Crazyhorse Essay, Research Paper

CrazyhorseWhen I think back of the stories that I have heard about how theNative American Indians were driven from their land and forced to liveon the reservations one particular event comes to my mind. That eventis the Battle of the Little Big Horn. It is one of the few times thatthe Oglala Sioux made history with them being the ones who left thebattlefield as winners. When stories are told, or when the mediadares to tamper with history, it is usually the American Indians whoare looked upon as the bad guys. They are portrayed as savages whospent their time raiding wagon trains and scalping the white settlersjust for fun. The media has lead us to believe that the Americangovernment was forced to take the land from these savage Indians. Weshould put the blame where it belongs, on the U.S. Government wholied, cheated, and stole from the Oglala forcing Crazy Horse, thegreat war chief, and many other leaders to surrender their nation inorder to save the lives of their people. In the nineteenth century the most dominant nation in the westernplains was the Sioux Nation. This nation was divided into seventribes: Oglala s, Brule , Minneconjou, Hunkpapa, No Bow, Two Kettle,and the Blackfoot. Of these tribes they had different band. TheHunkpatila was one band of the Oglala s (Guttmacher 12). One of thegreatest war chiefs of all times came from this band. His name wasCrazy Horse. Crazy Horse was not given this name, on his birth date in thefall of 1841. He was born of his father, Crazy Horse an Oglala holyman, and his mother a sister of a Brule warrior, Spotted Tail. Asthe boy grew older his hair was wavy so his people gave him thenickname of Curly (Guttmacher 23). He was to go by Curly until thesummer of 1858, after a battle with the Arapaho s. Curly s bravecharged against the Arapaho s led his father to give Curly the nameCrazy Horse. This was the name of his father and of many fathersbefore him (Guttmacher 47). In the 1850 s, the country where the Sioux Nation lived, wasbeing invaded by the white settlers. This was upsetting for many ofthe tribes. They did not understand the ways of the whites. When thewhites tore into the land with plows and hunted the sacred buffalojust for the hides this went against the morale and religious beliefsof the Sioux. The white government began to build forts. In 1851,Fort Laramie was built along the North Platte river in Sioux territory(Matthiessen 6). In 1851, the settlers began complaining of the Indians who wouldnot allow them to go where they wanted. U.S. Agents drew up a treatythat required the Indians to give safe passage to the white settlersalong the Oregon Trail. In return the government promised yearlysupplies of guns, ammunition, flour, sugar, coffee, tobacco, blankets,and bacon. These supplies were to be provided for fifty-five years. Ten thousand Sioux gathered at the fort to listen to the words of thewhite government and to be showered with gifts. In addition thetreaty wanted the Indians to allow all settlers to cross their lands.They were to divide the plains into separate territories and eachtribe was not to cross the border of their territory. The treaty alsowanted no wars to be waged on other tribes. They wanted each Indiannation to choose a leader that would speak for the entire nation. Many Indians did not like this treaty and only after weeks of briberydid the whites finally convince a sizable group of leaders to sign. The Oglala s were among those who refused (Matthiessen 6). This Treaty however did not stop the trouble between the Indiansand the settlers. The Indians however, did not cause violent trouble,they would perhaps approach a covered wagon to trade or extract giftsof food. The most daring warrior might make away with a metal pot orpan but nothing violent like the books and movies lead us to believe(Matthiessen 7). The straw that broke the camels back took place on August 17,1854 when the relations between the Indians and Whites were shattered. Among the settlers heading west was a group of Mormons and as theywere passing, a few miles south of Fort Laramie, an Indian stole acow. The Mormons reported this to Lieutenant Hugh B. Fleming, thecommander of the post. Fleming demanded that the offender, HighForehead of the Minneconjou, face charges. Chief Conquering Bearsuggested that the Mormons come to his herd of ponies and pick out thebest pony he had to replace the cow, which to the Sioux these ponieswere their wealth. This seemed to be a very gracious offer. Flemingwould not agree and sent Lieutenant John L. Grattan to bring back thewarrior. When Grattan arrived at Conquering Bears camp, he was givenanother offer. This time they could choose five ponies from fiveherds among the tribes. Grattan refused and began to open fire(Guttmacher 14-19). This outrageous act of war was not called for. The Mormons would have surely been satisfied with the ponies or themoney the ponies would have bought. The government just did not wantto keep the Indian-White relationship peaceful. Crazy Horse, thencalled Curly, was only thirteen when the soldiers and the Indiansfought. The Indians outnumbered the soldiers and won the battle(Guttmacher 20). Crazy Horse eventually became a leader of his people. In today ssociety our leaders are given money and gifts but in the times ofCrazy Horse it was almost the opposite. He was expected to livemodestly, keep only what he needed and give away the rest. Afterhunting he would give the needy the choicest meat and keep the stringymeat for himself. He did however, have the honor and prestige thatallowed him to make the decisions for the tribe (Ambrose 125). As well as other Sioux leaders, Crazy Horse lead his people intothe Powder River country. The reason for this move was to leavebehind the ways of the white man and continue living the ways of theSioux. The white man had brought to their country sickness, liquorand damaging lifestyles much different from the lifestyles of theSioux. In 1865, U.S. officials wanted to obtain land from the Indians. They offered many different bribes, such as gifts and liquor, to theIndians who lived around the forts. They were very good at making thesell of land seem temporary and they convinced many that what theright thing to do was sell. The land they wanted was access land intothe Powder River country. The government did not have the luck theyneeded in obtaining the land with money or bribes. So in the summerof 1865 they sent more than two thousand soldiers from Fort Laramieinto the Powder River country (Ambrose 151). In 1866 the government, knowing that the land they wanted wasworth much more, offered the Sioux fifteen thousand dollars annuallyfor access into Powder River country. The Indians did allow whites touse the Bozeman Trail just as they allowed immigrants to use the HolyRoad. The U.S. Government had an obligation to protect its citizensbut not to provoke a crisis. They did create a crisis when theyestablished forts in the heart of Oglala territory. After conqueringthe confederates the U.S. Army was full of optimism and wanteddesperately to have an all out war to exterminate the Sioux. Althoughthe Indians were allowing the whites to use the Bozeman Trail, thegovernment was not satisfied. They wanted the legal right to use thetrail. E.B. Taylor, a government agent at one of the Indian Offices,tricked some of the Indian Leaders into going to Fort Laramie in 1866for a treaty. He deliberately attempted to deceive them; he saidnothing about building forts along the trail, only that they wanted touse the Bozeman Trail. He offered them guns, ammunition, gifts plusmoney. The Indians did not sell (Ambrose 213-214).

In June 1867, the government officials produced a new treaty. This treaty, like all the ones before, only promised lavish gifts tothose who would sign. One of the Oglala chiefs, Red Cloud, wantedmore for his nation than the simple gifts offered. He wanted thetroops to move from the forts; Reno, Philkearny and C.F. Smith. During the summer of 1868 his request was accepted. The troops moved. A civil war hero William Tecumseh Sherman moved into the territory asthe new commander of the plains. He had plans to get the treatysigned. His hopes were to, shut up the congressional critics, get theSioux to agree on a treaty and maintain the army’s morale. Afternegotiations were made Red Cloud lead one hundred-and twenty-fiveleaders of the Sioux nations to sign the treaty of 1868. This treatyguaranteed absolute and undisturbed use of the Great SiouxReservation. No person shall ever be permitted to pass over, settleupon, or reside in territory described in this article, or withoutconsent of the Indians pass through the same (Matthiessen 7-8). Thistreaty also stated that the hunting rights on the land between theBlack Hills and the Big Horn Mountains as long as the grass shallgrow and the water flows .(Guttmacher 73). It forced the Indians tobe farmers and live in houses. There could be no changes made to thetreaty without three fourths of all adult males of the Sioux nationagreeing (Ambrose 282). The Indians had divided into those who agreed with the treaty,the friendly and those who wanted nothing to do with the treaty, the hostile . The U.S. government did not recognize these separategroups. They forbid trade with the Powder River Indians until allIndians moved to the reservation. This was not in the Treaty of 1868,(Guttmacher 76). Even though the government was getting the best part of thetreaty they were not satisfied with progress. In 1871 the IndianAppropriation Bill was passed which stated hereafter no Indian nationor tribe within the United States shall be acknowledged or recognizedas an independent nation, tribe or power with whom the U.S. maycontract by treaty (Matthiessen 7-8). General Armstrong Custer was appointed as the new commander ofthe plains. He led the Seventh Calvary on a mission to subdue a bandof hostile Cheyenne. The calvary came across an Indian village andattacked them instead. Black Kettle, the chief of the village and hiswife were killed as they rode to surrender. This killing of 100Cheyenne, mostly women and children, and 800 ponies was advertised asCuster s victory against the brutal savages (Guttmacher 81-82). The U.S. Army led an expedition into the Sioux territory. According to the Treaty of 1868 this expedition was not legal. Theexpedition was to survey land for the Northern Pacific Railroad. Therailroad meant progress. (Guttmacher 81). Since the civil war the American economy was booming. Railroadstocks led the way. On, September 18 1873, banking crashed. Farmprices plummeted, grasshopper plaques ruined crops, yellow feverstruck in the Mississippi Valley, and unemployment went sky high. Thegovernment figured that it s role was to pour money into the economy. The gold supply was insufficient. President Grants solution to theeconomy was to open new territory for exploration. So in the springof 1874 troops were sent to open a fort in the Black Hills. Thegovernment, exaggerated at the best or lied at the worst, said theIndians were not keeping up their part of the treaty. Custer was incharge of this expedition. During this expedition Custer claimed thatthere was gold in the Black Hills. Grant looked at this as anopportunity to show the country he could pull them from the depressionand he opened the Black Hills for prospecting. This broke the treatyof 1868 again (Ambrose 343-346). The Black Hills was a sacred placeto the Sioux. It was a place where spirits dwelled, a holy placecalled Pa Sapa by the Sioux. The whites had only the crudest conceptof what the hills meant to the Indians. By 1876 ten thousand whiteslived in Custer City, the frontier town of the southern Black Hills. Agency Indians were not living very well on the reservations. Government agents were corrupt. They would accept diseased cattle,rotten flour and wormy corn. They would get a kickback on theprofits. The Indians were undernourished and even starving. Theagents also claimed the Indians exaggerated in their numbers just toreceive more rations. However, in a census conducted by thegovernment trying to prove this, they found that the Indians wereactually claiming less (Ambrose 359). In 1876, the agencies were taken from the churches and given tothe army to control. This was petitioned to Washington withstatements that soldiers were obnoxious and their dislike for Indianswas very obvious. Also the army was corrupting the Indians byintroducing and encouraging alcohol and gambling. The petition alsostated that all the agency troubles had been caused directly orindirectly by the soldiers. No change in policy was done on behalf ofthese petitions (Kadlecek 33). Unwilling to pay for the Black Hills and unable to defeat theSioux in war, on August, 15, 1876 Congress passed the SiouxAppropriation Bill. This bill stated that further provisions wouldnot be given to the Sioux until the hostiles gave up the Black Hills,Powder River country and Bighorn country. They would also have tomove to the Missouri River in Central Dakota or to Oklahoma. Upsetbecause of there defeat the Government demanded unconditionalsurrender of the Sioux or they would starve those in the agencies. Red Cloud and the other chiefs were told to sign a treaty or theirpeople would starve. Crazy horse and Sitting Bull continued to fightfor land that was stolen from them in a misleading treaty (Ambrose417-418). The Treaty of 1876 was not signed by at least three fourthsof the male members of the Sioux nation as the Treaty of 1868 hadstipulated. So they cheated by calling the treaty an Agreement instead of a treaty (Friswold 19). The government had changed or disturbed nearly every part of theIndians lives. They had taken their horses (their wealth), takentheir land, taken the buffalo and taken their tipis. They still hadtheir religion. They had seven ceremonial rites of which two were themost beneficial; the Vision Quest and the Sun Dance. The Vision questwas an individual dance and the Sun Dance a community affair. In June1877 the biggest Sun Dance seen on the reservation, twenty thousandstrong, was held to honor Crazy Horse. This was the last big SunDance (Kadlecek 37-42). Crazy Horse was finally persuaded to bring his people in to liveon the reservation. Crazy horse was lied to when a governmentofficial told him that he was needed at a conference. He realizedthis was a trap when he saw bars on the windows. He drew his knifeand attempted to break loose. A white soldier, William Gentiles,lunged at Crazy Horse with a fixed bayonet that punctured his kidney. Crazy Horse died September, 5 1877 (Kadlecek 53). The Sioux Indians had lost nearly everything that made them astrong nation. In 1881 the government prohibited all reservationsfrom allowing the Sun Dance. The government went against the FirstAmendment and took away the Sioux s greatest religious ceremony. General Sherman, never known as an Indian lover, said a reservationwas a parcel of land inhabited by Indians and surrounded by thieves (Matthiessen 17). This type of harassment did not stop. In 1887 theGeneral Allotment Act (the Dawes Act) was passed. This Act wasdesigned to assist the Indians to mainstream into America. Each maleIndian was given 160 acres of land from the reservation. Of coursethe excess land was taken by the government and sold to the whites. The Indians were not accustom to dealing with thieves and the majorityof them lost their land through shady dealings (Matthiessen 17). The U.S. Government used many deceptions to obtain the land theIndians once owned. The Sioux Indians were not treated with the mostrespect to say the least. They must be commended for staying strongand still being a big part of the United States today.Budd 3