Crazy Horse

There are some in the world who do not conform to the status quo. Crazy Horse, one of the most famous Native American warriors, did not follow the rules of the prescribed storyline outlined by the European settlers. He often broke the rules of his people, not following traditions. He was an iconoclast, a mythological figure in a human body.

Crazy Horse stayed true to one purpose: protecting his home, the Great Plains. Not once in his lifetime did he leave his home. He was a loner by choice. He was a mystery because he avoided the whites, and often spent days alone from his tribe. 

He traveled by horse throughout the Great Plains, a massive territory spanning the modern states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska — known as the Great Sioux Nation. The horse gave him freedom. Like most natives, Crazy Horse was an excellent horseman. Same with the Comanche, the Sioux survived the attacks of the whites with their heavy artillery due to their skills on the horse. The Sioux and the Comanche were superior horsemen compared to the whites. They should have been wiped out much sooner. It was never a fair fight. 

The Calvary with their Indian scouts  often tried to capture Crazy Horse. They never did. Some theorize that he would walk his horse uphill and gallop downhill. The Calvary rode their horses hard and would have to stop when their horse collapsed from exhaustion. 

In many ways, Crazy Horse was similar to Jesus except for one major difference. Crazy Horse did not preach. He was a man of action. He never was a “chief,” only a leader. He fed the young and old in his tribe. His bravery in battles was superhuman. He stayed with his people until they could no longer feed themselves due to the genocide of the buffalo. 

In the end, he was killed by both the whites and Indians. After he surrendered, the whites wanted to put in a cell to rot on the Dry Tortugas off the coast of Florida. The Agency Indians found him a threat. In his last moments, his arms were held by an Indian, while a white man stabbed him in the kidneys. 

Larry McMurtry, in his book “Crazy Horse,” writes, 

“A Sioux Christ? That touches on his charity and on his betrayal, but he was a determined warrior too, one of the great Resisters, men who do not compromise, do not negotiate, do not administer, who exist in a realm beyond the give-and-take of conventional politics and who stumble and are defeated only when hard circumstances force them to live in that realm.”

The myth of Crazy Horse continues. This is certain……he remained true to himself.

If you are not sure what to call yourself (white, Indian, black, he, she, them, etc), always  turn to your purpose. If you are not sure of your purpose, that is an excellent place to begin!

Like Crazy Horse, I have found the gift of horses. They never lie to me. They always give me the truth, no matter what.

If you need some truth in your life, you may schedule an equine therapy session at cam@camronadibi.com