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Crazy Horse: The Last Warrior Standing, Defending the Old Way of Life

On September 5, 1877, Crazy Horse (Tashunca-uitco) was killed while resisting his captivity in a guardhouse at Fort Robinson in Nebraska. During a struggle, a U.S. soldier stabbed Crazy Horse with a bayonet. Many things are still debated about that day, including the name of the soldier and how Crazy Horse resisted. But it was the end of the great military leader of the Oglala Lakota.

Crazy Horse was one of the Sioux leaders who defeated George Armstrong Custer’s Seventh Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in Montana Territory in 1876. After the infamous battle, U.S. soldiers had pursued Crazy Horse and his followers until the Native Americans, suffering cold and starvation, surrendered in May 1877.

Crazy Horse Photo — Disputed photo that some claim is of Crazy Horse.

In 2005, singer-songwriter Marty Stuart released Badlands: Ballads Of The Lakota. The concept album recounts Native American history and struggle. Stuart brought his outstanding musical and storytelling skills to the music. He has created other wonderful concept albums too, including his excellent The Pilgrim (1999).

On the epic song “Three Chiefs” on Badlands, Stuart sings from the point of view of Red Cloud, Sitting Bull, and Crazy Horse. He recounts what they might have said after their deaths when they went to another world.

In the segment in the song about Crazy Horse, the song recounts his death: “In a jailhouse in Nebraska, it was on September 5,/ Crazy Horse was fighting hard to keep himself alive.” After his death, he meets God, who asks what Crazy Horse has to say. Crazy Horse responds:

“Upon suffering. Beyond suffering. The Red Nation shall rise again.
And it shall be a blessing for a sick world.
A world filled with broken promises. Selfishness and separations.
A world longing for light again.”

Crazy Horse foretells that the Native Americans will bring healing to the land of suffering.

“I see a time of seven generations when all of the colors of mankind
Will gather under the sacred tree of life.
And the whole earth will become one circle again.
And that day, there will be those among The Lakota,
Who will carry knowledge and understanding of unity among all living things.
And the young white ones will come to those of my people and ask for this wisdom.”

After Crazy Horse’s death, his body was placed on a burial scaffold, and later his parents took his remains to an undisclosed location. Experts suspect the remains are in an area around Wounded Knee, South Dakota, but no one is sure of the exact location.

As Stuart sings, “Touch the Clouds took his body, back home to his family,/ Nobody knows where they laid him down, to set his spirit free.” In the video below, two of Crazy Horse’s great grandsons talk about Crazy horse’s death and burial.

Photo via public domain. Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Marty Stuart’s Celebration of “The Pilgrim” Through A Wall-to-Wall Odyssey

Little Big Horn and “Little Big Man”

Thanksgiving with Marty Stuart: Badlands

Thanksgiving with Marty Stuart: The Pilgrim

Connie Smith: “Once a Day” (Song of the Day)

Emmylou Harris Covers Steve Earle’s “The Pilgrim”

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Little Big Horn and “Little Big Man”

On June 25, 1876, Sioux, Arapahoe, and Cheyenne warriors led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse wiped out Lt. Colonel George Custer and a large part of his 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Almost 100 years later, the event would provide a key moment in a great American film.

Custer’s Last Stand

In 1876, the 7th Calvary was scouting on behalf of two columns of U.S. soldiers. The soldiers were trying to force the Native Americans onto reservations. Another column had already lost a battle, unbeknownst to the other two groups.

Custer’s scouts warned him about a large Native American village nearby. But Custer thought the numbers were exaggerated and forged ahead instead of waiting for reinforcements.

Custer divided his regiment and proceeded with around 215 men. They were soon cut off by thousands of braves. All of the soldiers, including Custer, were killed at Little Big Horn in what became known as “Custer’s Last Stand.”

“Little Big Man”

My favorite movie with a fictionalized account of the incident is Little Big Man (1970). The movie has a 96% critics rating and 86% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie is based on a revisionist comic Western novel by Thomas Berger. In the film, Dustin Hoffman gives one of his greatest performances as Jack Crabb.

The film follows Crabb, who recounts his life of adventure. He was raised by Native Americans, and he later served as a scout for an inept and somewhat crazy Custer, played brilliantly by Richard Mulligan.

This scene from the film captures Crabb simultaneously warning and daring Custer about what awaits.

Arthur Penn directed Little Big Man, which also starred Faye Dunaway, Martin Balsam, and Chief Dan George. The movie is fictional satire that has moments of great humor. But it also realistically reflects the victory and the tragedy of Little Big Horn and the plight of the Native Americans. If you have never seen the movie, you should.

Although the Native Americans won the day, “Little Big Horn” became a rallying cry for the whites as more soldiers came to eventually track down Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, and the other Native Americans. In less than fifteen years in 1889, the area around Little Big Horn became part of the new state of Montana.

“The Custer Fight” painting by Charles Marion Russell via public domain.
Leave your two cents in the comments.

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Crazy Horse: The Last Warrior Standing, Defending the Old Way of Life

Dustin Hoffman’s Connection to McCartney’s “Picasso’s Last Words”

Super Bowl Songs: “Save Me, San Francisco”

A Story of the Land and the People: Centennial Miniseries

Eddie Valiant Is Off the Case

Nils Lofgren Helped Write A Classic 1970s Rod Stewart Ballad

(Some related Chimesfreedom posts.)

Nils Lofgren Helped Write A Classic 1970s Rod Stewart Ballad

Nils Lofgren added some lyrics to help Danny Whitten finish what became a classic love song, “I Don’t Want to Talk About It.”

Nils Lofgren is a great talent who has had a spectacular career, often as a band member in the shadows of other stars like Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen. One piece of information I recently discovered is that he contributed to the classic ballad “I Don’t Want to Talk About It,” even though he is not in the song’s credits.

The song is by Danny Whitten and was originally recorded by Crazy Horse. Whitten struggled with finishing the song and Lofgren liked the song and encouraged him to finish it. Eventually Lofgren took the initiative to write a few more lines to finish the song. Crazy Horse released the song in 1971, and then in 1975 Rod Stewart had a hit in both the U.S. and the U.K. with the song, which appeared on his album Atlantic Crossing.

The song has a typical broken-heart theme, with the singer lamenting lost love. But “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” is one of the great heartbreak ballads of the twentieth century. The melody and the contradictions of the lyrics raise the song to another level, with the singer asking a lover to listen while at the same time saying he does not want to talk about it.

I don’t want to talk about it, how you broke my heart.
If I stay here just a little bit longer,
If I stay here, won’t you listen to my heart, whoa, heart?
I don’t want to talk about it, how you broke this old heart.

Stewart rerecorded the song in 1989, and later he performed the song with Amy Belle. Other artists have covered the song too. The Indigo Girls did a nice cover for the soundtrack to the film Philadelphia (1993), and Everything But the Girl had a hit with the song in 1985 when they released it as a single in the UK.

YouTube used to have a video of Lofgren talking about the song, but it has disappeared. But here is the audio of a live version of Lofgren playing the song with a short introduction.