Crazy Horse
By Avery Long
This article is about Crazy Horse and how he fought the white settlers. It will discuss: what he wanted to do, his lifetime and some battles, his strengths, some challenges that he had, and his legacy.
Crazy Horse spent his life fighting as a warrior to help his people, and defending his land from the white settlers. He wasn’t famous for speeches or politics, but for straight up fighting the whites. He also won some great battles such as the Battle of Little Big Horn.
Tashunca Uitco, or Crazy Horse as we call him, was born around 1845 and was part of the Teton Sioux tribe. He loved horses and his father gave him one at a young age. One story from his childhood tells of while he and his brother were caring for the tribes horses, how they were attacked by a bear, but Crazy Horse saved his brother by putting him in a tree, harnessing a horse that was going wild, and along with it and a lariat scared the bear off.
His first battle was against the Gros Ventres, another Native American tribe. He was closely following another renowned Teton Sioux warrior named Hump, when Hump’s horse got shot from under him. As the other tribe closed in for the kill, Crazy Horse got off his horse, helped Hump onto it, got back on, and rode him to safety whilst being shot at the whole time. Hump then predicted Crazy Horse would become a great Teton Sioux warrior. The two became great friends and gave the Teton Sioux many victories. However they didn’t win all of these battles, and in one of these battles against the Snakes, another group of tribes, Hump was killed while Crazy Horse and his brother escaped.
At the age of 21, he and all the other Teton Sioux leaders met to discuss a new plan about how they would deal with the white invaders. These invaders were coming west and stealing the Native Americans’ land, which Crazy Horse didn’t accept. He himself didn’t make the decision, but he agreed with it. Their decision was that they would respond to the invasion with violence.
He allied with the Cheyennes, Sitting Bull, and the other Sioux tribes.
In the first battle with the new plan, the attack on Fort Phil Kearny (modern day Wyoming), he was chosen to lead an attack on the woodchoppers to draw the white settlers out where 600 warriors were waiting for them. Because he played his part well, and the tactics involved were outstanding, the attack was a success. For the next ten years he fought long and hard and won all but a couple of his battles.
In the year of 1876, General Crooks had set up camp in a valley next to the rosebud river. Crooks wanted to attack the Sioux tribe before “they could flee” because he believed the Native Americans would rather flee then fight. His Native American scouts thought otherwise. They thought that the army was led by Crazy Horse who wouldn’t act like that, waiting for the Americans. At 8 a.m. Crazy Horse attacked the camp with 4000 men, more than three times the amount of general Crooks’ troops. The attack was a success, and 28 of Crooks’ men were killed and 56 were hurt. The only reason why it wasn’t worse is because of Crooks’ scouts that stalled the army so the troops could get in position to help them. This was another victory for Crazy Horse at the Battle of the Rosebud.
Also in the year 1876 at the Tongue River in Montana, there was a large Native American conference. At the conference, Native American scouts reported a large army nearby led by general Crooks. Crazy Horse and 700 other men were sent to drive them off. On the way there they ran into some of General Crook’s scouts. Crooks’ scouts raced back to their camp while Crazy Horse and his men chased after them. Once they arrived at the camp, they couldn’t get into it despite their best efforts, so Crazy Horse retreated. Then the Native Americans crossed the space between the Tongue and the Little Bighorn River, and they set up camp on the other side of the Little Big Horn.
They were then ambushed by General Custer of the Americans. Custer’s plan was for him and General Reno, another American general, to attack the camp from both ends. Crazy Horse and the Cheyennes, started to head to the south end of the camp, but turned around and saw Custer’s men coming from the north. Because Crazy Horse knew they couldn’t cross the Little Big Horn, he led his men north to cut him off. His men surrounded Custer from three sides. Because he and the other American leaders trying to attack the camp were apart, Custer’s own strategy had trapped him, and Crazy Horse had just gained his greatest victory at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Ultimately Crazy Horse went to Fort Robinson with the pretense of “correcting false rumors," “explaining himself," and the belief that "the government would hear out his problems." At Fort Robinson Crazy Horse and some others were all walking next to each other to a prison, but Crazy Horse didn’t know what it was. Touch-the-Cloud, another tribal leader who was a good friend of Crazy Horse, was in front of him, while Charging Bear, a rival warrior who had once served under Crazy Horse, was at his side. An officer came up to Crazy Horse and walked on the other side of him. As they were walking Touch-the-Cloud turned around and said, “Cousin, they will put you in prison!” Crazy Horse then tried to fight them with his knife, but Charging Bear and the officer held his arms, while a soldier stabbed him with a bayonet in the back. He died later that night. His father then took his body and buried it some place secret in the Badlands.
Some positive qualities that he had were: bravery, generosity, and the fact that he fought for not just himself, but for others around him.
Some challenges that he faced were: the fact that fighting the white settlers was hard because they had better technology then he did, more men, and they wouldn’t relent. Also he dealt with the fact that people who had once worked with him, had turned against him.
He left a legacy behind of killing large numbers of white settlers and defeating them. He fought in hundreds of battles and won most of them, and was a renowned warrior who was feared by the white settlers. Also he is known for being one of the greatest fighters of the expansion west and defending his homeland from the white settlers.
References:
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/indians-hammer-us-soldiers-at-the-battle-of-the-rosebud
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-crazyhorse.html
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-crazyhorse2.html
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-crazyhorse3.html
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Bighornbattle_en.png
http://e08595.medialib.glogster.com/media/e8/e828fd30b88c76e87542301902706404741dfc8c1bb94c60e59a83de22b13b35/chief-crazy-horse-sioux-jpg.jpg
https://tomreeder.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/crazy-horse-memorial.jpg