Crazyhorse

Crazy Horse
Tȟašúŋke Witkó
A 1934 sketch of Crazy Horse made by a Mormon missionary after interviewing Crazy Horse's sister, who claimed the depiction was accurate.
Oglala Lakota leader
Personal details
Born	Cha-O-Ha ("In the Wilderness" or "Among the Trees") c. 1840
Died	September 5, 1877 (aged 36–37) Fort Robinson, Nebraska
Cause of death	Bayonet wound
Spouse(s)	Black Buffalo Woman Black Shawl Nellie Larrabee (Laravie)
Relations	Little Hawk (brother), Laughing One (sister); cousins: Touch the Clouds, Flying Hawk, Kicking Bear, Black Fox II, Eagle Thunder and Walking Eagle; grandparents: Black Buffalo and White Cow (also called Iron Cane); uncles: Spotted Tail, Lone Horn, Little Hawk; aunts: Good Looking Woman, Looks At It (later called They Are Afraid of Her); father's wives: Iron Between Horns (mother of half-brother Little Hawk), Kills Enemy, and Red Leggins
Children	They Are Afraid of Her
Parents	Crazy Horse (the elder), also known as Waglula ("Worm"), Rattling Blanket Woman (born 1814)
Military service
Nickname(s)	Curly, Light Hair
Battles/wars	Fetterman Fight, Battle of the Rosebud, Battle of the Little Bighorn

Crazy Horse (Lakota: Tȟašúŋke Witkó in Standard Lakota Orthography,IPA:/tχaʃʊ̃kɛ witkɔ/, literally "His-Horse-Is-Crazy"; c. 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota in the 19th century. He took up arms against the United States federal government to fight against encroachment by white American settlers on Indian territory and to preserve the traditional way of life of the Lakota people. His participation in several famous battles of the American Indian Wars on the northern Great Plains, among them the Fetterman massacre in 1866, in which he acted as a decoy, and the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, in which he led a war party to victory, earned him great respect from both his enemies and his own people.

In September 1877, four months after surrendering to U.S. troops under General George Crook, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet-wielding military guard, while allegedly resisting imprisonment at Camp Robinson in present-day Nebraska. He ranks among the most notable and iconic of Native American warriors and was honored by the U.S. Postal Service in 1982 with a 13¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.

Sources differ on the precise year of Crazy Horse's birth, but most agree he was born between 1840 and 1845. According to a close friend, he and Crazy Horse "were both born in the same year at the same season of the year", which census records and other interviews place in 1842.Encouraging Bear, an Oglala medicine man and spiritual adviser to the Oglala war leader, reported that Crazy Horse was born "in the year in which the band to which he belonged, the Oglala, stole One Hundred Horses, and in the fall of the year", a reference to the annual Lakota calendar or winter count. Among the Oglala winter counts, the stealing of 100 horses is noted by Cloud Shield, and possibly by American Horse and Red Horse owner, as equivalent to the year 1840–41. Oral history accounts from relatives on the Cheyenne River Reservation place his birth in the spring of 1840. On the evening of his son's death, the elder Crazy Horse told Lieutenant H.R. Lemly that the year of birth was 1840.