The Killing of Crazy Horse

A childhood fascination with American Indians compelled Thomas Powers, who has specialized in books about military intelligence, to write The Killing of Crazy Horse, a completely thorough but at times drawn out and unfocused account of the great Lakota warrior and his murder, which was as much engineered by other Indians as it was whites.

In addition to being an autobiography of sorts of Crazy Horse, Powers also goes into great depth with some of the other players in the story, such as two half-Indian scouts, members of the U.S. military, and many other Indians, who are so numerous in the book it sometimes becomes hard to keep track of them, especially since many of them have several names.

As for names, Powers gives a clear description of exactly what Crazy Horse's name means. It doesn't mean a mentally unstable horse: "The meaning of the name Tasunka Witko would be something like this: his horse is imbued with a sacred power drawn from formidable spiritual sources, and specifically from the thunder beings who roil the sky in storms." But Crazy Horse is a lot shorter.

There are no known pictures of Crazy Horse, and the life story of any Indian of that period is reliant upon the testimony of others. He had light hair and eyes, and was a great warrior from childhood. But he never was a "Shirt Wearer," one who had been designated as one of the elite of the tribe. Perhaps this is because he stole another man's wife, and was shot through the mouth in retaliation.

Crazy Horse had no fear of death, and believed he would never be killed by a bullet. He was right. He led the Oglala Sioux in battle against other tribes and against the U.S. military, particularly a stand-off against General George Crook at Rosebud and then, of course, at the Little Bighorn, where he audaciously split George Custer's forces. Another Indian said of him, "'Crazy Horse...was the bravest man I ever saw. He rode closest to the soldiers, yelling to his warriors. All the soldiers were shooting at him but he was never hit." Another said, "The soldiers all fired at once, but didn't hit him."

But eventually Crazy Horse would engender something like jealousy with other chiefs, particularly Red Cloud, which was encouraged by white influence. Powers details the mistreatment and treaty-breaking of the period by the U.S. government, particularly regarding the Black Hills, which initially was left to the Indians in perpetuity, until gold was discovered there. Crazy Horse, after his victory at Little Bighorn, surrendered to the U.S. authorities and was sent to Fort Robinson, Nebraska.

Powers' chapter on the killing reads like a thriller. A Lieutenant Jesse Lee led him to the jailhouse, after orders came to arrest him. But Lee repeatedly assured him he would come to no harm, and believed that. But when Crazy Horse realized he was being taken to jail, he resisted, and a scuffle broke out. He ended either backing into the bayonet of a guard, or the bayonet was thrust into him. "By this time the soldiers of the guard, a dozen in number, had closed in around  the wounded man, and were now surrounded in turn by hundreds of Indians. Half wanted to avenge the stabbing of the chief and the rest wanted to make sure he did not escape alive."

With his dying words Crazy Horse absolved Lee, who would nonetheless feel guilty about it for the rest of his life. Crazy Horse blamed Indians, particularly Little Big Man, who held him during the fight. At first U.S. soldiers, such as William Philo Clark, expressed regret over the killing: "It's a shame! That man ought not have been killed. It's a shame the way he was treated." But hours later, in a telegram to General Crook, he wrote, "The death of this man will save trouble." Head of the army Phil Sheridan said, "Crazy Horse was a mischievous and dangerous malcontent, and it is a good thing that he is dead." But, of course, Sheridan also said that the only good Indians were dead ones.

Though this is an interesting story, I found Powers' telling to be unnecessarily confusing. It's not his fault that there are so many Indians to keep track of, but I found the lengthy biographies of scouts Billy Garnett and Frank Brouard to be superfluous. I also wondered about not telling the story in chronological order, skipping over the Little Bighorn and bringing it up only much later in the book.

Still, this is a must read for any serious student of the Indian Wars of the 19th century and of Crazy Horse in general. Even now his massive memorial is still being sculpted in the Dakota hills, though it will certainly not be finished in my lifetime.