b'Crazy Horse continued from page 39his bayonet out, Gentiles lunged once more, this time missing skin and flesh, his bayonet stuck in the wood door frame. But in the course of just a few minutes, the damage had been done, nauseated and weak from loss of blood Crazy Horse looked deep into Gentiles\' face, crying out "Let me go, you\'ve got me hurt now" while scores of spectators, including Nelly Larrabee, Lieutenant Clark, He Dog, and Lieutenant Lee looked on in horror (Ibid., p. 307; Powers, The Killing of Crazy Horse, p. 416). It took only minutes to subdue and mortally wound the young Oglala chieftain. It would take hours for him to die. The dying chief, surrounded now by friends, family, (and for a short time) Lieutenant Lee was carried off to the adjutant\'s office where he would lie for hours Photo Credit: Grangerwhile the fort\'s doctors did all they could to alleviate his pain as he slipped in and out of consciousness. In one moment of coherence, Crazy Horse asked interpreter Bordeaux why the soldier had stabbed him. "I had no desire to do injury to any of them. The only man to whom I wished to do harm was Little Big Man for hisCrazy Horse and Sitting Bull at the Little Bighorn, insolent treatment of me. I don\'t know why they stabbedJune 25, 1876, as drawn by Sioux artist me" (Gardner, p. 309). With tears streaming down theirAmos Bad Heart Bull, ca. 1890. faces his father, Worm and the ever-loyal Touch the Clouds (who noted bitterly that the soldiers had taken his gun away from him) sat beside him as life ebbed fromLee would remain a soldier for another thirty years and his body if not his spirit. "Father, it is no use to dependwould live 20 years beyond that, serving with distinction upon me; I am going to die." in China during the 1900 Boxer Rebellion and during the Philippine Insurrection, then rising to the rank of There was, however, one more witness to the final hoursBrigadier General, with a command of the Southwest at of Crazy Horse\'s life. It was the guilt-ridden, remorsefulFort Sam Houston, Texas where he fortuitously avoided Lieutenant Jesse Lee. In an account he gave to fellowthe Brownsville Riot (his successor being General Army officer and Old West historian Colonel Homer W.McCaskey, another officer with a Custer history). He Wheeler, Lee recounted how around 10 p.m. that eveningnever did get over the betrayal of Crazy Horse, his he was summoned to the adjutant\'s office - Crazy Horsemurder, and the sickening role he was forced to play in had wanted to see him before he died, ostensibly toit. George Crook would die of heart failure in 1890, his abstain him from any guilt or blame over what hadone-time friend and commanding officer Phil Sheridan happened to him. "Lee went to his side. The chieftainhaving replaced Crazy Horse as his chief tormentor. was lying on his blanket on the floor. Grasping Lee\'sPhilo Clark dying suddenly, still a young man not even proffered hand, he gasped between his dying moans, \'Myreaching the age of 40 in 1884 while serving on General friend, I do not blame you for this. Had I listened to youSheridan\'s staff. Crazy Horse\'s grieving father would this trouble would not have happened to me." Beforelive on for another three years, dying in 1880, and his the end came Crazy Horse said (eloquently) "I was notmother dying the year before. Nelly Larrabee, herself, hostile to the white man. Sometimes my young menlived at least five more full decades following the passing would attack the Indians who were their enemies andof Crazy Horse, still attractive and still proud almost took their ponies. They did it in return. We had buffaloup to the day of her passing. The fate of Black Shawl for food and their hides for clothing and our tepees. WeWoman remains unknown, although with tuberculous preferred hunting to a life of idleness on the reservations,her life was more than likely a short one. As for many, if where we were driven against our will. At times we werenot most of the others, like He Dog, Touch the Clouds, not given enough to eat, and we were not allowed toCaptain Kennington, Lieutenant Calhoun, and the rest, leave the reservation to hunt. We preferred our own wayseem to have disappeared from the pages of history of living. We were at no expense to the government then.following Crazy Horse\'s demise.All we wanted was peace and to be left alone. Soldiers were sent out in the winter, which destroyed our villages.Crazy Horse was an American hero. Perhaps not quite (He referred to the winter before when his village wasthe same as a Lincoln or a Teddy Roosevelt, maybe more destroyed by Colonel Reynolds, Third Cavalry). Thenlike Robert E. Lee. He fought for his people and their Long Hair (Custer) came in the same way. They say weway of life as any other proud American would. And massacred him, but he would have done the same to ushe died a brave man, his spirit, if not his body, never had we not defended ourselves and fought to the last.conquered. Sadly, his life was a truncated one, where his Our first impulse was to escape with our squaws andwhite enemies, save for a few men like Lieutenant Lee, papooses, but we were so hemmed in that we had tohated and feared him, particularly the officers whom fight. After that, I went up to Tongue River with a few ofhe bested in battle. Crook, Lieutenant Clark, Captain my people and lived in peace. But the government wouldKennington, and the hate-filled Fred Calhoun never not let me alone. Finally, I came back to Red Cloudbothered to understand him. But true too, was the fact agency. Yet I was not allowed to remain quiet. I was tiredhe was betrayed by his own people, even a proud Red of fighting. I went to Spotted Tail agency and asked thatCloud who had driven the whites off the Bozeman chief and his agent to let me live there in peace. I cameTrail, only to sign off the Black Hills to them less than aApril 2023Volume 10Issue 6FREE Issue 7FREEhere with the agent (Lee) to talk with the big white chiefdecade later, or a Spotted Tail who made his peace withMay 2023Volume 10but was not given a chance. They tried to confine me, Ithe whites as early 1872 when he rode along Sheridan, tried to escape, and a soldier ran his bayonet into me. ICuster, and Buffalo Bill at Grand Duke Alexei\'s famous have spoken.\' And then, in a weak and tremulous voicebuffalo hunt.(as Lee, Crazy Horse\'s father, mother, and Touch the Clouds looked on) Crazy Horse broke out into the weirdIn the end, Crazy Horse WAS his own man. He never and now death song of the Sioux" (Colonel Homer W.compromised except for the benefit of his people, and hisAPRIL 1 & 2, 2023 Wheeler, Buffalo Days, Bobbs and Merrill, Indianapolis,spirit remained tall and proud from beginning to end.ETS RODEO! , L ICKENBURG ARIZONA1928, pp. 199-200). WPhoto: Imagery LLC Cowgirl With A Pen AZ Road Trip DI L D ee Anderson W,. EA HAPP YYTHY OUD KNO E L S E T SU RT L H DA URCEGHOS N T EOL W A&PPYSOTOWNS I EVENTC NDAR 3/15/23 10:27 AMYOUR #1 EQUINEWickenburg Chamber-AZ Real Country Apr cover 3.indd 1ArizonaRealCountry.com June 2023 41APRIL 1 & 2, 2023 S RODEO! , LET ENBURG ARIZONAWICKPhoto: Imagery LLC3/15/23 10:27 AMWickenburg Chamber-AZ Real Country Apr cover 3.indd 1'