Custer's Last Stand | Part 9 | The Death of Crazy Horse

Though the Battle of the Little Bighorn seemed for the triumphant Lakota and their allies - the largest gathering of Plains Indians ever assembled - a miraculous victory, it was for them the beginning of the end. A great council was held near the battlefield in which they made the fateful decision to split up. Meanwhile, in Washington, Custer’s death and the military defeat of the army was being politicised, and the public rallied against the Lakota. Red Cloud, their political leader through so many of their struggles, was replaced with a puppet interloper. Then, during the winter of 1877, a contingent of ruthless and fiercely effective U.S. officers, including General Crook and General Miles, chased and harried the retreating Sioux contingents through the snows, leaving them starving, beleaguered and desperate. At last, in March 1877 the once formidable war chiefs Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull found themselves cornered, and their people left with little choice but to admit defeat. What then would be their fate?

Join Dominic and Tom as they discuss the annihilation of the Plains Indians and the dissolution of their extraordinary culture and nomadic way of life, along with the tragic death and downfall of one of the most mesmerising and mysterious characters of the entire story: Crazy Horse.

Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook

Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

[eshaibraheem]

I don't want this series to end. It has engaged me like no other.

[d.m.]

Hello. Native Wyomingite here. We say prounce it like Nezz Purse in our area. Regardless, thank you for telling our history so well and so sensitively. We have many areas in our state names after Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and of course many others. Brings me to tears hearing of their plight, every time.

[tommonk]

I've been to the Black Hills and the Badlands a couple of time. Just beautiful country. The long term and long lasting effects of these actions are tragic and still very evident today, nearly 150 years later.... The poverty, destitution, alcoholism, etc., are still very rampant.

[mechtainted]

Wonderful series chaps, love the deep dive into this story. Crazy Horse's death on the floor was heartbreaking to listen to 😢

[shonaokane]

Just read " The Journey Of Crazy Horse" written by Joseph M. Marshall III. A really good read about Crazy Horse the man not focused on the Little Big Horn battle. Worth reading to anyone interested in this subject. Love this series, so well done.

[scotharden]

Absolutely riveting! Just discovered your channel and can't get enough. Thank you so much for doing this. Your story telling ability is second to none as is your ability to bring history to life. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[johnnyallen]

Just found this channel---you two are awesome--keep telling the story!!! Thanks.

[tomtaylor]

I enjoy these very much. Please consider doing a series on the Comanche. Here in West Texas they ruled the Roost and in my opinion were the most formidable Tribe

[belalkhanfar]

''What I return to most often when I think of Crazy Horse is the fact that in the adjutant’s office he refused to lie on the cot. Mortally wounded, frothing at the mouth, grinding his teeth in pain, he chose the floor instead. What a distance there is between that cot and the floor! On the cot, he would have been, in some sense, “ours”: an object of pity, an accident victim, “the noble red man, the last of his race, etc. etc.” But on the floor Crazy Horse was Crazy Horse still. On the floor, he began to hurt as the morphine wore off. On the floor, he remembered Agent Lee, summoned him, forgave him. On the floor, unable to rise, he was guarded by soldiers even then. On the floor, he said goodbye to his father and Touch the Clouds, the last of the thousands that once followed him. And on the floor, still as far from white men as the limitless continent they once dreamed of, he died. Touch the Clouds pulled the blanket over his face: “That is the lodge of Crazy Horse.” Lying where he chose, Crazy Horse showed the rest of us where we are standing. With his body, he demonstrated that the floor of an Army office was part of the land, and that the land was still his. Crazy Horse was my gran’father!''

[WargamingHistory]

Cracking work guys, loving this series

[vaquerojoe]

To hear this history from a European's view is to take the blinders off this American's colored view of the Indians wars.

[grahamwilman]

Gentleman…what super listening to history, I believe you to could talk and debate about paint drying on a wall I would still want to listen, amazing stuff 😊

[vickdisco]

I would love to hear your take on Ranald S. McKenzies' campaign against Quanah Parker, the last Commanche chief to hold out in Texas. An incredible story that deserves your narration, guys.

[MegaMarlo]

I wish they would do a modern movie about this battle! That would be awesome!

[chrisbotelho]

Great job. Very entertaining, well told.

[M.Wiggins]

I have greatly enjoyed this series. Please consider doing one on the Alamo!

[richardcutt]

I visited the LBH battlefield in April 1993, for 1 week. Drove through Lame Deer reservation thinking i would find a cappucino and a craft shop. What I saw there was disheartening. A ruined people, an unfolding tragedy.

[TheClocksWereStriking]

Damn, Crazy Horse betrayal and death got me. Broke my heart.

[Sean-fbcy]

Thank you for this iv just found your channel

[johncanzoneri]

As your Boutica, she went on a rampage, burned, murdered her way over Britania and was totally crushed by the Romans, so was the Lakota way of life and Britains became civilized and peace broke out. Then you crushed countless nations of primitives in your empire and here we are today! Thank you for your language, Shakespeare, Dickens and Newton.