Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse (c.1840–77) legendary Oglala Lakota war chief, born near Butte in present-day South Dakota. He led warriors during Red Cloud's War (1866–67). He rejected the Fort Laramie Treaty (1868) and led the resistance of nontreaty Lakota. A courageous warrior who commanded the respect of both his own people and his enemies, Crazy Horse was a Lakota head warrior, or “shirt wearer,” who came to prominence in the mid-1870s by resisting the migration of white settlers and gold prospectors in the Black Hills. In 1876, with Sitting Bull, he emerged as the most conspicuous leader of the Lakota-Cheyenne alliance and was a central figure in the Great Sioux War that year. In battle with 7th Cavalry at the Little Bighorn, Crazy Horse led the charges that destroyed George Armstrong Custer and his immediate command (June 25, 1876). He surrendered at Camp Robinson, Nebraska, on May 7, 1877, and resigned himself to reservation life, but rumors that he was planning to escape led to his arrest and death.