CRAZY HORSE RESEARCH BY ED POTTS
Crazy Horse, known as Curly, was born in 1844 along the Rapid Creek near Rapid City, South Dakota, which is located east of the Black Hills. He was brought up in the old traditional ways of the Oglala Sioux. His father, Crazy Horse, was an Oglala medicine man and his mother was from the Brule tribe. He had a younger brother named Little Hawk. Curly’s mother passed on when he was very young. When Curly reached the age twelve, he had killed his first buffalo and had received his first horse as a reward for his bravery.
In 1854, after the Grattan Fight, he had experienced a dream. He had visioned a man on a horseback riding in a storm. The man had long unbraided hair, a small stone in his ear, a small stone in his ear, he zigzagged lightning which seemed to decorate his cheeks and the hail dotted the rest of his body. The man had not taken any scalps and as he rode his horse, people would praise him but could not touch him. Then the storm faded away and a red-blacked hawk flew over his head. Curly was very curious of this vision and decided to relate it to his father for answers. His father, Crazy Horse, had interpreted it as a sign and told Curly that he will excel in battles in the future.
By the time Curly reached the age of sixteen, he was named after his father and for the first time rode as Crazy Horse. It was at this time that Crazy Horse rode as the person in his dream, he had painted a lightning bolt on his face and spots on the rest of his body. He was known as a great warrior and was always fighting for his people and their land.
On September 5th, 1877, near Fort Robinson, Nebraska, the soldiers were trying to arrest Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse attempted to escape buy unfortunately he was stabbed by accident and had passed on that night at the age of thirty-three.
Chronology of Crazy Horse’s Life
1844 – Born near present day South Dakota. Crazy Horse was named Curly at birth.
1851 – Attends Great Fort Laramie Treaty Council. The Sioux agree to allow the white people to travel across the land for supplies.
1854 – Curly witnessed the Grattan massacre. It was after this he received his vision.
1857 – Attends Great Teton Council. The Hankpatila Oglala move into Powder River country.
1858 – Displays outstanding courage during his first important battle and earns the name Crazy Horse.
1865 – Allied Cheyenne and Sioux forces raid in Julesberg, Colorado. Crazy Horse rescues the Sioux people from being driven from their camps at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.
1866-1868 – Fights with the U.S. Troops at Fort Kearny and C.F. Smith.
1868 – Sioux leaders sign a treaty with the United States that guaranteed them land and hunting rights in the Black Hills and the Powder River region.
1870 – Crazy Horses' mentor and friend, Hump, dies during battle with the Shoshones. Crazy Horse is wounded in a fight over Black Buffalo Woman, "the wife of no matter".
1871 – Crazy Horses' younger brother, Little Hawk dies. His brother's wife, Black Shawl, gives birth to a daughter named "They Are Afraid of Her".
1872 – Along with Sitting Bull, they raid Northern Pacific Railroad expedition near the Yellowstone River.
1874 – "They Are Afraid of Her" dies. George Armstrong Custer leads an expedition into the Black Hills and reports on the findings of gold.
1875 – The white people try to purchase the Sioux territory at Lone Tree Council. The U.S. government order the Sioux into reservations.
1876 – Crazy Horse joins Sitting Bull thousands of Sioux and Cheyenne warriors at a great encampment near Little Bighorn Valley, it was here that they defeated General Custer, Cook and his soldiers.
1877 – Crazy Horse is captured in Fort Robinson, Nebraska. At this time, Crazy Horse died at the age of thirty-three.
