Knowing your American Heroes ~ CRAZY HORSE (1849-1877) ~ by rldubour

Friday! Time for an American Hero! Today is:

 

Knowing your American Heroes

CRAZY HORSE (1849-1877)

Recognized among his people
A great leader and committed.
To their beliefs and traditions
Native values not omitted.

Called Light or Curly hair at birth
Depends on the historical source.
After his fight with the Arapahos
His name changed to Crazy Horse.

Belonging to the Oglala Sioux
And the Lakota ways of life.
Black Buffalo Woman was his first
Black Shawl known as his second wife.

He resented the government
For the takeover of their land.
During the Grattan Massacre
Only justice he would demand.

Witnessing the death of his chief
The Sioux leader Conquering Bear.
He soon became their war leader
His foes learned to beware.

He led one-thousand warriors
On December twenty-first
Known as the Fetterman massacre
For the Army this was their worst.

Was now known as a war leader
His Sioux name was the “shirt wearer.”
Lakota raised and set in his ways
Crazy Horse and his reign of terror.

Eighteen-hundred-seventy-two
With Sitting Bull he went along
Their first attack on U.S. troops
Together their force was strong.

The Northern Pacific Railroad
Escorted by the cavalry.
The Battle of Arrow Creek
Ended with minimal casualties.

On June seventeenth in seventy-six
Cheyenne and Lakota he took.
Called the Battle of the Rosebud
He attacked General George Crook.

Custer and his Seventh Cavalry
At three p.m. on June two-five.
Attacked the village of Crazy Horse
Custer would not long survive.

He first attacked Major Reno
Left his warriors to pursue.
The seventh at Little Bighorn
Where they killed every man in blue.

On May eighth of seventy-seven
His people weak and near starvation.
Surrendered at Camp Robinson
A native Hero in the Sioux nation.

 

 

AUTHOR NOTES* Born; December 4, 1849 in Bear Butte, South Dakota Died; September 5, 1877 at Fort Robinson, Nebraska Spotted Tail and Red Cloud conspired against Crazy Horse by reporting to Crook that the next time he held council with Crazy Horse, Crazy Horse would kill him. Friends of Crazy Horse learned of the plot and informed him. He responded by taking his ill wife to her parents at the Spotted Tail Agency, where his enemies circulated stories that he had fled Fort Robinson. Crazy Horse then went to the Brul’s agent, Capt. Luke Lea who said that Crazy Horse should return to Fort Robinson and correct the false rumors. When, on September 5, 1877, he returned to Fort Robinson, guards attempted to arrest him. He resisted and William Gentiles, a 20-year army veteran who never rose above the rank of private, lunged at Crazy Horse with his bayonet, striking him near his left kidney. Crazy Horse died during the night in the Adjutant’s Office, with Dr. McGillycuddy providing medical care and his father singing the death song over him. His body was taken away by his parents and laid to rest somewhere in the Badlands. Crazy Horse is currently being commemorated with the Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota, a monument carved into a mountain, in the tradition of Mount Rushmore. Korczak Ziolkowski began the sculpture in 1948. When complete, it will be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. As dawn broke on the morning of the Battle (June 25 1876), Crazy Horse declared: “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.” Interestingly, General George Armstrong Custer took a somewhat different approach, saying on the same day: “I could whip all the Indians on the continent with the 7th Cavalry.” Six hours later the Crazy Horse legend was born.