INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT CRAZY HORSE

Earlier this week, I was posting my Today in History and saw that Dec. 4 was Crazy Horse’s birthday.  I thought to myself “how do they know that date was when he was born”?  Indians did not keep records of something like that. And it is doubtful that white traders happened to see Crazy Horse blowing out candles on his birthday buffalo cake.  Heck, we are not even sure what year he was born.  However, I was motivated to give my favorite Native American his due.  As you read this, keep in mind that at the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse was the hero and Custer was the villain.

1. Crazy Horse was born around 1840 in the Black Hills, in what is today South Dakota. As a boy he was called Curly because of his hair.  His light complexion led to the rumor that he might be part white, but there is no evidence that this is true.  He was given his father’s name after he behaved bravely in a raid on the Arapahos in 1858.  Crazy Horse was called Tashunke Witco in the Oglala Sioux language.
2. He was a loner who did not have a lot of friends. When he was 14 years old, he snuck away and went into the wilderness away from his camp.  He kept himself awake several days until he had a vision (whites would say he hallucinated).  In the vision, an Indian is simply dressed with a single feather.  He is riding a horse.   Lightning flashes.  Arrows whiz by, but none of them hit him.  Other Indians are trying to hold him back.  Crazy Horse’s father, who was considered a mystic, interpreted the dream.  Crazy Horse should dress like the warrior.  He should paint a lightning bolt on his cheek.  He should wear one feather.  If he did these things he would not be hurt in battle.
3. A young Crazy Horse, witnessed the Grattan Massacre. A Mormon in a wagon train complained at the nearby fort that the Indians took a decrepit cow that had fallen behind the wagon train.  Lt. Grattan brought 30 soldiers to the Indian camp to demand the cow (which had been eaten). The whites were looking for a fight and they got it.  All of the whites were killed in a blizzard of arrows.
4. He fell in love with Black Buffalo Woman, but one day he went hunting and when he got back she had married No Water. Later, Crazy Horse eloped with her when No Water was away.  One day, No Water barged into Crazy Horse’s tipi and shot him in the jaw.  Black Buffalo woman returned to No Water.  Crazy Horse recovered from the serious wound. 
5. Crazy Horse later married Black Shawl (who had helped nurse him back to health) and she was good for him. They had a daughter who died young of a white man’s disease.  Crazy Horse was crushed.
6. His first noteworthy act was when he decoyed Capt. Fetterman and his 80 men into an ambush in which all the whites were killed. This battle was part of Red Cloud’s War, the only war the Indians won.  The whites were forced to abandon their forts in the Powder River country.  They would be back.
7. In 1876, he was part of the hostiles who refused to abandon the sacred Black Hills (that they had been promised would be theirs forever) and go live on a reservation. The whites sent two armies to punish the hostiles.  Crazy Horse led the onslaught that forced Gen. Crook to retreat in the Battle of the Rosebud.  Soon, after his and Sitting Bull’s village was attacked by the other army led by Custer.
8. Crazy Horse led the final assault on Custer’s men in the Battle of the Greasy Grass (what whites called Custer’s Last Stand or the Battle of the Little Bighorn). The surviving whites were wiped out by angry, numerous Indians defending their families.
9. Crazy Horse and his followers were on the run after the battle as vengeance-minded soldiers tracked down the victors. The winter was harsh and starvation plagued his people.  Crazy Horse had no choice but to go into the reservation where food would be available.
10. In 1877, Crazy Horse was living a boring life on the reservation. When the Nez Perce began their epic trek, whites came to Crazy Horse and asked him to join the whites as a scout.  The translator either maliciously or erroneously translated that Crazy Horse said he was going on the warpath.  Or it may have just been a rumor that he was going to leave the reservation.  He was arrested and brought to the fort’s jail. When he realized he was to be put behind bars, he tried to escape.  He was held by some of the Indian police (remember the vision) and a white soldier bayoneted him in the back.  He died the next day.  His body was taken onto the prairie to a secret burial place.
11. There are no pictures of him.
12. In 1948, Korczak Ziolkowski (who had worked on Mount Rushmore) started a memorial to Crazy Horse that will dwarf Mount Rushmore. It is still incomplete.

https://www.historyhit.com/facts-about-crazy-horse/

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/553397/facts-about-crazy-horse