(1842?–77). Crazy Horse was a war leader of the Oglala, a tribe of the Sioux Indians. He was one of the greatest warriors in the Plains Indian Wars. The Indians of the Great Plains waged these wars in the mid-19th century to stop non-Indians from invading their lands.

Early career

Crazy Horse was born in about 1842 near what is now Rapid City, South Dakota. His Indian name was Ta-sunko-witko. As early as 1865, Crazy Horse was leading his people in fighting the efforts of the United States to construct a road that would lead whites through Dakota territory to goldfields in present-day Montana.

On December 21, 1866, Crazy Horse participated in the Fetterman Massacre. He and a large force of Indian warriors attacked and killed an 80-man troop lead by Captain William J. Fetterman in Wyoming Territory. It was the worst defeat the U.S. Army had suffered at the hands of the Indians up to that time.

By the terms of the Treaty of Fort Laramie of 1868, Sioux leaders agreed to keep their people within the borders of the Great Sioux Reservation. Crazy Horse, however, refused to honor the treaty. He and his followers left the reservation for buffalo country, where they continued to hunt, fish, and wage war against enemy tribes as well as whites.

Later battles

In 1874 gold was discovered in the Black Hills. This area, a part of his people's reservation, was considered sacred ground by the Sioux. Prospectors, disregarding Indian treaties, swarmed over the area, and Army troops were sent to protect them. Crazy Horse and his followers forced them to withdraw in June 1876.

Later that month Crazy Horse joined the main Sioux camp, led by Sitting Bull, on the banks of the Little Bighorn River. There, on June 25, the Sioux fought a battalion of U.S. soldiers under Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer. During the famous battle of the Little Bighorn, Custer and all of his men were killed.

Surrender and death

Crazy Horse and his followers then returned to the hill country to resume their old ways. They were pursued by federal troops. Weakened by cold and hunger, Crazy Horse finally surrendered at the Red Cloud Agency in Nebraska on May 6, 1877.

While being held prisoner at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, Crazy Horse was killed on September 5, 1877, during a scuffle with U.S. soldiers. For his uncompromising defense of the rights of his people, Crazy Horse has become a symbol of pride to many American Indians.