Crazy Horse

Indian name Ta-Sunko-Witko. ?1849--77, Sioux Indian chief, remembered for his attempts to resist White settlement in Sioux territory

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Crazy Horse

(1842–1877) Indian chief who led Sioux against the white men in the northern plains. [Am. Hist.: EB, III: 225–226]

See: Wild West

Crazy Horse (b. Tashunka Witco)

(?1842–77) Oglala Sioux chief; born near the Black Hills near present-day South Dakota. His mother was a sister of Brulé Chief Spotted Tail and his father was an Oglala medicine man who often spoke of the need for a leader to unite the Sioux and drive out the whites. As a youth, Crazy Horse was solitary and meditative—the Sioux called him "Strange One"—but also an accomplished hunter and fighter. He participated in all of the major Sioux actions to protect the Black Hills against white intrusion, believing himself immune from battle injury. In 1865 he was selected as a "shirt wearer," or protector of the people, in recognition of his valor and achievement and he took part in the main battles of Red Cloud's war (1865–68). In 1876 he was named supreme war and peace chief of the Oglalas, uniting in struggle most of the Sioux still free. In January 1876 he led the Sioux and Cheyenne to victory at the battle of Rosebud; that July he led these same tribes' warriors in defeating Custer's forces at Little Bighorn. Pursued by U.S. forces, with his band of some 1,000 facing starvation, he surrendered in May 1877. White fear and Indian jealousy led to intrigue against him and finally to his death at the hands of a U.S. soldier—allegedly while resisting being forced into a jail cell. He is regarded as a symbol of the heroic resistance of the Sioux and as their greatest leader, and a gigantic figure of Crazy Horse has been sculptured (by Korczak Ziolkowski) out of mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Mentioned in

References in periodicals archive

Young and Crazy Horse recorded the album in the eponymous state of the record's title, at the Studio in the Clouds, just outside the ski resort of Telluride.

LISTEN: Neil Young, Crazy Horse drop new song 'Milky Way'

He has since released 23 records with Crazy Horse, including EPs and live albums.

Young is ready for Crazy nights

Marshall III incorporates the Lakota's oral tradition to provide a unique perspective into the life and death of Crazy Horse. Told from multiple points of view, readers gain a deeper understanding of the warrior who sought to protect his people by fighting the U.S.

Marshall III, J.: In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse

"When I heard that Neil and Crazy Horse were playing in Liverpool last year I was straight on the phone and I got the support slot," he says.

Supporting my hero Neil is a dream come true

In the mid-1930s she was traveling with journalist Eleanor Hinman who was planning her own Crazy Horse biography.

Crazy Horse, the Strange Man of the Oglalas

Pat took us on a dizzying climb up to Crazy Horse's face and out onto what will be his outstretched arm, pointing out across the sacred lands of his beloved Black Hills.

Still wild in the American West; Cowboy movie fan ROLY SMITH gets a taste of the frontier days in the foothills of the Rockies

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - completed by Ralph Molina and Billy Talbot - also recently announced a British Summer Time show in London's Hyde Park on July 12.

Young concert

They took their name from the original Crazy Horse who led the Sioux Indians to victory against General Custer in the Battle of the Little Big Horn in 1877.

Brum went wild for Bill and Bull; ANDY RICHARDS looks at the day Indian chief Sitting Bull arrived in Birmingham

For every towering wall-of-sound moment, there''s an indulgent wail of feedback waiting just around the corner, but this is Neil Young and Crazy Horse, managing to sound like only Neil Young and Crazy Horse can.

Gig Review; Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle

Now he is reunited with rock band Crazy Horse to tour for the first time in eight years.

GIG OF THE WEEK

FIRST PRIZE INCLUDES HOTEL STAY The hotly-anticipated performance by rockers Neil Young & Crazy Horse will take place at Dublin's RDS Arena on Saturday, June 15 and we're giving YOU the chance to be there!

YOUR CHANCE TO WIN; LIVE AT THE RDS ARENA, DUBLIN