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Crazy Horse


     When I think back of the stories that I have heard about how the
Native American Indians were driven from their land and forced to live on
the reservations one particular event comes to my mind. That event is the
Battle of the Little Big Horn. It is one of the few times that the Oglala
Sioux made history with them being the ones who left the battlefield as
winners. When stories are told, or when the media dares to tamper with
history, it is usually the American Indians who are looked upon as the bad
guys. They are portrayed as savages who spent their time raiding wagon
trains and scalping the white settlers just for fun. The media has lead us
to believe that the American government was forced to take the land from
these savage Indians. We should put the blame where it belongs, on the U.S.
Government who lied, cheated, and stole from the Oglala forcing Crazy Horse,
the great war chief, and many other leaders to surrender their nation in
order to save the lives of their people.
     In the nineteenth century the most dominant nation in the western
plains was the Sioux Nation. This nation was divided into seven tribes:
Oglala's, Brule', Minneconjou, Hunkpapa, No Bow, Two Kettle, and the
Blackfoot. Of these tribes they had different band. The Hunkpatila was one
band of the Oglala's (Guttmacher 12). One of the greatest war chiefs of all
times came from this band. His name was Crazy Horse.
     Crazy Horse was not given this name, on his birth date in the fall of
1841. He was born of his father, Crazy Horse an Oglala holy man, and his
mother a sister of a Brule' warrior, Spotted Tail. As the boy grew older
his hair was wavy so his people gave him the nickname of Curly (Guttmacher
23). He was to go by Curly until the summer of 1858, after a battle with
the Arapaho's. Curly's brave charged against the Arapaho's led his father
to give Curly the name Crazy Horse. This was the name of his father and of
many fathers before him (Guttmacher 47).
     In the 1850's, the country where the Sioux Nation lived, was being
invaded by the white settlers. This was upsetting for many of the tribes.
They did not understand the ways of the whites. When the whites tore into
the land with plows and hunted the sacred buffalo just for the hides this
went against the morale and religious beliefs of the Sioux. The white
government began to build forts. In 1851, Fort Laramie was built along the
North Platte river in Sioux territory (Matthiessen 6).
     In 1851, the settlers began complaining of the Indians who would not
allow them to go where they wanted. U.S. Agents drew up a treaty that
required the Indians to give safe passage to the white settlers along the
Oregon Trail. In return the government promised yearly supplies of guns,
ammunition, flour, sugar, coffee, tobacco, blankets, and bacon. These
supplies were to be provided for fifty-five years. Ten thousand Sioux
gathered at the fort to listen to the words of the white government and to
be showered with gifts. In addition the treaty wanted the Indians to allow
all settlers to cross their lands. They were to divide the plains into
separate territories and each tribe was not to cross the border of their
territory. The treaty also wanted no wars to be waged on other tribes. They
wanted each Indian nation to choose a leader that would speak for the
entire nation.  Many Indians did not like this treaty and only after weeks
of bribery did the whites finally convince a sizable group of leaders to
sign.  The Oglala's were among those who refused (Matthiessen 6).
     This Treaty however did not stop the trouble between the Indians and
the settlers. The Indians however, did not cause violent trouble, they
would perhaps approach a covered wagon to trade or extract gifts of food.
The most daring warrior might make away with a metal pot or pan but nothing
violent like the books and movies lead us to believe (Matthiessen 7).
     The straw that broke the camels back took place on August 17, 1854
when the relations between the Indians and Whites were shattered. Among the
settlers heading west was a group of Mormons and as they were passing, a
few miles south of Fort Laramie, an Indian stole a cow. The Mormons
reported this to Lieutenant Hugh B. Fleming, the commander of the post.
Fleming demanded that the offender, High Forehead of the Minneconjou, face
charges. Chief Conquering Bear suggested that the Mormons come to his herd
of ponies and pick out the best pony he had to replace the cow, which to
the Sioux these ponies were their wealth. This seemed to be a very gracious
offer. Fleming would not agree and sent Lieutenant John L. Grattan to bring
back the warrior. When Grattan arrived at Conquering Bears camp, he was
given another offer. This time they could choose five ponies from five
herds among the tribes. Grattan refused and began to open fire (Guttmacher
14-19). This outrageous act of war was not called for. The Mormons would
have surely been satisfied with the ponies or the money the ponies would
have bought. The government just did not want to keep the Indian-White
relationship peaceful. Crazy Horse, then called Curly, was only thirteen
when the soldiers and the Indians fought. The Indians outnumbered the
soldiers and won the battle (Guttmacher 20).
     Crazy Horse eventually became a leader of his people. In today's
society our leaders are given money and gifts but in the times of Crazy
Horse it was almost the opposite. He was expected to live modestly, keep
only what he needed and give away the rest. After hunting he would give the
needy the choicest meat and keep the stringy meat for himself. He did
however, have the honor and prestige that allowed him to make the decisions
for the tribe (Ambrose 125).
     As well as other Sioux leaders, Crazy Horse lead his people into the
Powder River country. The reason for this move was to leave behind the ways
of the white man and continue living the ways of the Sioux. The white man
had brought to their country sickness, liquor and damaging lifestyles much
different from the lifestyles of the Sioux.
     In 1865, U.S. officials wanted to obtain land from the Indians. They
offered many different bribes, such as gifts and liquor, to the Indians who
lived around the forts. They were very good at making the sell of land seem
temporary and they convinced many that what the right thing to do was sell.
The land they wanted was access land into the Powder River country. The
government did not have the luck they needed in obtaining the land with
money or bribes. So in the summer of 1865 they sent more than two thousand
soldiers from Fort Laramie into the Powder River country (Ambrose 151).
     In 1866 the government, knowing that the land they wanted was worth
much more, offered the Sioux fifteen thousand dollars annually for access
into Powder River country. The Indians did allow whites to use the Bozeman
Trail just as they allowed immigrants to use the Holy Road. The U.S.
Government had an obligation to protect its citizens but not to provoke a
crisis. They did create a crisis when they established forts in the heart
of Oglala territory. After conquering the confederates the U.S. Army was
full of optimism and wanted desperately to have an all out war to
exterminate the Sioux. Although the Indians were allowing the whites to use
the Bozeman Trail, the government was not satisfied. They wanted the legal
right to use the trail. E.B. Taylor, a government agent at one of the
Indian Offices, tricked some of the Indian Leaders into going to Fort
Laramie in 1866 for a treaty. He deliberately attempted to deceive them; he
said nothing about building forts along the trail, only that they wanted to
use the Bozeman Trail. He offered them guns, ammunition, gifts plus money.
The Indians did not sell (Ambrose 213-214).
     In June 1867, the government officials produced a new treaty. This
treaty, like all the ones before, only promised lavish gifts to those who
would sign. One of the Oglala chiefs, Red Cloud, wanted more for his nation
than the simple gifts offered. He wanted the troops to move from the forts;
Reno, Philkearny and C.F. Smith. During the summer of 1868 his request was
accepted. The troops moved. A civil war hero William Tecumseh Sherman moved
into the territory as the new commander of the plains. He had plans to get
the treaty signed. His hopes were to, shut up the congressional critics,
get the Sioux to agree on a treaty and maintain the army's morale. After
negotiations were made Red Cloud lead one hundred-and twenty-five leaders
of the Sioux nations to sign the treaty of 1868. This treaty guaranteed
"absolute and undisturbed use of the Great Sioux Reservation. No person
shall ever be permitted to pass over, settle upon, or reside in territory
described in this article, or without consent of the Indians pass through
the same" (Matthiessen 7-8). This treaty also stated that the hunting
rights on the land between the Black Hills and the Big Horn Mountains "as
long as the grass shall grow and the water flows".(Guttmacher 73). It
forced the Indians to be farmers and live in houses. There could be no
changes made to the treaty without three fourths of all adult males of the
Sioux nation agreeing (Ambrose 282).
     The Indians had divided into those who agreed with the treaty, the
"friendly" and those who wanted nothing to do with the treaty, the
"hostile". The U.S. government did not recognize these separate groups.
They forbid trade with the Powder River Indians until all Indians moved to
the reservation. This was not in the Treaty of 1868, (Guttmacher 76).
     Even though the government was getting the best part of the treaty
they were not satisfied with progress. In 1871 the Indian Appropriation
Bill was passed which stated "hereafter no Indian nation  or tribe within
the United States shall be acknowledged or recognized as an independent
nation, tribe or power with whom the U.S. may contract by treaty"
(Matthiessen 7-8).
     General Armstrong Custer was appointed as the new commander of the
plains. He led the Seventh Calvary on a mission to subdue a band of hostile
Cheyenne. The calvary came across an Indian village and attacked them
instead. Black Kettle, the chief of the village and his wife were killed as
they rode to surrender. This killing of 100 Cheyenne, mostly women and
children, and 800 ponies was advertised as Custer's victory against the
brutal savages (Guttmacher 81-82).
     The U.S. Army led an expedition into the Sioux territory. According to
the Treaty of 1868 this expedition was not legal. The expedition was to
survey land for the Northern Pacific Railroad. The railroad meant progress.
(Guttmacher 81).
     Since the civil war the American economy was booming. Railroad stocks
led the way. On, September 18 1873, banking crashed. Farm prices plummeted,
grasshopper plaques ruined crops, yellow fever struck in the Mississippi
Valley, and unemployment went sky high. The government figured that it's
role was to pour money into the economy. The gold supply was insufficient.
President Grants solution to the economy was to open new territory for
exploration. So in the spring of 1874 troops were sent to open a fort in
the Black Hills. The government, exaggerated at the best or lied at the
worst, said the Indians were not keeping up their part of the treaty.
Custer was in charge of this expedition. During this expedition Custer
claimed that there was gold in the Black Hills. Grant looked at this as an
opportunity to show the country he could pull them from the depression and
he opened the Black Hills for prospecting. This broke the treaty of 1868
again (Ambrose 343-346). The Black Hills was a sacred place to the Sioux.
It was a place where spirits dwelled, a holy place called Pa Sapa by the
Sioux. The whites had only the crudest concept of what the hills meant to
the Indians. By 1876 ten thousand whites lived in Custer City, the frontier
town of the southern Black Hills.  Agency Indians were not living very well
on the reservations. Government agents were corrupt. They would accept
diseased cattle, rotten flour and wormy corn. They would get a kickback on
the profits. The Indians were undernourished and even starving. The agents
also claimed the Indians exaggerated in their numbers just to receive more
rations. However, in a census conducted by the government trying to prove
this, they found that the Indians were actually claiming less (Ambrose 359).

     In 1876, the agencies were taken from the churches and given to the
army to control. This was petitioned to Washington with statements that
soldiers were obnoxious and their dislike for Indians was very obvious.
Also the army was corrupting the Indians by introducing and encouraging
alcohol and gambling. The petition also stated that all the agency troubles
had been caused directly or indirectly by the soldiers. No change in policy
was done on behalf of these petitions (Kadlecek 33).
     Unwilling to pay for the Black Hills and unable to defeat the Sioux in
war, on August, 15, 1876 Congress passed the Sioux Appropriation Bill. This
bill stated that further provisions would not be given to the Sioux until
the hostiles gave up the Black Hills, Powder River country and Bighorn
country. They would also have to move to the Missouri River in Central
Dakota or to Oklahoma. Upset because of there defeat the Government
demanded unconditional surrender of the Sioux or they would starve those in
the agencies. Red Cloud and the other chiefs were told to sign a treaty or
their people would starve. Crazy horse and Sitting Bull continued to fight
for land that was stolen from them in a misleading treaty (Ambrose 417-418).
The Treaty of 1876 was not signed by at least three fourths of the male
members of the Sioux nation as the Treaty of 1868 had stipulated. So they
cheated by calling the treaty an "Agreement" instead of a treaty (Friswold
19).
     The government had changed or disturbed nearly every part of the
Indians lives. They had taken their horses (their wealth), taken their land,
taken the buffalo and taken their tipis. They still had their religion.
They had seven ceremonial rites of which two were the most beneficial; the
Vision Quest and the Sun Dance. The Vision quest was an individual dance
and the Sun Dance a community affair. In June 1877 the biggest Sun Dance
seen on the reservation, twenty thousand strong, was held to honor Crazy
Horse. This was the last big Sun Dance (Kadlecek 37-42).
     Crazy Horse was finally persuaded to bring his people in to live on
the reservation. Crazy horse was lied to when a government official told
him that he was needed at a conference. He realized this was a trap when he
saw bars on the windows. He drew his knife and attempted to break loose. A
white soldier, William Gentiles, lunged at Crazy Horse with a fixed bayonet
that punctured his kidney. Crazy Horse died September, 5 1877 (Kadlecek 53).

      The Sioux Indians had lost nearly everything that made them a strong
nation. In 1881 the government prohibited all reservations from allowing
the Sun Dance. The government went against the First Amendment and took
away the Sioux's greatest religious ceremony. General Sherman, never known
as an Indian lover, said a reservation was "a parcel of land inhabited by
Indians and surrounded by thieves" (Matthiessen 17). This type of
harassment did not stop. In 1887 the General Allotment Act (the Dawes Act)
was passed. This Act was designed to assist the Indians to mainstream into
America. Each male Indian was given 160 acres of land from the reservation.
Of course the excess land was taken by the government and sold to the
whites. The Indians were not accustom to dealing with thieves and the
majority of them lost their land through shady dealings (Matthiessen 17).
     The U.S. Government used many deceptions to obtain the land the
Indians once owned. The Sioux Indians were not treated with the most
respect to say the least. They must be commended for staying strong and
still being a big part of the United States today.