CRAZY HORSE

by Kingsley M Bray

  Crazy Horse remained silent through all this. The discouragements of the previous day had eroded whatever remained of his patience with the niceties of diplomacy. Red Cloud’s leaders, their cooperation taken for granted, were restive as Clark and Irwin continued to press for Crazy Horse’s agreement. At the close of business, Irwin gave the war chief a voucher to collect two extra beef cattle. Drawing on the Camp Robinson stores, Clark presented the northern leaders with more provisions with which to hold a feast and “talk over the matter and decide” on their representatives. As the council closed and the agency chiefs filed out of the building, the lieutenant once again spoke briefly with Crazy Horse and the northern leaders, inviting them to attend his quarters at Camp Robinson the following day and give their decision.

  No record exists of the talks held later that day in the northern village, but a deconstruction of Clark’s account of the next day’s proceedings reveal that Crazy Horse clearly dominated the debate. Invoking his status as Oglala tribal war chief, he claimed the right to a final say on the composition of the delegation. Little Big Man and the other Deciders chose not to press the matter. Neither did they seriously challenge Crazy Horse as he proceeded to make a still more startling claim: that he could veto the delegates of the agency bands, not only here at Red Cloud but at Spotted Tail Agency too, and personally nominate their representatives. Reflecting the military context of the next day’s talk, with only Clark representing the wasicu, Crazy Horse was nominated sole speaker for the party.

  The following morning, a large group of northern leaders and warriors rode into Camp Robinson and was welcomed to Lieutenant Clark’s quarters. Crazy Horse alone spoke. Contrasting with the temporizing and silence of the previous two weeks, the war chief spoke forcefully and at length. For the first time he declared flatly that he would not accompany the delegation east, saying that “he had no business with the Great Father and he would stay with his people and take care of them,” according to one account.32

  “I am not going there. I wanted to go, but you have changed my mind.... Still deep in my heart I hold that place on Beaver Creek where I want my agency. You have my horses and guns. I have only my tent and my will. You got me to come here and you can keep me here by force if you choose, but you cannot make me go anywhere that I refuse to go.”33 Instead, he continued, he had “brought up the men he had selected to go.” Moreover, he wished certain of the key agency chiefs—singling out Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and Little Wound—to be “thrown away” : only the men Crazy Horse had named, mostly northern leaders, should be accredited as delegates. On relocation, Crazy Horse told Clark that he “had already said where he wanted his Agency, and if [the officials in Washington] wanted to know anything more, these men would tell them &c.”

  Clark was taken aback, but he replied “kindly but firmly,” explaining that the broad composition of the delegation was already agreed on, and would consist of the recognized chiefs. This, continued Clark, “was a matter that [Crazy Horse] could only decide for himself” and his own village. The northern Oglala village “was only a small part of the total” at the White River agencies, Clark continued. Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and the Arapaho Sharp Nose were Crazy Horse’s equals and would attend the Washington summit. Then, reviewing the previous day’s talk, the lieutenant told the war chief that “he had been asked if he would work with the President and [General Crook] in this matter[,] and I wanted to know if he would do so.”

  The tension must have been palpable as Crazy Horse replied, “I have already stated I am not going.” The talk stalled. Crazy Horse left before Clark held his customary private talk with Little Big Man and the other Deciders. Sounding out their opinion, Clark found the Deciders guarded about criticizing the war chief, but he was convinced they “are all right, and dead against him in this matter.”

  Clark was still surprised by Crazy Horse’s intransigence several hours later, when he sat down to report in detail to Crook the events of the past few days. After two weeks of gathering impetus, a profound shift had crystallized in Clark’s thinking. From viewing Crazy Horse as a key facilitator of peace with the Lakotas, he now perceived the war chief as the main obstacle to stable relations. The mood of uncertainty in the northern village, and the emergence of rivals to leadership such as Little Big Man, made this an auspicious time to attempt a political coup. Crazy Horse’s “power could be easily broken at the present time,” he asserted, fatefully concluding, “and I believe it necessary.” Only force, he concluded, “will work out a good condition in this man’s mind; kindness he only attributes to weakness.” Reluctantly abandoning his cherished belief that “any Indian could be ‘worked’ by other means,” Clark reiterated that “absolute force is the only thing” for Crazy Horse. Clark’s ego bruised by what he saw as Crazy Horse’s deception, he was henceforth firmly opposed to any conciliation of the war chief.34

  After the council of August 18, Clark saw the way forward for the northern village as the removal—in effect the arrest and imprisonment—of Crazy Horse and the recognition of a moderate leader as his successor. In the subtext of his report’s conclusion lay the assumption that delay in Crazy Horse’s removal would necessitate even more drastic measures if hostilities were to be averted.

  The aborted talk between Crazy Horse and Clark was a turning point for Lakotas too. After August 18, friction worsened between Crazy Horse and the Deciders. Crazy Horse’s misjudgement on the delegation vetting issue was all too plainly the sign of a mind, unbalanced by sleep loss, losing its purchase on Lakota realities—or else obsessively determined to force a crisis at all costs. The majority of the northern village took the pragmatic view that no departure from the agency should take place, at least until the return of the delegation from the East. In the week following the final talk with Clark, some of the Deciders and akicita leaders began paying regular visits to Agent Irwin’s office. They complained that Crazy Horse’s “dictatorial manners, and disregard for the comfort of his people” were causing great dissatisfaction in the northern village. Moreover, they were disturbed by Crazy Horse’s “want of truthfulness” in the last round of talks with the officers at Camp Robinson.35

  Irwin’s sympathetic reception of the Deciders encouraged the moderate wing of the village to distance itself from the war chief. During the same week, another break took place in the village. On August 25 Irwin drafted his annual report and advised the Indian Office that “the leading men of [Crazy Horse’s] band. . . have drawn off from him. . . [stating that] they are determined to carry out their promise to General Crook, and their original intention to obey orders and keep the peace.”36

  These events demonstrated the changing fortunes of the Deciders. At surrender Little Hawk had been recognized as the most influential of the Deciders, but the widest sway was now enjoyed by Little Big Man.37The war chief’s rival had become the most politically visible player in northern affairs after Crazy Horse himself. From mid-August, relations between the two men would terminally deteriorate.

  Little Big Man attempted to build a united front with the other Deciders. Easiest to persuade was Big Road. This Oyuhpe band Shirt Wearer had until surrender paid no recorded visit to the agencies. Nevertheless, his record as sergeant of scouts had impressed the officers at Camp Robinson with his prudence and moderation, and he was a kola to Little Big Man. The two friends “had agreed to walk the white mans [sic] road together.”38

  Of the other two Deciders, Iron Crow was warily amenable to the moderate line. Leader of a tiyospaye of intermarried Hunkpatila and Oyuhpe Oglalas, with strong marriage links to the Miniconjous, Iron Crow was reckoned as the Decider with the widest influence after Little Big Man.39 As the fourth Decider, Little Hawk was in a difficult situation. His instincts were less suspicious and hostile than those of his brother’s son, and he would have been under intense pressure to adhere to a united front with his three peers. But to the Lakotas, kin solidarity was all, and Little Hawk surely remained loyal to Crazy Horse when the other Deciders ord
ered tipis struck. A significant section of the northern village followed Little Big Man three miles southeast, camping on the north side of White River opposite the mouth of Little White Clay Creek. Both sides took care to mask the cracks in village unity. Moderates stressed to Irwin that the separation was “partial,” and by implication temporary. Both sides clearly hoped soon to reabsorb the other peacefully.

  Two related events, about August 20, supplied the immediate causes of the village break. Lieutenant Clark finally issued a directive cancelling the hunting expedition. The Oglala agency bands formed their united tribal circle.40 Clark’s order forced Crazy Horse to raise the stakes once more. By now an unmistakable battle of wills was under way between the two men. The memoir by Spotted Tail agent Jesse Lee, though partial and self-serving, is nevertheless insightful in its reading of the Clark–Crazy Horse relationship. Although Clark was “successful in almost every move” in his determination to control affairs at Red Cloud, Lee observed that he was “overreached by the wily Crazy Horse, whose unfettered will would consciously brook no mastery.”41

  The ban on the hunt demanded an equivalent response if Crazy Horse was to reassert his “mastery” of the situation. Crazy Horse had hitherto accepted the reality of the delegation to Washington, however much he might seek to dictate its agendas. After the hunt announcement, Crazy Horse withdrew all support for the delegation, and pursued a policy of total noncooperation with the military and the civilian agent. Crazy Horse issued orders to the northern villages at both agencies, forbidding participation in the delegation. The Deciders referred to this new twist in the war chief’s attitude as his “dictatorial manner,” and Crazy Horse’s withdrawal of even minimal courtesies from the agent and his personnel—refusing to “touch the pen” to receipts for rations, for instance—were cited as instances of his “small regard” for his people’s comfort, provoking the moderates to break away soon after August 20.42

  The formation of the agency Oglala camp circle posed an even more serious challenge to Crazy Horse’s mastery of events. Counting approximately 575 lodges, its strength was over twice that of the northern village. For the first time that summer, Crazy Horse could be dominated by a united Oglala tribe.43

  In the great council shade, the huge gathering of chiefs and warriors debated for more than a week the key issue: agency relocation. The Oglala chiefs wanted a united tribal line on which to negotiate with the officials in Washington. Unity, however, was no foregone conclusion. Of the five major bands of agency Oglalas, four had originally favored the northern agency scheme. During the Sun Dance season, American Horse, ever the political realist, and Red Cloud, jealous of the attention accorded Crazy Horse, had withdrawn support of the Loafer and Bad Face bands. Young Man Afraid of His Horse’s Payabya and Yellow Bear’s Spleen bands continued to support the hunt. In early August, therefore, a significant section within the Oglala tribe remained conciliatory to Crazy Horse and the interests of the northern village.

  Two significant new factors were now in the equation. The journey to Washington was less than one month away, and pressure was intense to iron out band differences and formulate a tribal policy on relocation. Second, Crazy Horse had just made his extraordinary claim to nominate delegates for all bands at both agencies, “throwing away” as chiefs Red Cloud and Little Wound, his key political opponents at the agency, into the bargain. One cannot underestimate the effect of this insult in uniting the agency bands against Crazy Horse. As reports of the war chief’s defiance multiplied, and he ignored repeated invitations to attend the tribal council, a consensus emerged for either retaining the existing agency or locating farther down the White River valley, within the boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation. Reluctantly, Young Man Afraid of His Horse withdrew support for Crazy Horse’s unilateral stance; a nervous Yellow Bear, too, removed his Spleen band contingent into the tribal circle. In deference to the President’s status as “Grandfather” to the Lakota people, the Oglalas would allow him and his great council the final say on the exact location of their agency. The Oglala delegation to Washington would not support a northern homeland.44

  Crazy Horse would attend no talks with such an agenda. What is more surprising is that, even after the village break, Little Big Man and other moderates did not attend the tribal council. Little Big Man had not given up the goal of a northern agency. The moderate faction began to formulate a compromise solution, arguing not for a simple return to the nomadic life on the hunting grounds, but for the separate reservation promised them by General Crook, where they could be issued cattle, seed, agricultural tools and equipment, and be trained toward self-sufficiency for the changing times ahead.45

  The political initiative had slipped away from Crazy Horse. After the fevered activity of midmonth, the war chief was reduced to another of his deadlocks. The vagueness of the Deciders’ statements to Irwin indicates that Crazy Horse had no concrete plans, beyond his absolute opposition to the delegation. With continued pressure from the agent, the military, and the agency Oglalas, Crazy Horse’s following might have completely unravelled during the last week of August and Lieutenant Clark’s goal been peacefully achieved—effective deposition of the war chief and complete village control transferred to the moderate wing.

  On Saturday, August 26, however, intelligence reached White River that passed back the initiative to the war chief. The sequence of events had begun ten days earlier and three hundred miles northward, when startling news reached Colonel Miles’s headquarters at Tongue River Cantonment: “Sitting Bull has had a disagreement with British authorities, recrossed the line, and reached the Milk River. If he crosses the Missouri River, I will endeavor to use my force against him.”46

  This intelligence, gleaned from sources Miles regarded as trustworthy, had no relation to any facts. For over two weeks, however, it would keep military telegraphers busy. By the time Sheridan finally laid it to rest in a September 9 wire to the adjutant general in Washington, the rumor had reaped a whirlwind at the White River agencies.47

  Thirty-one Lakota scouts, serving on upper Tongue River with a battalion of the Fifth Cavalry, were ordered home on August 20. With tension building on White River, General Crook wished to concentrate loyal scouts in case of an outbreak. But the scouts’ return on the twenty-sixth only heightened tensions. They brought with them the “news” of Sitting Bull’s return from Canada, and the update that the Hunkpapa war chief was definitely “coming south to his old home” in the Powder River country.48

  The two factions of the northern village were reunited by the report. Startled by the development and anxious at renewed rumors of preemptive pony confiscations, Crazy Horse’s camp struck its lodges and joined Little Big Man’s moderates on White River. Although the hardline faction had made the move, some people saw trouble ahead and wanted no part of it: two lodges slipped down to the agency and won Irwin’s permission to transfer immediately to Spotted Tail; some more quietly attached themselves to the Oglala tribal village.49

  Defections were minimal, though, as Crazy Horse hurried to reimpose total control. Although our sources are uniformly biased against the war chief, it is plain that Crazy Horse seized on the news of the Hunkpapa return to the hunting grounds, arguing that a prompt departure from both agencies could reunite the Northern Nation in time to make fall hunts.

  In the words of intelligence reports reaching Lieutenant Colonel Bradley’s Camp Robinson headquarters, Crazy Horse had “become hostile” during the days immediately following August 26.50 Such terms are loaded. The inherent bias of the sources requires them to be critically assessed. There is no real evidence that Crazy Horse advocated actual hostilities: as the August 31 showdown with Lieutenant Clark would show (see chapter 25), he still justified his actions in terms of the pledges made to him by Crook and the agency leaders in the weeks leading up to surrender. The “hostile” charges were loaded with all the spin that Crazy Horse’s detractors could apply. But to assert that the accusations were simply trumped up, blackening th
e name of an impossible innocent, is to read the sequence of events with the false naivety of the apologist. Crazy Horse would state in open council on the thirty-first that he intended an immediate departure for the hunting grounds.51

  Crazy Horse’s return to domination of village affairs in the week leading up to September 2 demonstrates that formal primacy in the village had been transferred back to the war chief.52 This might be a merely symbolic action in normal times, but the highly charged atmosphere on White River clearly implies that this transfer followed an intense power struggle with Little Big Man. As tensions escalated with the military, elders normally wary of intemperate action were concerned to place the village under strong protection. All these factors were in play as the northern village council declared martial law, with the war chief in supreme authority.

  Crazy Horse invited a carefully chosen group of war leaders to form the blotahunka, supplanting the peacetime council for the duration of the military threat. He nominated Black Fox, another Oyuhpe Shirt Wearer, as his chief lieutenant, empowered to act as village chief in case of Crazy Horse’s absence. The elevation of Black Fox, a July transfer from Spotted Tail Agency, was a clear indication of Crazy Horse’s determination to marginalize Little Big Man and the moderate wing. His bypassing of the constituted akicita is indicated by the key roles played in the next few days by members of his Last-Born Child Society bodyguard.53

  Crazy Horse pressed ahead with plans for an imminent departure. On Wednesday, August 30, “information was received” at Camp Robinson that Crazy Horse and his warriors were now ready to “decamp and join Sitting Bull.”54 Lieutenant Colonel Bradley and his staff debated earnestly the measures to be taken to prevent a new Sioux War. By grim synchronicity, yet another wild card had been dealt that day. After news that the outbreak of Nez Perce Indians from their home in the Pacific Northwest had spilled onto the Montana plains, Lieutenant Clark had ordered the commander of scout Company C, first sergeant Crazy Horse, to prepare for action in the north.