candidate for the Democratic Convention and nominated for President of the United States.  General Custer originally was removed from this military campaign, due to negative comments he made about the President’s Indian policy.  But he eventually talked his way into joining Terry in the campaign. 

Rain-in-the-Face stated if Crook’s large force had not been halted to retreat to Wyoming, the Batttle of the Little Bighorn would not have occurred, realizing it impossible for Indian forces to face the converging armies of Crook, Terry and Gibbon.

The Indian camp spread three miles along the Little Bighorn River with an estimated 7,000 people and 1,800 warriors.  Custer was alerted by his Indian scouts the village ahead was extremely large.  General Custer decided not to wait until the following day when Terry and Gibbon should arrive.  About 3:00 in the afternoon he split his command into three groups to divide the Indian camp.  Benteen went to the far end of the camp with 125 troopers, Reno attacked the center of the village with 140 men and Custer charged the lower camp with his 215 soldiers.  Custer’s usual plan was to surround escaping women and children which would stop warriors from shooting at soldiers, lest family members be killed.  Then the Indians would surrender to him.

When Reno began the first phase of the attack by crossing the Little Bighorn, the village went into confusion.  Chips was unable to perform his customary ritual of preparing Crazy Horse for battle.  Crazy Horse was methodical as he prepared for battle and was not rushed, even with the sound of gunfire.  Omitting any part of the process would void his protective powers.  Crazy Horse’s medicines were many, causing Lakota to say his horse tired from all the powerful medicine powers it carried.  The medicines worn by Crazy Horse were:

A stone bundle worn in the left ear to listen to spirits,

An ear stone tied to a lock of hair, behind his left ear,

A stone on a sling under his left arm to protect his heart.,

A protective stone on his knife case,

A medicine pouch carried on his left side to hold amulets,

A bow/quiver set with medicine bow and arrows, plus an outside case with tied effigies,

A yellow-boy rifle with medicines tied near the trigger and barrel (p. 47),

A Heyoka breechclout with protective stones and locks of white horsehair,

A short-handle, white quartz war club, tucked in his g-string belt,

Crazy Horse’s war horse had protection with two stones, one tied into its forelock and another tied behind its left ear, in the mane.  (The forelock medicine was to help his pinto horse see danger; the ear stone to hear danger.)

There was a dusting of both horse and Crazy Horse with mole dust, representing the power of the Underworld.  The placing of a wavy line on the horse’s left hip represented a snake to protect the horse using the power of the Thunder Being.  A rawhide tube was blown of a mixture of spotted eagle’s heart and scarlet gaura into his horse’s nose for energy and endurance.  Crazy Horse used earth colors to apply Lightning and Hail dots on his face and chest.  To fulfill the medicine procedures was said to take twenty minutes (p. 104).

2:45 p.m. Scouts brought word of a large dust cloud to the southeast.  It could only mean a sizable body of fast-moving cavalry.  Runners spread the word throughout the camp.

3:00  By the time Crazy Horse had his medicines in place, Major Marcus Reno’s troops had arrived and were attacking.  Crazy Horse noticed the soldiers’ guns were jamming.  He seized the opportunity created by reduced firing to lead a charge.  The soldiers’ line was broken, and they were forced to fall back into woods, beside the river.  When the soldiers reached the shelter of trees, they dismounted, then, in utter confusion, remounted and began a swift, disorganized retreat past Indian warriors, toward the river, and up steep bluffs on the other side.  The Indians swept upon the soldiers, firing guns and arrows, knocking many soldiers from saddles with war clubs.

An Indian messenger arrived in camp saying Custer was coming over a ridge on the other side of the river, farther downstream.  He had five cavalry companies.  Crazy Horse galloped back through the camp, mounted a fresh pony and rallied more warriors to ride downriver to meet this new threat.

4:00  Custer was looking for a place to cross the Little Bighorn to directly attack the Indian camp.  The water was deep and horses would need to swim, so a shallow spot was sought.  Custer and the rest of his men reached the top of a small hill.  He intended to rally his troops there and make a stand.  He sent a message to Benteen to come quickly and bring the pack of ammunition.  As Custer topped the hill, Crazy Horse and his warrior charged up a ravine behind him, cutting off retreat.  Crazy Horse urged warriors with the Lakota battle cry “Hoka hey!” (“It is a good day to die!”)

4:45  Custer and his remaining men shot their horses and barricaded behind their dead animals.  The fighting was close and heavy.  When the soldiers’ guns jammed or ran out of ammunition, the Indians moved in with clubs, spears and shot arrows.  One-by-one the soldiers fell until none were left alive.

Some Indians accounts say Custer was shot at the river and his soldiers brought him to the top of the hill.  Most think that Custer died at the top of the hill, but Indians say it was difficult with all the smoke from guns and dust from the horses to tell where everyone was.  Some soldiers accidentally shot other soldiers; Indians likewise killed fellow warriors during the confusion.

5:00 p.m.  The Indians noticed Captain Benteen and remnants of Reno’s troop advancing down the ridge from the south.  The Indians left the hill to engage the new group.  They drove them down the ridge where the soldiers took a defensive position around a small depression.  All through the night and into the morning, Indians harassed the soldiers, doing their best to keep them away from the river and the water they desperately needed from this hot day of intensive fighting.

The Indians ended the engagement when word came that more soldiers were marching down the Bighorn River from the Yellowstone.  This was Terry’s command, who was part of the pincher plan.  The prairie was set ablaze by the Indians when they left.  Sitting Bull and other Lakota fled to Canada, knowing the government would be sending many soldiers to put all the Sioux onto reservations.

Terry and his troops arrived to be told by Reno and Benteen about the battle.  Dead soldiers and horses were buried; wounded soldiers were taken to a steamboat for treatment.  News of the defeat took a while to travel, but the country was shocked that Custer and his 261 men were killed in the wilds of Montana.  It was at a time the centennial of the Declaration of Independence was to be celebrated on July 4, 1876.  This was the day that Custer planned to be instilled as a Democratic candidate running for the Presidency.

The wife of Custer, Libby, was told by Rain-in-the-Face of her husband’s death.  It was said that the Indians so admired the bravery of George, they spared his body.  This was said to console her, but the body was riddled with arrows and his ears poked out by Indian women.  It was the custom of Lakota to take the hair of a great warrior and make it into a bundle where the courage of the deceased could be used.  As it was held, the deceased was in the power of the bundle owner.  Horn Chips took hair from Custer and made four bundles with his hair to capture his power.  The hair was short, since Libby had a nightmare that Custer would be recognized by his long, blonde hair, so had his hair cut.  The unbleached hair, hidden from the sun under Custer’s hat was reddish-brown (p. 108).

Lakota women scanned the battlefield to retrieve articles.  Picked items mostly were guns and leather.  Horn Chips collected, or was given in payment for spiritual help, a saber and bent bugle.  Only three officers had sabers, since Custer had the soldiers remove their sabers a day before the battle to lighten their load and to make less noise.  The bugle was bent when the trumpeter was shot off his horse.

August, 1876  As summer waned, Crazy Horse and his people moved northeast until they reached the vicinity of the Little Missouri River , where they established a camp.  Many of the agency Indians who had been with Crazy Horse headed back to the agencies for the winter.  Among them were Iron Plume and his band, who planned to rejoin Spotted Tail at his agency.

September 9, 1876  A small detachment led by Captain Arison Mills attacked Iron Plume’s people while they were camped at Slim Buttes in Dakota Territory.  The Indians dispatched a runner to Crazy Horse for help.  By the time Crazy Horse got to Slim Buttes, Crook and his troops had reinforced Mill’s detachment.  As Indians were greatly outnumbered and short of weapons and ammunition, Crazy Horse soon withdrew his warriors.  The soldiers took many captives.  Iron Plume was killed in the battle.

November, 1876  The Black Hills were sold.  Red Cloud and Spotted Tail signed them away.  Because the government had stopped food rations to the starving Indians, both chiefs knew they had no choice but to sign if their people were to survive.

December, 1876  Like other commanders, Colonel Miles aggressively pursued the Indians that winter.  Miles wanted Crazy Horse to surrender to him and no one else.  In December he sent one of his Indian scouts to ask Crazy Horse to surrender.  Crazy Horse had pondered some time about what course he should follow.  Hunting was bad, so food was short in supply.  He was tired of fighting and had little ammunition for warfare, so Crazy Horse sent eight sub-chiefs under a white flag to meet Miles.  As the Indians approached, Miles’s Crow scouts attacked and killed five of them.  Miles was furious and his scouts’ actions destroyed any chance that Crazy Horse would surrender.

February, 1877  Crook sent one of Crazy Horse’s own people, Spotted Tail, his uncle to entice Crazy Horse to surrender.  When Spotted Tail arrived at Crazy Horse’s camp, he was not there.  Crazy Horse left a message for Spotted Tail that he and his people would come in the Red Cloud Agency, as soon as the weather was more favorable.

May 6, 1877  Crazy Horse moved his village closer to Camp Robinson on the fifth of May.  The next day, Crazy Horse led his people down Dead Soldier Creek to surrender.  All were resplendent in their finest clothes, except for Crazy Horse, dressed in his usual plain buckskin shirt and blue leggings.  He Dog, Big Road and Little Big Man rode beside him.  Horn Chips also came in with Crazy Horse (p. 111).

The whites from Camp Robinson and twenty thousand Indians from nearby agencies gathered to watch the surrender.  Those with Crazy Horse—eight hundred people with one hundred forty-five lodges and seventeen hundred ponies—made a colorful procession two miles long.  There was no air of defeat to hang over the parade, causing one army officer to remark angrily.  “By ---, this is a triumphal march—not a surrender!”

Lieutenant William Clark had been delegated to escort Crazy Horse.  When they met, Crazy Horse dismounted.  He extended his left hand to Clark and said, “Kola”—the Lakota word for friend—I shake with hand because my heart (as all his medicines) is on this side.  I want this peace to last forever”.

Crazy Horse had no gifts or warbonnet to give Clark, as was the Lakota custom, so He Dog removed his warbonnet and scalp shirt and gave them to Crazy Horse, who presented them to Clark.  Clark accepted them graciously.  Then he quietly informed Crazy Horse that all guns would have to be surrendered, but this could wait until after the women had raised the lodges and were settled.

Later all the ponies were taken, weapons and sacred items like pipes and pipe bags.  All these were confiscated and burned in a large pile.  Jesuits asked Horn Chips to give up his sacred effigies, knowing he was a medicine man.  Chips reluctantly gave up many Yuwipi amulets, but secretly was able to hide much of his medicine articles.  Jesuits took the confiscated effigies taken from Chips to Holy Rosary Church on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  They were stored in the furnace room to be burned when the furnace was used in the winter.

The army had all the hostile Lakota contained on reservation lands except for Sitting Bull, who fled with his people to Canada.

Summer, 1877  Crazy Horse often took his pipe and smoked and reflected in solitude on top of Crow Butte.  He also hoped for a vision that would tell him what the future held for his people.  During their stay at the fort, Chips made protective medicine to assist the “psyche” of Crazy Horse.  Various medicine effigies of Iktomi or Spider were made to impart wisdom to Crazy Horse.  The spider was believed to be wiser than any animal; smart enough to make a web that wind, rain and bullets could not hurt.  The spider figure would aid Crazy Horse, but also affect the minds of soldiers to his advantage.  This “mind power” could be channeled to Crazy Horse through a spider effigy (p. 10).

While at Fort Robinson, Crazy Horse thought he would be killed, but was confident in his return to life, if conditions were met.  Chips and/or Crazy Horse were curious about the spiritual world and learned from Father DeSmet, a Jesuit priest, about Jesus’ resurrection after three days of death.  Jesus, like Crazy Horse, was killed by his own people, after his arms were held.  The story of Jesus caused Crazy Horse to give instructions that, when he died, his body should be painted red and placed in water.  After three days, spirit Water People, called Wiwila or Little People, would restore his life.  Crazy Horse encountered Wiwila in his “Man from the Lake” vision (p. 113).

At Fort Robinson, Chips advised Crazy Horse to wear his hair differently, so he could carry a protective stone without it being detected by a jealous Lakota or soldier.  In battles Crazy Hose wore his hair loose, but otherwise wore his hair braided.  Now, at the fort, Crazy Horse wore his long hair tied in a bun at the back of the head, secured with an otter wrap.  Inside this bun a secret medicine stone was worn for protection (p. 114).

Some of Crazy Horse’s captors became friendly with him.  They admired him not only for his simple dignity and pleasant demeanor, but also his earlier leadership in fighting, as many adversaries do after battles are done.  Army officers began to talk about making Crazy Horse head chief of all the Oglala.  This, and hero worship of Crazy Horse among the Oglala and Brule’, fanned jealousy of both Red Cloud and Spotted Tail.  The boredom of being penned up at the agency, with nothing to do, caused people to seek Crazy Horse’s leadership.  Crook developed a friendship of sorts with Crazy Horse.  Crook promised Crazy Horse his own agency, but never had the authority to make such a promise.

Knowing Crazy Horse was getting restless, he was encouraged to take another wife since Black Shawl was sick much of the time.  He took a young wife, Nellie Laravie, daughter of a trader, who was part French.

September 4, 1877  Learning that he was to be arrested, Crazy Horse left his camp to take Black Shawl to stay with his parents at the Sotted Tail Agency, forty miles away.  When Clark heard Crazy Horse had left, he sent four hundred of Red Cloud’s agency Indians, led by Red Cloud himself and eight full cavalry companies, in pursuit.  Rumors flew that some of the Indians would try to kill Crazy Horse when they captured him.  Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses went along to ensure that Crazy Horse was brought in safely.

When Crazy Horse arrived at the Spotted Tail Agency, he met with the agent, Lieutenant Jesse Lee, Spotted Tail and his old friend Touch-the-Clouds.  He only wanted to live in peace at the Spotted Tail Agency—away from his enemies at Red Cloud’s Agency.  Spotted Tail agreed to let Crazy Horse live at the agency, but only if he would obey his uncle’s orders.  Lieutenant Lee, Sotted Tail and Touch-the-Clouds agreed to accompany Crazy Horse back to Camp Robinson to tell his side of the story.  When the thousand men sent to arrest Crazy Horse arrived, the leaders met and decided to take Crazy Horse back the next day.

September 5, 1877 at 5:30 p.m.  After traveling all day, Crazy Horse and the crowd arrived at Camp Robinson.  He was asked to wait in the adjutant’s office.  Crazy Horse made his way through the crowd of Indians who had gathered.  Lieutenant Lee went to confer with General Bradley at his residence across the parade ground.  Lee told the general he thought Crazy Hose had been wronged and he would like to see the matter cleared up.  Bradley brusquely said it was too late for explanations.  He ordered Lee to put Crazy Horse in the guardhouse for the night and tell him “Not a hair of his head should be harmed”.

6:00 p.m.  Lee told Crazy Horse it was too late for them to meet, but the general would see him in the morning.  Lee put Captain Kennington in charge of Crazy Horse, who would take him to a place to spend the night.  Kennington led Crazy Horse to the adjacent building and ushered him into a small room in the gloomy interior.  Seeing the grated window and prisoners in shackles, Crazy Horse realized this was a jail.

6:05 p.m.  In panic, Crazy Horse drew a knife from his clothing and bolted for the door.  He slashed at Kennington, but the captain fended off the blow with his sword.  Crazy Horse sprang through the doorway.  Outside, Little Big Man, now an agency policeman, grabbed his arms to restrain him.  Trying wildly to get away, Crazy Horse cut into Little Big Man’s wrist, making him lose his hold.  Other Indian police rushed at Crazy Horse to restrain him, as Kennington shouted, “Kill him!  Kill him!”

Private William Gentles, who had been on guard duty outside the jail, lunged at Crazy Horse with his bayonet, plunging it deep into his right side.  Crazy Horse sank to the ground. With a ragged sigh he said, “Let me go my friends, you have got me hurt enough”.  This fulfilled the prophecy of Horn Chips that his medicine wotawe would protect Crazy Hore in all his battles from injury, but would be hurt when his hands were held by his own people.  The two times his hands were held was when Crazy Horse grabbed his knife to stab No Water, which allowed Crazy Horse to be shot in the face and this second time was also by Little Big Man when Crazy Horse tried to escape from the jail. 

6:15 p.m.  A crowd of a thousand Indians from the nearby Red Cloud Agency several miles away, surrounded the body of Crazy Horse lying outside the guard house.  He Dog pushed his way through to the side of Crazy Horse.  Seeing his friend was badly hurt, he removed the red blanket he was wearing and tenderly covered Crazy Horse with it.  Touch-the-Clouds and Dr. McGillicuddy also came to Crazy Horse’s aid.  The doctor determined that the wound was fatal.  Permission was asked to take Crazy Horse to an Indian lodge.  When informed, General Bradley said the original order must be followed and to put Crazy Horse in the guardhouse.  After many conversations regarding putting Crazy Horse in the jail, Lee said doing that would cause many people to be killed.  There were nearby, thousands of Indians and not many soldiers.  There were enemies of Crazy Horse who were glad to see an end to him, which prevented a riot.

7:00 p.m.  Until midnight, Crazy Horse drifted in and out of consciousness throughout the evening, while his father and Touch-the-Clouds kept vigil.  Once he asked for Lieutenant Lee, and when he arrived, Crazy Horse grasped his hand and said, “My friend, I don’t blame you for this.  Had I listened to you, this trouble would not have happened.” Louis Bordeaux was present as an interpreter.  Crazy Horse said, “No white man is to blame for this.  I don’t blame the Indians.  I don’t wish to harm anybody but one person, he has escaped from me.”  Bordeaux knew he was referring to Little Big Man.

It was late, when Worm leaned close to catch Crazy Horse’s last whisper, “Ah, my father, I am bad hurt.  Tell the people not to depend on me anymore now.”

When Crazy Horse was gone, Touch-the-Clouds drew He Dog’s blanket over his friend’s face.  He rose, his great height almost reaching the ceiling and said, “The chief has gone above.”

September 6, 1877  The next morning, his grieving parents, assisted with help from Horn Chips, put Crazy Horse’s body on a travois and took it back to the Spotted Tail Agency, near their camp on Beaver Creek to Council Flats  (Kadlecek ranch, shown in TO KILL AN EAGLE).  On this forty-mile trip, a large crowd of Lakota followed.

As Crazy Horse in life wore medicine stones for protection, likewise in death various burial stone bundles were hastily prepared by Woptuha.  These medicine stones were tied on his moccasin feet, wrists, hair and behind his left ear, but no Heart Stone; that was for war.  His body was to be painted red, but instead red spots were put on his face.  There was haste preparing his body, hearing that there existed a bounty of $200 placed “on the head of Crazy Horse”.  Some feared his head would be taken.  In Indian belief, the way you departed earth was the way you would be in the afterlife.  The image of a headless Crazy Horse was a terrible thought. 

Chips prepared a Lowanpi ceremony inside a tipi at Council Flats and the spirit of Crazy Horse supposedly appeared, when called.  Chips removed four hair locks from the back of Crazy Horse’s head, added a stone and fashioned some to appear as a hawk’s head.  The red tail hawk was part of Crazy Horse’s vision to protect him forever.  Chips sent Lakota messengers in four directions to tell Indians that Chief Crazy Horse was not dead, but lives.  (Lakota still believe his spirit lives, so each summer hundreds of horseback riders conduct a Crazy Horse Ride.)

The body was wrapped in a robe, secured with five ties, and placed in the fork of an elm tree (p. 115-116).  Normally, the body would remain in this tree for a year to release the spirit.  In the case of Crazy Horse, the body was in a tree for a day and night before it was transferred an hour’s walk away, to a coffin scaffold built by the military.  This was by Camp Sheridan of Spotted Tail Agency.  In the coffin were many guns and items from the Little Bighorn, including money/coins looted from dead soldiers, according to Horn Chips, who supervised coffin preparation.

Chips and others reported they saw a hawk perched often on Crazy Horse’s coffin.  This was taken as a sign that Crazy Horse returned from the dead. 

Thousands of Lakota living on the Red Cloud and Spotted Tail agencies cost the government a large sum of money for their food rations.  The government planned to march all the Indians far east to the Ponca Agency.  There they were to be sent to Oklahoma Territory.  Before leaving, Chips and Worm took the corpse of Crazy Horse from a scarlet-draped coffin and headed with 4,000 Lakota to Ponca Agency for rations and annuities sent up the Missouri River.  About 7 miles into the journey, a group of 2,000 Lakota broke away and headed north where Red Cloud’s people spent the winter on today’s Pine Ridge Reservation.  Chips conducted Crazy Horse’s second burial during this break-away time.  The words of Horn Chips from a second interview recorded in THE DEATH OF CRAZY HORSE, pages 81 and 86-7, describe two burials:

“Chips buried his body, and he is the only person who knows where it is.  Crazy Horse was buried on the Beaver by the cliffs…The burial the first time near the cliffs was in a frame house (military coffin) lined with scarlet cloth…When we moved to the Missouri we took and unjointed the legs so as to get it into a small space, and Chips and Old Man Crazy Horse carried it to above the head of Wounded Knee (not on the creek), and buried it in the ground in a box.  Old Man Crazy Horse and Chips are the only ones who knew where it was buried in a box.”

This second burial of Crazy Horse consisted of his head and torso, plus disjointed limbs.  Another burial was planned for later because it was believed gold from the Little Bighorn was buried with the body.  Some Lakota were seeking this treasure.  The plan was for Worm to travel with a travois to the Rosebud Reservation, as a decoy where Lakota would think Crazy Horse’s parents were taking their son’s body.  This would allow Chips to depart later with Crazy Horse’s remains toward the remote Badlands.  Chips went from Potato Creek toward Eagle Nest Butte.  Effigies were to protect the body of Crazy Horse. (p.117).

Horn Chips chose to live at the corner of the Pine Ridge Reservation because he believed there was once a huge battle between the Above Ground creatures, Land Creatures and Below Ground creatures.  This area is rich with thousands of huge animal and sea creature fossils which appeared to have been in a battle.  (This area has supplied many museums with fossils.  The famous Sue Rex dinosaur came from this area.)  Into this unique area of prehistoric bones, Chips brought the leg, hand and foot bones of Crazy Horse.  The corpse had decayed during the time at Wounded Knee, where Chips had secretly placed the body into one of many crevices in the area, so originated the term “I buried my heart at Wounded Knee”.

Before Chips died in 1916, he asked to be buried in the Heisel Cemetery near Bear Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation, so he would be near Crazy Horse.  He gave direction to his sons, Charles Horn Chips and James Moves Camp, regarding the final burial of Crazy Horse.  He indicated the grave was on his land, which lies between Snake Butte and Eagle Nest Butte.  A burial effigy was made by Chips to aid his sons to identify the location of Crazy Horse’s burial.  Indicators on the effigy consists of an animal head tied along with two turtles.  The mummy is flat to represent the body of Crazy Horse, at the time of the third burial, which was mostly disintegrated.  These are references showing Crazy Horse was buried between prehistoric turtle shells, near a big fossil skull (p.118).