b'The Story of Crazy HorsePART 7 By Alan RockmanA Tail Agency. The plan worked. Crazy Horse not only rash decision to seek medical care for thearrived safely at Spotted Tail, but he had also been able tubercular Black Shawlto elude both Lieutenant Clark and the very bloodthirsty Woman whose arms hadNo Water.swollen and was in constant agony was the final straw thatClark who once boasted "Crazy Horse cannot make doomed Crazy Horse to aa move without my knowing it, and I can have him brutal death. whenever I wanted" (Gardner, The Earth is All That Lasts, p. 298) was not only furious, he was desperate and VISIONSAND WAS IT AN ABORTIVEfurious - and sought out the Indian agent at the Spotted FLIGHT TO FREEDOM OR A MISSION OFTail Agency.MERCY GONE AWRY?Like Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse was a spiritual warriorEnter 34-year-old Lieutenant Jesse M. Lee, a non-who took great stock in the meaning of dreams andcombatant Civil War veteran who was the Indian Agent visions. Through the voice of a mockingbird Sitting Bullat Spotted Tail, and who would be destined for a stellar prophesied his death at the hands of his own people, andcareer in the Army. The stocky Lee was described as it was pretty much the same fate that was forecast by one"an industrious, intelligent young man with an intimate vision and one dream, both extremely disturbing, thatknowledge of hard work (Donovan, James, A Terrible Crazy Horse experienced only weeks before his death. Glory: Custer and the Little Big Horn, Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2008, p. 353). Lee also had the First, the vision. Crazy Horse had experienced this whilereputation of being a dependable soldier and a fair and taking a solitary walk onto the nearby prairie. Duringhonest man" (Ibid.,p. 354). His notable, meticulous the walk, he chanced upon the body of a dead eagle.skills were such that within two years following theLieutenant Jesse M. LeeWith what he had experienced with Lieutenant Clark,death of Crazy Horse, he would be named, at first, the the interpreters, and other officers pressuring him tocourt recorder of the Reno Court of Inquiry (the court do things he did not want to do, well, needless to say,investigating the insinuations of cowardice on the partTHE REASONS WHY CRAZY HORSEviewing the carcass of the dead eagle deeply disturbedof Major Marcus Reno at the Little Big Horn) and thenHAD TO DIEhim. He returned to his village and sat inside his tepeehe was promoted to be the judge advocate generalAccording to Gardner, Crazy Horse had to die because for hours, saying not a word. When one of his friendsoverseeing the proceedings. Lakota leaders like Spotted Tail, Red Cloud, American approached him and asked what was bothering him,Horse (no, not the Lakota chief mortally wounded at Crazy Horse replied that he had seen his own dead bodyLike Lieutenant Clark he was sympathetic to theSlim Buttes, but a rival chief with the same name), and on the prairie. plight of the Indian tribes (despite the fact that hisothers feared Crazy Horse because he was a threat to grandfather had been shot, stabbed, and scalped bytheir status at the agencies. These chiefs believed they The dream came just a couple of nights later, and forIndians in Kentucky, not far from where Abrahamhad a good thing going with the white man, and the last Crazy Horse it was even more disturbing than the visionLincoln\'s grandfather had been shot and killed). Lee\'sthing they wanted was a defiant Crazy Horse shaking of the dead eagle, for when the dream came he sawgrandfather though survived and did his utmost toup agency politics. Feeding their anxiety was a rumor shadowy figures emerging, weapons in their hands, firingalleviate their suffering and take care of their needs. Butthat said the Great Father intended to make Crazy Horse guns and even cannons at him as he tried to ride away onunlike Lieutenant Clark, Lieutenant Lee was extremelychief over all the Lakotas (totally false as seen by his testy a white pony. Eventually, he was killed, but why and howsympathetic to Crazy Horse. He didn\'t see a fearsomerelationship with Lieutenant Clark) (Ibid., pp. 300-301).he died was not made clear to him, except that he waswarrior chief but a man beset with worry, not for not killed by gunfire. All he knew was that he didn\'t diehimself, but for his tribe, for his immediate family whoCrazy Horse had to die too because General George from a bullet. For a man guided by visions and dreams,did not desert nor betray him, and for his loyal friends.Crook was jealous, and probably resentful, of the this powerful nightmare could only be a forebodingLee could plainly see how stressed out Crazy Horse was.war chief who bested him at the Rosebud and almost (Ibid., p. 290) Crazy Horse, in fact, reminded Lee of a cornered wildfought him to a standstill at Slim Buttes before being animal, trembling and unpredictable (Gardner, Theforced to retreat. At the very least Crook, upon hearing In short, Crazy Horse would be killed - either at theEarth is All That Lasts, p. 300). Lee assured the wearyof Crazy Horse\'s recalcitrant behavior demanded his hands of his own people or by white soldiers withOglala that he would be safe for the time being untilarrest, but seemingly left open the possibility of violence the support of his people. The stunned Crazy Horse,matters could be sorted out. When Clark arrived atcommitted against his one-time valiant enemy. Crook betrayed by his own relatives, whom he contemptuouslythe Spotted Tail agency demanding the arrest of Crazywasn\'t the only white capable of betrayal - there were referred to as "only cowards are murderers," (Powers,Horse, Lee demurred. He also told Crazy Horse thatthe officers like Clark, who had had enough of Crazy The Killing of Crazy Horse, p. 378) had initially onlyhis staying at Spotted Tail would cause more harm thanHorse\'s demands and defiance, or the 14th Infantry wanted to go to the Spotted Tail Agency, which was overgood, and urged that he return to the Red Cloud Agencyofficers, Captain Kennington, maimed for life as a result 40 miles away to seek help for Black Shawl Woman. Heand wait out the storm. To his surprise, Crazy Horse wasof his wounds at Slim Buttes and Lieutenant Calhoun, himself wanted to stay and face arrest with the hope thatquite agreeable at first, seeking only assurances of safetywhose brother died at the hands of those who followed he would be able to straighten out the matter with Crookfor himself, his family, and his friends. Lee assured CrazyCrazy Horse at the Little Big Horn. If perhaps Crook, and Clark. He knew he had been betrayed by membersHorse that he would be safe and that no Blue CoatsClark, and Bradley just wanted Crazy Horse arrested of his own family who craving power, were all too willingwould escort his party. A promise the young lieutenantand perhaps sent out of the territory, it was those with to turn him over to the white soldiers. Nellie Larrabeedid keep but Lee also promised Crazy Horse would notpersonal losses like Kennington and Calhoun who now chimed in, insisting, cajoling, begging Crazy Horsebe arrested, a promise that despite all of Lee\'s efforts, waswanted him dead.to flee, to escape arrest by the Blue Coats and possiblenot kept.murder - she told him to take Black Shawl Woman to seeTHE MURDER OF A CHARISMATIC OGLALA the medicine man at Spotted Tail, that she would joinAll seemed well that evening as Crazy Horse slept his lastWAR CHIEFhim later. Crazy Horse finally relented for the sake ofsleep, but there was always something - and in this case,Despite all of the assurances that he would make a both his current wives and his people, but resorted to ait would be Crazy Horse the next morning, balking at apeaceable return to the Red Cloud Agency, Crazy Horse subterfuge - 70 of his warrior friends would take Clarkreturn to the Red Cloud Agency that would seal his fate.approached Lieutenant Lee that very next morning, and No Water on a wild goose chase while Crazy HorseCrazy Horse now had less than 24 hours left to live. TheSeptember 5, 1877, and informed him that because he and a couple of other followers snuck into the Spottedlast part of the tragic drama would quickly play out. feared for his life, he did not wish to return to the Red 38 June 2023'