Oglala Sioux Chief Crazy Horse

""Read about one of the greatest chiefs of the Oglala Sioux, and his victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn"--Provided by publisher.

A biography of the Sioux leader set against the history of the Indian wars, with a full account of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse is a story of envy, greed, and treachery. In the year after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, the great Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse and his half-starved followers finally surrendered to the U.S. Army near Camp Robinson, Nebraska. Chiefs who had already surrendered resented the favors he received in doing so. When the army asked for his help rounding up the the Nez Percés, Crazy Horse’s reply was allegedly mistranslated by Frank Grouard, a scout for General George Crook. By August rumors had spread that Crazy Horse was planning another uprising. Tension continued to mount, and Crazy Horse was arrested at Fort Robinson on September 5. During a scuffle Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet in front of several witnesses. Here the killing of Crazy Horse is viewed from three widely differing perspectives—that of Chief He Dog, the victim’s friend and lifelong companion; that of William Garnett, the guide and interpreter for Lieutenant William P. Clark, on special assignment to General Crook; and that of Valentine McGillycuddy, the medical officer who attended Crazy Horse in his last hours. Their eyewitness accounts, edited and introduced by Robert A. Clark, combine to give The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse all the starkness and horror of classical tragedy.

Crazy Horse, the military leader of the Oglala Sioux whose personal power and social nonconformity set him off as "strange," fought in many famous battles, including the one at the Little Bighorn. He held out boldly against the government's efforts to confine the Sioux on reservations. Finally, in the spring of 1877 he surrendered, one of the last important chiefs to do so, only to meet a violent death. Mari Sandoz, the noted author of Cheyenne Autumn and Old Jules, both available as Bison Books, has captured the spirit of Crazy Horse with a strength and nobility befitting his heroism.

Originally published in 1949, this book is a gripping collection of reminiscences on the death of the great Indian chief, Crazy Horse, by the military men who were present on that fateful day on September 5, 1877 at old Fort Robinson, Nebraska: Jesse M. Lee , V. T. McGillycuddy, H. R. Lemly, and George McAnulty. Crazy Horse was one of the “irreconcilables” of the Sioux, an Indian who refused to be “reconstructed” and follow the white man’s road. Like Sitting Bull he had little or no use for the white man, and especially those in authority at Washington. This is not surprising, considering the unjust treatment the Indian received, and the trickery and deceit practiced upon him. Although but a young man, even at the time of his treacherous murder, Crazy Horse had already won his spurs in the defeat of Col. J. J. Reynolds in the Powder River fight of March 17, 1876, and of his practical defeat of General George Crook’s forces in the Rosebud fight of June 17, 1876, to say nothing of the leading part he played in the annihilation of Custer’s immediate command of five troops of the Seventh Cavalry, June 25, 1876, at the battle of the Little Big Horn, in South-eastern Montana. After all these brilliant “coups” the reputation of Crazy Horse, as a fighting chief, inspiring leader and strategist, was secure among his own people.

A simple biography of the Oglala Sioux chief who fought for the rights of Native American people and who led the defeat of General Custer at the Little Big Horn in 1876.

Based on historical accounts, the author tells the real story of this fearless leader, and the many attacks he led against the U.S. Army. Eventually, he was forced to surrender and died mysteriously while under arrest in Fort Robinson, Nebraska. A sculpture memorializing him can be found on the side of a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota.