How The West Was Won

Revision as history is a dicey business, so when he announces at the end of his new book, “Strange combinations of forgetting and remembrance followed the death of Crazy Horse,” Thomas Powers acknowledges the uncertainty in taking up any long known but little understood story.
“The Killing of Crazy Horse” is Powers’ attempt to explain the 1877 death of one of the most iconic Indians in all of American history. Throughout his investigation, Powers remains steadfast in his purpose not to cast blame but to unravel what has long been hinted at but never before now publicly proven.
That Crazy Horse held a special place of disgust in the white world is easily substantiated. Present in 1876 at the Little Big Horn river in Montana, the Oglala chief was largely seen as the cause of Custer’s last stand. With victory comes the right to tell the story, but with defeat comes the insistence on assigning blame. This blame, though nearly universal in the annals of the government’s explanations about what happened at that Montana outpost, is less clear in Powers’ retelling.
The larger context of the story, however, reaches back beyond this single battle, pointing fingers at a host of characters, both Indian and white, who, through circumstance or conspiracy, combined to find Crazy Horse at Nebraska’s Fort Robinson on the eve of his death in 1877.
Powers is careful to describe the results as “the killing,” though many might conclude or suggest it was murder. What has long been understood is Crazy Horse’s position in the Sioux society. He was a venerated chief, a “shirt wearer,” and a celebrated warrior. What he might not have been was any more responsible for Custer’s death than any of the other Sioux present at the fateful battle in 1876.
The flashpoint that led to the killing of the Oglala chief was undeniably the death of Custer. Powers, as have others, however, demonstrates how Custer and Major Marcus Reno likely erred in their maneuvers to surround and defeat the Indians. Indeed, Powers points out, how Reno faded from involvement when the battle flashed. “About Reno even the word cowardice was being used,” we learn.
Regardless the blame at Little Big Horn, the circumstances surrounding the death of Crazy Horse point to an amalgam of Indians and whites whipped to chaos and brutality not simply by the death of Custer, but by indecision, uncertainty, and cultural clashes that had boiled over once gold was discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakotas, traditional Oglala hunting grounds.
Implicated in this confusion of personalities is Little Big Man, once Crazy Horse’s friend, but at the end his adversary, as well as General George Crook, a veteran of the Civil War who always thought his successes overshadowed by those of Sherman and Sheridan.
Without the published accounts of the mixed blood scouts, those who interpreted between Indians and whites, this story might never have been recounted. The diaries of Billy Garnett and James Bordeaux are most compelling.
“The Killing of Crazy Horse” provides an insightful look at one of the most well known but little understood moments of American history.
Good Reading.