Crazy Horse: The Legend

Page 9

Compiled from the book Crazy Horse and Custer

Part one of four

"Ho-Kahey! It is a good day to fight! It is a good day to die! Strong hearts, brave hearts, to the front! Weak hearts and cowards to the rear."

Crazy Horse, June 25, 1876

On the morning of June 25, 1876, the sun rose into a cloudless sky above the valley of the Little Big Horn. It promised to be a good day.

At the same moment, 611 men of the United States 7th Calvalry rode toward the banks of the Little Big Horn River, determined to end hostiles resistance in the Montana Territory forever.

Further along the valley, lodges of men like Gall and Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapas, Two Moons of the Cheyenne and Crazy Horse of the Oglala Sioux, were kept posted on the approach of General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Calvalry,

by scouts riding in every few minutes to report.

Standing in the rays of the morning sun a Cheyenne warrior later recalled: "It seemed that peace and happiness were prevailing all over the world, and nowhere was any man planning to lift his hand against his fellow man."

Only minutes away, Crazy Horse would lead his Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne warriors against Custer and the 7th Calvalry. The battle of the Little Big Horn was about to begin and the lives of two great warriors would seen be linked throughout

history forever.

The Black Hills in South Dakota are one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world. In periods of bad weather the Sioux used the hills as a refuge, for hunting and for lodges and travois poles. Rising high in the middle of the great northern plains,

to the Sioux the Black Hills were a spiritual place, a holy place. Long before General Custer led an expedition there, opening the hills to white gold miners, the holy place, called "Pa Sapa" belonged to the Sioux.

Near the northeast side of the Black Hills a volcanic bubble erupts. Called Bear Butte, it has a special place in Indian legend. The laws of the Cheyenne (Four sacred arrows) were given to Cheyenne lawgiver, Sweet Medicine, from the spirits.

It was there at Bear Butte, where the great plains of North America stretch forever on a cloudless day, during an annual gathering of the Sioux, Crazy Horse was born.

In the fall of 1841, a Brule woman (Sioux), her name lost to history, wife of an Oglala holy man named Crazy Horse, delivered her second child and first boy.

This boy was different from other Oglala babies. He had a light complexion and light curly hair. Sometimes called "The light haired boy" as he grew older he became known as "Curly." Until he received a memorable dream or accomplished a

noteworthy deed, he was Curly to all the Sioux.

At the time of Crazy Horse's birth the Sioux were caught in a dilemma. Many of them had succumbed to the white man's ways. In order for them to have the whiskey, metal, coffee and guns of the whites, many of the Indians changed their way of

life.

Many of the Sioux settled permanently along the Oregon Trail where they made pests of themselves by begging emigrants for various items of the white man's culture. However, others stayed away from the Oregon Trail and looked at their

brothers as "Hang Around the Forts" or "Laramie (Fort Laramie) Loafers."

In short, the white intrusion on Indian land, divided the Indian bands. Some became friendly with the whites, while others remained hostile.

When Crazy Horse was still a young boy, Sitting Bull, a Hunkpapa Sioux, urged his people to remain in the ways of their ancestors and asked them to leave the Oregon Trail.

"I don't want to have anything to do with people who make one carry water on their shoulders and haul manure. The whites may get me at last, but I will have good times till then. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon,

some hardtack and a little sugar and coffee," Sitting Bull declared.

Many of the Sioux did not see things the way Sitting Bull did, and thus,. it split the Sioux Nation. Crazy Horse was born into this tension and live his whole live through it.

During his childhood years Crazy Horse, like all Sioux children, was treated with great love and tenderness. Fathers and other men would play with children for hours on end. By the time Crazy Horse could talk, he called al his maternal female and

paternal male relatives "mother" and "father." Related or not, all the aged were called "Grandmother" or "Grandfather."

The Sioux never directly threatened a child who irritated them. Instead, they would say the "Owl" or the "Sioko" (frightener of children) would take him or her away. Later that threat became "The white man is going to take you away."

As Curly grew older, games became more tougher and diverse. The object of those games were to prepare him for manhood and adult tasks. Skill, brute force, indurance and the ability to withstand pain were the major elements in the games they

played. The games always involved every skill and physical activity needed to survive on the plains.

Shooting arrows was a major pastime of Sioux boys. Colonel Richard Dodge stated that a plains Indian could "grasp five to 10 arrows in his left hand and discharge them so rapidly that the last will be on its flight before the first has reached its

mark." A full grown Sioux warrior could drive an arrow right through a buffalo.

Curly became a full-fledged hunter before he was a teenager. He learned from the older Sioux through stories handed down from generation to generation.

A North American Indian once said" "The white man writes everything down in a book so that it will not be forgotten. But our ancestors learned all their ways from the animals and passed on that knowledge from generation to generation through

stories."

By the time Curly was 10, he was well on his way to knowing the significance of everything that happened around him.

Sioux boys often paired off in special friendships called "Kolas." They agreed to be partners in all undertakings, to share material belongings and to hunt and make war toether. Kolas were above all loyalties.

Curly's Kola was a Miniconjou, Oglala called "Hump."

Curly and Hump did everything together. They organized hunting parties and acted as leaders. Many times they persuaded others to go with them on hunting forays, except at their age the game was rabbits and small birds. Still, they hunted their

small prey as the men of the village hunted buffalo.

Curly and Hump, like other Sioux boys, were constantly reminded of their duty as a warrior. Around campfires they listened to the old men speak of their exploits. Curly saw teenaged braves proudly display their leather badges of honor. Inside a

tipi they carefully studied the war record painted on a warrior's shield or on the tipi cover. Many times Curly and Hump admired a warrior's pony stolen from the Pawnees or Crows. And they heard time and again, from women, old men, and braves

that it was best to die young in battle and glory.

Throughout this time Curly continued to grow and learn. He and Hump, his Kola, had added Little Hawk (Curly's younger brother) and Lone Bear to their camp. It was a time of learning for Curly, who by now though of the Crows, Shoshonis and

Pawnees as his main enemy. He had seen the white man but knew little of him. For now Curly and Hump were too busy enjoying themselves as they mastered new skills while venturing out on the great plains together.

Hump. They were like brothers. Their friendship, like the wind, would last forever.

years later, at the Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse would miss his dear friend, Hump. As he watched the pony soldiers approaching down the valley of the Little Big Horn...how Crazy Horse wished that Hump, his Kola, was beside him.