Note that the December 6, 1872 report of Cheyenne River
Agent lists CRA people who have started farming. Note no.
112 High Bear, clustered near several names also clustered
in the 1871 Lodge Roll, e.g. Holy Bear (cf. The Bear that
is considered medicine); Little Bull; The one that makes
him walk; Crow Woman (also 1875).
The
Aske Band: Miniconjou and Sicangu Connections
From
my conversations with Chris Ravenshead, I synthesize the
following information:
The Aske band settled at Cheyenne River near Cherry Creek,
but were distinct from both Hump's and Joseph White Bull's
tiyospaye, which were also settled at Cherry Creek. The
name means a tuft or lock of hair, and in early reservation
times signified people who did not cut their hair, i.e.
were traditional, 'non-progressive' Lakotas.
The
Aske were an old band among the Miniconjous, and people
belonging to it included Charley Blue Arm, Iron Cane, Eagle
Chasing, White Feather, and Swift Dog. The woman called
Esther Smoking Woman, said by some to have been a sister
or cousin of Crazy Horse, lived in her old age with the
Eagle Chasing family near Cherry Creek.
The
genealogy of the Builds Fire family (see Chris Ravenshead
conversation Feb. 25, 1995), stretches back to ca. 1800.
One of Builds Fire's sons, Charging Hawk, of the generation
born ca. 1825, and his son, Beautiful Bald Eagle (born 1860)
were specifically identified as Aske. This suggests that
Aske was a named entity as early as ca. 1820.
Many
Aske were killed at Wounded Knee, including Charley Blue
Arm's brother Pretty Hawk, and White Dog. The latter was
a son of Black Moon, whose family had stayed in Canada in
1881, but occasionally visited Cheyenne River, until they
finally returned permanently to the reservation in 1894.
This suggests that the Black Moon family may have been Aske,
since White Dog was only a youth at the time of his death.
It is noteworthy that Paul High Back, born 1870, seems to
have been another son of Black Moon, suggesting a family
connection to High Backbone.
White
Magpie and Pretty Bald Eagle, two families related to each
other, and to the Runs After family, live today on opposite
sides of the road at Cherry Creek. I had observed to Chris
that men of that name may have belonged to Roman Nose's
camp of Miniconjous in the 1870's (Roman Nose, also known
as They Are Afraid of His Shield; prominent Miniconjou headman,
great-grandfather of Stephen Charging Eagle of Red Scaffold).
Pretty Bald Eagle, alive today, was born 1918/19, says he
is full-blood Miniconjou, related to Brown Thunder and White
Feather (Aske band, today that family lives at Dupree).
There are families called Bald Eagle today at both Rosebud
and Pine Ridge, and Victor Douville noted to me that all
were related in some way. Today White Magpie owns an Oglala
Winter Count.
The
Iron Shell (Sicangu) connection
Susan
Bettelyoun stated (MSS, Nebraska State Historical Society)
that the Sicangu chief Iron Shell, born in 1815/16, The
Year an Earth Lodge was Built By the Sans Arcs, belonged
to the Aske, Tuft of Hair band. "They were good hearted
people, but quick and active, and also quick tempered. If
any of the people of the other bands lost control of their
tongues they were accused of belonging to the Aske band."
A modern newspaper story identified Iron Shell's band as
the Aske Kluwipi.
From
the Hassrick information, we know that Iron Shell was the
son and grandson of headmen (naca) among the Miniconjous,
the father being Shot in the Heel, the grandfather Crooked
Hand. It seems likely that this tiyospaye was the Aske,
and that part of the group joined the Brules in the period
1805-20, including the Iron Shell family.
Victor
Douville told me that the name Aske was applied generally
to the Northern Lakota divisions, rather like the term Saone,
that it means 'to wrap the hair' (rather than braid it),
and that, like Chris's first statement, it came to mean
non-progressive, anti-American Lakotas in the war period
1854-80, and, subsequently, on the reservation. Northern
Brule groups like the Wazhazhas and Wablenicas were said
to be Aske. Spotted Tail, as the son of a Sihasapa man,
was said to originally belong to the Aske, but that he lost
favour with this group as he became more pro-American.
Crazy
Horse and the Aske
Synthesizing
this information, I suggest that Crazy Horse's Miniconjou
mother and stepmothers may have been identified with the
Aske band. (Victor Douville directly confirmed this identification:
Conversation of May 7, 2002.) Moreover, the last surviving
stepmother died on the Rosebud Reservation, where she lived
with the family of Brule relatives called Bald Eagle. Both
Victor and Chris stated that this family has collateral
branches among the Oglalas, Miniconjous and Brules, and
Chris specifically identified the Cheyenne River Bald Eagle
family with the Aske band, an identification going back
to ca. 1820.
Crazy
Horse's mother was related as cousin to his two stepmothers,
Iron Between Horns and Kills Enemy. If we assume that Runs
After Enemy was Aske, I suggest that his sister was married
to Corn, and that their daughters included Iron Between
Horns and Kills Enemy. Corn must have belonged to another
band (Unkceyuta?), but by common Lakota practice, the daughters
of a family were often identified with the mother's tiyospaye.
Thus all three women could have been Aske band members.
The fact that Esther Smokey Woman, related to Crazy Horse
through his stepmothers, lived with the Eagle Chasing family,
also identified specifically with the Aske band, confirms
a connection between Crazy Horse's family and this Miniconjou
tiyospaye.
Esther
Smokey Woman
Esther
Smokey Woman was born about 1859/60 and died during the
1930's. The most precise statement of her relationship to
Crazy Horse comes from Ellen Condon In the Woods, who states
that "Smokey Woman was Crazy Horse first cousin. She
always talk about him[.] She had an uncle Combing, - (Charles
son) Francis was his daughter - she married Joe Black Bear,
live in Cherry Creek".
Esther's "uncle" (probably her mother's brother)
Combing may be Leo Combing (born ca. 1848, still alive 1918),
the eldest son of Woman Breast and Red Legs. As the elder
brother of Julia Iron Cedar, Combing would have been a sunka,
i.e. a classificatory younger brother of Crazy Horse (a
cross-cousin in Euro-American terminology). This should
make Esther a niece of Crazy Horse's, but the generations
may be askew. Perhaps this Combing is not Leo Combing?
Note
that Ellen also states that Lone Horn was Esther Smokey
Woman's "father or uncle too". This is a possible
key to unlock the Lone Horn relationship to Crazy Horse,
but we need to clarify some of the details. Discounting
the possibility that Lone Horn was Smokey Woman's biological
father, he is most likely an uncle, classified by the Lakotas
as leksi (mother's brother), unless he was father's brother,
in which case he would be classed as a father (ate).
I
assume that Esther's mother was a sister to Crazy Horse's
mother or stepmothers (hence "first cousin"/classificatory
sister). If Lone Horn was married to another of these 'sisters',
Esther would have called him 'father'. I am tending to the
belief that one of Lone Horn's wives (possibly Stands on
Ground, the mother of Touch the Clouds) was a sister/parallel
cousin to Rattle Blanket Woman and/or Iron between Horns
and Kills Enemy.
Notes from Testimony of Leo Combing in the heirship cases
of Red Leg and Julia Rushes, August 13, 1920: transcripts
supplied by the Clown family, through Jack Meister, July
2001
Q.
Who were the father and mother of Red Leg?
A. I have heard that her father’s name was Corn but I don’t
know her mother’s name and that is all I know about them.
.………………….
Q. Did she [Red Legs] have any brothers and sisters and
if so, name them and tell what you can about them.
A. She had two sisters that I saw and I have heard of others
but never saw them. One was called Iron Between Horns, and
the other one was called Kills Enemy. These are all the
names that I know. She had one brother that died before
I was born, when the Indians had some sickness and he was
called Bull Head, never married and never had issue. Both
sisters died before allotments.
Q. Was Iron Between Horns married and if so, how many times?
A. She was married one time.
Q. Who was her husband? A. Crazy Horse.
Q. How and when were they married? A. Indian custom long
ago.
Q. Is he living or dead? A. He is dead.
Q. When did he die? A. He died about 40 years ago.
Q. Did they have any children and if so, how many?
A. They had one, a boy.
Q. What was his name? A. High Horse.
Q. Is he living or dead? A. He died long ago, before allotments
when a young man, killed in an Indian war, and left no issue.
There is nothing left of her family at all.
Q. Was Kills Enemy married and if so, how many times?
A. She was married to the same as Iron Between Horns, Crazy
Horse, by the old Indian custom, and she died first, then
Crazy Horse died and last Iron Between Horns died and all
of them died long before allotments.
Q. Did Kills Enemy have any children and if so, how many?
A. She had two is what I have heard but they both died before
I was born and there is nothing left of her family.
—Kingsley Bray
I
am not certain that I agree with the hypothesis that the
Oyuhpe were at one time part of the Miniconjou. H. Scudder
Mekeel's notes imply that the Oyuhpe might have been the
original core group (or "head band") of the Oglala.
The Kuinyan later became head band of the Oglala and were
eventually displaced by the Itesica, so that by the 1870s
this tiyospaye referred to itself as the "True Oglala".
Everything that I have suggests that the Oyuhpe always considered
themselves Oglala.
However,
I do agree that there is plenty of evidence that the Oyuhpe
and the Miniconjou were closely aligned together. They were
neighbors, with overlapping hunting grounds and close intermarrying,
particularly in the period after the other Oglala tiyospaye
moved further west after the establishment of Fort Laramie.
Just my opinion -- but always ready to revise with more
evidence!
I
also thought you might be interested in the record for Female
Breast from the Sitting Bull Surrender Census, September
1881, listed in Hump's band:
A-ze
Tits 63
Hu-sa-sa-la Red Legs wife 63
Ma-ca [not translated] son 22
Hante Maza win Iron Cedar 12
This
family was transferred to the Cheyenne River Agency in 1882
where they appear in the 1886 census:
Breast
of Female, 61
Red Legs, 61
Iron Cedar, 18
I
will go through the census indexes for the other names and
see what I can find. —
Ephriam Dickson
The
name of the father of Crazy Horse was Crazy Horse. After
he transferred his name to his son, he was called as Worm.
He was perhaps a Hunkpatila-Oglala.
He had at least two brothers, Little Hawk and Spotted Crow.
Also was Bull Head and Ashes the uncles of Crazy Horse?
Crazy
Horse mother was perhaps a Minneconjou and her name was
Rattle Blanket Woman. Perhaps she connected somehow to the
famous Minniconjou chief Touch-the-Clouds, but it's not
sure.
Crazy
Horse had an unkown sister, who married with Little Killer's
brother Club Man. They had 8 children, but she and her children
all died before 1901.
Crazy
Horse's little brother name was Little Hawk. He died in
spring or summer of 1870. Perhaps he was never married?
Crazy
Horse married three times. Firstly he was with No Water's
Wife, Black Buffalo Woman, but they stayed together a few
days. It said that the woman later gave birth a light haired
girl, who still lived in the 1900's.
When he was 26 years old, he married Red Feather's sister,
Black Shawl. By her he had one girl, Kokipapi, They-Are-Afraid-of-Her,
who died when about 2-3 years old. When he surrendered at
Fort Robinson, he married a young french-Cheyenne girl,
Nellie Laravie, but Crazy Horse don't have child by her.
— Agnes
Nellie
was the daughter of Joseph Larabee (Laravee, Larvie, etc.)
or Joe Hunska (Long Joe) as he was known. He married twice.
His first wife was a Cheyenne with whom he had four daughters,
including Nellie. He later married Susan Metcalf and had
five or six sons, including: Phil, Alex, Bill, Tom, Dick.
While the family is listed among the Cheyenne in the 1876
census, they remained among the Oglala when the Cheyenne
were shipped south to Indian Territory in 1877. They lived
on Pine Ridge Reservation in later years and there were
many descendents. — Ephriam
Dickson
Richard
Hardorff´s book "The death of Crazy Horse"
gives a lot of information:
"Helen "Nellie" Laravie. Born along the South
Platte about 1860 she was one of four daughters of Joseph
Laravie, a french trader, and a southern Cheyenne woman.
Among her mother´s people, Helen Laravie was known
as Chi-Chi. In 1878 she settled among the Wajaje band of
Lip near Eagle Nest Butte on Pine Ridge and was known among
the Lakotas as Ista Gli Win `Brown Eyes Woman´."
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
You're
probably aware of this, but In Cash and Hoover's To Be An
Indian: An Oral History, an informant at Rosebud, George
Kills In Sight tells Jospeh Cash (in 1967) that CH is 'sort
of' related to his grandmother on his father's side. Nothing's
made explicit, except that he notes his grandfather was
Big Crow, then he seems to mix up CH's surrender with his
death, but adds that his grandfather referred to CH as 'brother-in-law'
and handed him a six-shooter. Interestingly, Kills In Sight
also talks about his uncle, Coffee (presumably the son or
grandson of the man mentioned by Kingsley), who knew where
CH was buried. — Grahame
Wood
Maybe
there are some more indications for a connection between
Crazy Horse and the Miniconjou:
-
Crazy Horse´s mentor High Backbone was Miniconjou
-
the Miniconjou Club Man married Crazy Horse´s sister
(Looks at her?)
-
Club Man and his brother Little Killer were close associates
of CH
-
another close associate, friend and relative?, Kicking Bear,
married a Miniconjou woman (Woodpecker Woman, a niece of
Miniconjou chief Big Foot)
Just
my thoughts as I was reading Kingsley´s postings.
— Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
AMOS AND JULIA IRON CEDAR CLOWN from notes of Raymond Clown
Amos
Clown, Cega/Paul Red Bird and Grows in a Day/Lucy (Mrs.
Poor Buffalo) were the children of Fights the Thunder/Mi
Ye Yi Lo (1828-1916) and Pazala/Thin Out/Rail/Rotation.
Amos Clown was born around 1864 in Montana. He was 12 and
took part in Custer's battle. His brother, Paul Red Bird,
is 15 years at that time. Both have seen lots of action.
They tell lots of eyewitness stories. It lasted about 30
minutes, they said.
Iron
Cedar/Julia Clown was born at Powder River, Montana around
1864. Her parents are Women's Breast/Corn and Red Leg (d.
1905). She has three brothers: Chief Crazy Horse (half-brother,
b. 1850); Peter Wolf and Leo Combing. Women's Breast/Corn
was also the father of Iron Between Horn (f) and Bull Head
(m). Julia's father died or was killed in battle in 1874
when she was 8. At age 10, she was not at the Custer battle
as they moved out before the battle. Amos Clown and Julia
Iron Cedar were married in 1884 by a Congregational minister.
Nine
children were born to this union:
Moses Clown/Running Eagle was born in 1891. He served in
World War I and was killed in Germany in 1918.
Joseph/Peter Clown (1894-1963) married Emiline Did Not Go
Home and they lived north of the Moreau River, across from
Amos Clown's.
Nellie/Mollie Clown (1896/7-1930) married Samuel Butcher.
James Clown (1901-1969) married Mary Red Bear and later
married Anna Red Bird.
Lillie Elizabeth Clown lived from 1903 until 1917.
Her sister, Lilie Clown (1903-1942) married James Makes
Trouble.
Louise Clown, born in 1905, married Henry Red Bear. They
now live in Dupree.
Edward Clown, born in 1908, married Amy Talks. They raised
their children west of
Iron Lightning, and now live in Dupree. Raymond Clown (1914-1981)
married Sarah
Marrowbone and raised six children in Thunder Butte.
Julia and Amos Clown are buried 3 miles east of Thunder
Butte Community at the
Clown Family Cemetery. She died in 1936 and Amos died in
1943. — Agnes
A couple of questions come to mind:
1.
You have Julia Iron Cedar's father listed as Woman's Breast/Corn.
You then say that Julia' father, presumably referring to
Woman's Breast, was killed in battle in 1874.
I
have never seen a reference to Woman's Breast also being
known as Corn. In an interview with Leo Combing, Julia's
brother, (posted above by Kingsley), you can see that Corn
was the father of Red Legs, Womans Breast's wife. I think
there might be confusion in Raymond's notes. Unless we are
talking about two different individuals, Woman's Breast
survived into the early reservation period. We have numerous
census records that show he, his wife Red Legs and his daughter
Julia. Woman's Breast died in 1900 (not 1874).
2.
Also, I think there is confusion about the relationship
of Iron Between Horn and Bull Head. According to the Leo
Combing interview, they were both siblings of Red Legs,
the wife -- not the children of Woman's Breast and Red Legs.
3.
According to the Clown family, Julia's siblings (children
of Woman's Breast and Red Legs) included:
Shell
Blanket (c1848-1894)
Leo Combing (c1851-1932)
James Bear Pipe (c1854-1892)
Peter Wolf (c1858-1918)
Comes Home Last (b. c1864)
Sacred Girl, infant (b. c1868)
The
children of Julia and Amos Clown that you listed are what
I have also.
4.
There appears to be some confusion currently among the Clown
family about the precise relationship to the Crazy Horse
family (as Kingsley notes above). One part of the family
claims that Crazy Horse the father (or Worm) was the same
person as Woman's Breast, just different names for the same
individual. However, agency census records suggest this
is in error. In the fall of 1881, a census was conducted
at both Standing Rock and at Rosebud at about the same time.
Woman's Breast appears in the 1881 Standing Rock Agency
census; Crazy Horse (the father) appears in the 1881 Rosebud
Agency census. They therefore cannot be the same person.
As
Kingsley has noted, the Clown family are probably related
to the Crazy Horse family through marriage. —
Ephriam Dickson
The
pipe and bundle of Ta'sunke Witco have been passed down
thru the Clown family of the Mnicojou band on CRR. Waglula
spent his final years (1881 - 1900) there and changed his
name twice to avoid government retaliation. One of the names
he used was Woman's Breast. His youngest daughter, Iron
Cedar (b. 1865, her mother was Red Leggins) or Julia Iron
Cedar married Amos Clown. Afraid of Her was living with
them when she died in 1889. So Julia Clown was the sister
of Crazy Horse. Remember that the to the Lakota, half siblings
were just plain siblings -- they were all the children of
Waglula. Bray follows the reservation census records of
the period and doesn't consider Julia Clown as Waglula's
daughter -- says her father was Woman's Breast. Therein
lies the conflict.
Ephriam
points out in a previous post that "In the fall of
1881, a census was conducted at both Standing Rock and at
Rosebud at about the same time. Woman's Breast appears in
the 1881 Standing Rock Agency census; Crazy Horse (the father)
appears in the 1881 Rosebud Agency census. They therefore
cannot be the same person. " The family states that
was the year he moved from Rosebud to CRR and changed his
name so he could have easily appeared on both census. IMHO,
those census records are far from dependable. These people
were in fear of their lives and hid their identity with
fictitious names and constant movement. Only in recent years
did the family feel safe enough to begin the work of telling
their history and documenting their lineage. They want it
recorded for the children. —
CLW
From
my own perspective, all forms of evidence used in reconstructing
the past should be viewed with a critical eye. This is true
whether we are talking about oral history passed down through
several generations or a written census record; this includes
maps and even photographs. Each of these records reflect
the perspective of the individual(s) who recorded it, with
all those imperfections and biases; and sometimes they reflect
the misunderstandings of those who read or hear the information
from within their own frame of reference. As avocational
historians trying to understand the past, we have to be
prepared to carefully examine every source and compare them
with other data. I don't believe that having a critical
eye about sources represents favoritism or racism, rather
an effort to get closer to "the truth", whatever
that may be.
But
some issues arise that cannot be completely resolved with
the available evidence. It is clear that the Clown family
have an oral history regarding Woman's Breast and Worm being
the same individual. I do not believe it is disrespectful
to that family if we consider this new information carefully
in light of what else is known. I acknowledge that their
information could very well be true. But it is also possible
that some part of it has become misunderstood. We should
point out that the oral history of other family members,
through the line of Little Hawk (Crazy Horse's uncle), disagree
with the Clown family claim. In fact, this very issue is
in court currently in an effort to determine the heirs of
Crazy Horse's estate.
One
of the writers in a message above is absolutely correct
in suggesting that census records are not always accurate.
I have found many inaccuracies, especially the earliest
ones from the 1876-1881 period. At most, a census record
represents just a snap shot and are not always easy to interpret
as Lakota relationships were recorded by bureaucrats using
the narrow Euro-American words and definitions. I find that
census records cannot stand alone. They are most helpful
when linked with other lines of evidence such as oral histories
and additional documents.
When
I attempt to match up the very meager census records with
the oral histories told by the Little Hawk descendants and
the Clown descendants about Crazy Horse's father, I think
the evidence leans more towards the Little Hawk oral history.
Womans Breast's family appears in the 1881 Standing Rock
Agency census in Hump's band of Minnecoujou, shortly after
they were transferred from Fort Keogh to Standing Rock.
Unfortunately, we do not have complete lists of Hump's band
while at Fort Keogh (we have a partial list from 1877),
but perhaps one day such a document will turn up. Based
on the fact that Womans Breast is with Hump in 1881, I suspect
he came in with him in 1877 to Fort Keogh and then traveled
downriver with Hump by steamboat to Standing Rock. The fact
that "Crazy Horse's father" (presumably Worm)
appears in the Spotted Tail/Rosebud census records in 1877-78
and in 1881 suggests to me that they are not the same individual
as claimed by the Clown family.
So
what might the Clown family oral history represent? The
evidence suggests that Julia Clown referred to Crazy Horse
as a "brother", not in the Euro-American definition
of the word but within the more expansive Lakota definition
of the term. I suspect that is true. What we may not understand
right now is the actually genealogical relationship of Julia
Clown and Crazy Horse. In the end, I wonder how important
that detail is. Whether the connection to Crazy Horse is
through Worm/Womans Breast being the same individual or
two closely related individuals, is it not possible that
the Clown family has preserved some interesting perspectives
on the life of Crazy Horse? —
Ephriam Dickson
1)
Little Hawk 1 was Corn's brother and his son, Little Hawk
2, who was killed in 1870, was a close friend to CH. Corn
was CH (step) Grandfather.
2) Hump 1 was Rattling Blanket Woman's brother, both children
of Black Buffalo. Waglula was kola to his brother-in-law.
And that would make the son, Hump 2 (of Standing Rock),
cousin to CH. Obviously a close connection all around.
— CLW
Corn
was a Miniconjou chief painted by Catlin in 1832 - to judge
by his appearance he may have been born in the late 1780s/early
1790s. Since writing the Crazy Horse biography I have located
winter count evidence that he died in 1846 or '47. His children
included such sons as Bull Head (possibly two bearing the
name, the eldest dying before ca. 1850), Has Horn (and maybe
some uncles of Crazy Horse that seem to fit in here: Ashes,
Spotted Crow); and daughters Red Leggings Woman, Kills Enemy,
and Iron Between Horns. The latter two married Oglala holy
man Worm (father of Crazy Horse by his first wife Rattle
Blanket Woman - also Miniconjou and related to the later
wives). Red Leggings Woman married a Miniconjou called Woman
Breast, and their children included Julia Iron Cedar - born
1864, who identified Crazy Horse as her brother - entirely
correctly according to the Lakota kinship system.
— Kingsley Bray
In
1844, when CH was four years old, Waglula was out hunting
when he came across Corn's camp under attack by the Crow.
Waglula and his warrior's engaged and turned the tide, but
not before Corn's wife was killed. In gratitude to Waglula
for saving his camp, Corn gave Waglula the daughters of
his dead wife: Iron Between Horns, Kills Enemy and Red Leggins.
They all returned with him. He took the first two as wives,
but because Red Leggins was young, he didn't take her at
that time.
Now he had been very happy with Rattling Blanket and this
was an unexpected occurance but a gift impossible to refuse.
Tragically, this is the sequence of events that led to Rattling
Blanket's suicide. She felt replaced and unloved, became
despondent and took her life.
It was several years later, when she had grown, that Waglula
married Red Leggins. And that appears to be the reason for
all the later confusion. —
CLW
The
Clown family is not a connection, it is sir in FACT, the
whole. As I write this, every now and again, I cast a look
at the family tree, the real one.
From my understanding, you followed the tree as it related
to Waglula's demise. That was a bad mistake. Take for instance
the individual named Roaming Nose. He is also known as Frog.
Say anything to you? Waglula is also Woman's Breast, Breast
of Woman and Kills at Night. I think one thing you failed
to realize is that from the time of his death, to 2000,
there was extensive DISINFORMATION purposely related. The
family was in fact actively pursued into the 20th century,
which included family assassination and attempted abduction
and assassination. You also relied on census records, another
grievous error. We were a nomadic people, fresh to a concentration
camp, travel was in our bones, and families were at different
agencies, and visitation was frequent, and being counted
at one agency was common when you were only visiting. Did
you check ration cards? Death records? Did you have the
inside track by talking with the lineal family? some of
these issues would have jumped out and slapped you if you
had. But the fact is sir, some of our Lakota families you
can not get an accurate picture with out talking to the
family historian, just about every family has one, and then
cross reference with other family members. Perhaps you followed
a tree that one Big Crow tries to claim, he is not in fact
related. His ancestor was married into the family, and due
to unacceptability or incompatibility or whatever causes
a divorce, it happened to his ancestor before a baby was
ever conceived, notice I do not reference a birth. Therefore,
at that point, there was no longer any connection what so
ever to his family. Why, why do the Europeans insist on
any thing dealing with Little Hawk?
Another fact, the Ogalala connection is with Jack Greasy
Hand, who married the Larrabee woman after Crazy Horses
demise. They used his ration card to get scarce and scanty
food rations, a clever move, and the Larrabee woman was
a spy. End of Ogalala connection, no relation, no ties.
Crazy Horse is Mnicoujou.
(…)
No, there is no photo of Crazy Horse.
No, no one has guessed his resting place correctly, you
are welcomed to keep guessing.
No, Sandoz was not even close, as a matter of fact, she
was hit with full blown disinformation.
thank you
Message from the Crazy Horse family
…let's
look at their latter-day claim that he was all Miniconjou.
Now, his mother and stepmothers certainly were Miniconjou
- no doubt about it. My feeling from the sources is that
he actually felt a lot more comfortable among his mother's
people than he did at 'home' among the Oglalas. Perhaps
expectations were that little bit more relaxed among the
mother's folks? Uncles and cousins were a little more indulgent
of the growing youth Crazy Horse, than was the case among
his father's people? In the biography I set out what we
know of the young Crazy Horse's stays among the Miniconjou,
including extended stays in 1851-2 and 1858-9. When he was
recovering from the No Water shooting in 1870, it was among
the Miniconjous that he convalesced. I think that's a very
significant fact, indicating his comfort among the people
of his mother.
However,
it's just untrue to believe that he was not an Oglala. The
Northern Oglala divisional council elected him as Shirt
Wearer in 1868, and as tribal war chief in 1870. According
to He Dog's nephew Joseph Eagle Hawk, who acknowledges that
Crazy Horse's mother was "from Cheyenne River",Crazy
Horse's father Worm was "an original Oglala Sioux".
Again this is a statement from a contemporary - someone
who knew these people in life. Such statements could be
multiplied many times. —
Kingsley Bray
Two
years before his 1920 interview, (Leo) Combing's younger
brother (Peter) Wolf was shot in the back by masked white
men in front of his wife and children. The assassins told
his wife it was because he was a member of the Crazy Horse
family. At the time of the 1920 interview, Combing was the
keeper of CH's pipe and bundle. Hardly surprising that he
insisted that Waglula and Woman's Breast were two different
men and worth considering, I think. —
CLW
The
information following here about Crazy Horse seems to be
based on the same sources than the DVD (www.reelcontact.com)
is. Here is an edit:
"Crazy
Horse's father, who was also named Crazy Horse (born 1810)
but took the name Worm after passing the name to his son,
was Lakota and his mother, Rattling Blanket Woman (born
1814), was Lakota. Rattling Blanket Woman was the daughter
of Black Buffalo and White Cow (also known as Iron Cane).
Black Buffalo is the one who stopped Lewis and Clark on
the Bad River. She was the younger sister of One Horn (born
1794) and Lone Horn (born 1804). She also had an older sister
named Good Looking Woman (born 1810) and a younger sister
named Looks At It (born 1815), later given the name They
Are Afraid of Her. Looks At It had a much bigger build than
her two older sisters. She got her second name because she
had married a man named Stands Up For Him. They had a child.
When the child died of a disease, he tried to take her south
away from her family. A fight ensued. She beat him up and
thus the name They Are Afraid Of Her was bestowed on her.
Rattling Blanket Woman also had another older half-brother
named Hump who was born in 1811. Hump's mother was Good
Voice Woman and Black Buffalo's second wife. Hump and Waglula
became best friends. When Waglula began to court Hump's
half sister, he presented three horses to the family head
Lone Horn (the older sibling One Horn had died earlier after
being gored by a buffalo, making Lone Horn the oldest male
and head man of the family. Their father, Black Buffalo,
had died in about 1820 near Devil's Tower, or as the Lakota
called it Grey Horn Butte, of sickness.). In return for
the three horses he hoped he could take Rattling Blanket
Woman as his wife as was the custom. But the family's women
wanted eight horses, and apparently they had the final say.
So Hump volunteered to go on a raiding party with Waglula.
They brought back 16 horses, four loaded with meat they
had captured from a Crow hunting party and presented it
to the family. Thus Rattling Blanket Woman and Waglula became
husband and wife. Crazy Horse was born with the name 'In
The Wilderness' or 'Among the Trees' (in Lakota the name
is phonetically pronounced as Cha-O-Ha) meaning he was one
with nature. His nickname was Curly. He had the same light
curly hair of his mother. In 1844 Waglula (aka Worm) went
on a buffalo hunt. He came across a Lakota village under
attack by Crow warriors. He led his small contingent in
to rescue the village. Corn who was the head man of the
village (the famed painter, George Catlin painted his picture
while visiting the tribe in 1832 entitled "Corn, Minicouju
Warrior") had lost his wife in the raid. In gratitude
he gave Waglula his two eldest daughters Iron Between Horns
(age 18) and Kills Enemy (age 17) as wives. Corn's youngest
daughter, Red Leggins, who was 15 at the time requested
to go with her sisters and all would become Waglula's wives.
When he got back to his village and his wife, Rattling Blanket
Woman, found out about his new wives she became distraught.
She and Waglula had been attempting to conceive another
child, but had failed. The arrival of the new wives made
her think she had lost favor with Waglula because she could
not get pregnant. At the time they were camped along the
White River. Without discussing it with Waglula she went
out and hung herself from a cottonwood tree. Waglula mourned
her death for four years and was celibate during that time.
Upon hearing what had happened to her sister, Good Looking
Woman, who also found she could not conceive, left her husband
and came to Waglula to offer herself as a replacement wife
for her sister. Waglula turned her down as a wife, but relented
in allowing her to raise her sister's son, Crazy Horse.
Later, Crazy Horse's other aunt They Are Afraid of Her helped
in the raising of Crazy Horse. She helped teach him to hunt
and take care of himself. They Are Afraid of Her was a very
independent woman."
There
is also information about Little Hawk I found interesting:
"Crazy Horse was in the Lakota camp with his younger
brother, High Horse (son of Iron Between Horns and Waglula)
and his cousin who he grew up with, Little Hawk (Little
Hawk was actually the nephew of his maternal step grandfather,
Corn), when it was attacked by Lt Grattan and 26 other troopers
during the 'Grattan Fight'. —
Dietmar Schulte-Möhring
However,
as to the core question of whether Worm and Woman's Breast
are in fact the same individual, I remain unconvinced. I
think I have posted this before, but we have both of these
individuals in the census records, and they overlap in 1881.
We can show in the reservation records Worm surrendering
at the Spotted Tail Agency in April 1877, transferred to
the Red Cloud Agency in May 1877 and returning to Spotted
Tail following the death of his son in Sept. 1877. He appears
in the Rosebud Agency census taken in the fall of 1881.
There is a gap in the census records between 1881 and 1886;
then in the 1886 census records, "Crazy Horse's mother"
(Worm's wife) as a widow.
As
to Woman's Breast (who census records show was a decade
younger than Worm), he appears to have surrendered at Fort
Keogh during the 1880-81 period, was transferred to the
Standing Rock Agency in the summer of 1881 and was counted
in the Sitting Bull Surrender Census in the fall of 1881.
So, at the same time Worm is being counted down at Rosebud,
Woman's Breast is being counted at Standing Rock. Woman's
Breast was then transferred to Cheyenne River in the spring
of 1882 and he appears in the regular annual census at Cheyenne
River from 1886 through his death in 1900.
In
addition, we have the comments of Worm recorded in September
1877 by Lieut. Lemly, in which he states that he had three
children, Crazy Horse being the last surviving one. If Crazy
Horse Sr. (Worm) had other children through Red Legs as
claimed by the Clown family, then why did he not mention
his other children?
I
think the evidence is clear that these are two seperate
families. However, I agree with Kingsley that these two
families are related, by marriage. —
Ephriam Dickson
Ephraim,
I talked to the family spokesman last night and read him
your analysis. He told me that he is listed in the ration
records first as 'Kills At Night' and then as 'Breast'.
His probate lists him as 'Woman's Breast' and other relative
probates list him as 'Breast of a Female'. If you wish to
have an interview with the family spokesman directly leave
me a message above and I'll get you his number. I know in
the DVD it talks about 'Kills at Night' and 'Woman's Breast'
but the DVD did not get into the detail of the ration records
or the variations of the name. They also told me he's not
the same one as listed on the census of Standing Rock.
You can also ask them about the Lemly statement. My personal
take on that is with Sept 1877 being when Crazy Horse was
killed, the paranoid mood of the time, and suddenly being
asked about any additional children by a soldier, he probably
was just being a good father. —
Brock
The
Clown family knew the actual physical description of the
Grattan Fight terrain before we got there. As luck would
have it Steve Fulmer's grandfather had owned and helped
till the land where the battlefield was. Their description
was quite surprising to the bookstore manager Pat Fullmer,
Steve's mom, and she had to go get her dad (who I believe
was in his 80's). We learned that the hills that the Clown
family described had been mostly flattened to make more
usable farmland. Only a small portion of the hill where
Crazy Horse was is still there. That's where I got that
shot of the field. The slough was filled in, once again,
for more farmland. This happened when Steve's grandfather
was young. It is not very well known or written about, especially
in the detail they described it. Yet they had never physically
been or seen any pictures. I have Steve on video tape talking
about this, but we decided we didn't want to make this a
defensive piece. So it doesn't appear in the final product.
That's at Fort Laramie NPS. That's somebody that can be
called.
Also
at Deer Medicine Rock there is a rock with a carving of
Crazy Horse's death vision that their grandfather told them
about. They went to the owner of the land who's family has
owned it since about 1880 named Bailey. They went by features
of the land, found it and interpreted it all before Bailey's
eyes. Bailey had known about this carving since he was a
boy (Bailey's at least in his 70's). But he had never witnessed
the good medicine they used to find it. He is a firm believer
in the family because of what he saw. I'm sure he would
talk to you. If you leave a message I could probably find
you his number. — Brock
I
do not agree with the comment regarding the 1881 Standing
Rock Agency census. As you can see below, it is the same
family. Woman's Breast is shown married to Red Legs and
has two children with him, a son Maca (Lakota for Wolf;
= Peter Wolf) and a daughter Iron Cedar, the name for Julia
Clown. This precisely matches the family oral history and
probate records:
A-ze
Tits 63
Hu-sa-sa-la Red Legs wife 63
Ma-ca [not translated] son 22
Hante Maza win Iron Cedar 12
I
agree that it is possible the Worm was unwilling to share
additional information about family members to an army officer
in 1877. But then how can one explain the comment by He
Dog, a close friend of Crazy Horse, speaking in 1930 who
said that Worm had three children, with Crazy Horse as the
middle child? This matches what Worm said that night in
1877. — Ephriam Dickson
Ephraim:
I just got off the horn with Doug...the person you'll be
talking to. I misunderstood and your 1881 Standing Rock
is correct except they called it the 'Northern Camps' and
I understood that as Cheyenne River. I apologize for that
one. He said you'll find Kills At Night at Fort Bennent,
Owl River, and Forest City...and probably at Upper Platte.
Also at Pine Ridge. It was a shell game to keep the agencies
confused so they would not find Waglula. There also would
be other Lakota named Kills At Night and they would set
up the ration card. So whatever name he chose there were
multiple Kills At Nights of different ages. Then maybe the
one that set up the ration card at say Owl River would go
to say Pine Ridge to get their rations at the same time
Waglula would go in with several elders in a group to mix
in at the Owl River location. They would go on the first
day because the agencies would rush them through and they
didn't have time to wire the other agency in time to catch
multiple rations. He would state he was a visiting relative
and show the ration card to say Fort Bennent one month,
Owl River the next and so on so it would appear he WAS a
visitor. They almost caught him as they questioned him on
the Kills At Night name (someone at the agency remembered
the real Kills At Night) so he changed it to Breast. Other
Lakota would have the same name to create confusion and
the whole process started all over again.
Oh,
and on the He Dog statement, Doug said he was talking about
the children that survived Waglula. But for some reason
it was interpreted as just three children. As far as the
Crazy Horse middle child statement Doug believes He Dog
was confused after all he was quite old...or it could have
been misinterpreted. Doug said He Dog was one of the people
that protected Waglula up until Waglula's death. —
Brock
We
have to understand the surprising depth of the protection,
thru disinformation, that went on behind the scenes and
view the census records in that context. Even before the
LBH, Waglula didn't list himself as a headman, knowing that
it would lead the government to Crazy Horse. —
CLW
The
family spells Iron Cedar Hante-sa Maza wi. She got that
name because she was born near a creek where there was lots
of petrified wood...hence Iron Cedar. Red Leggins or Red
Legs they spelled Hunska-sa. She got her name because when
she was small she ran through some buck brush and scratched
her legs up and then they were wrapped in some kind of cloth,
that cloth turned red from the scratches underneath leaking
through...hence Red Leggins. And Maca killed a wolf at a
young age, hence Wolf or Maca. And of course Breast, or
'Tits' as the agency crudely has it, was a shared name with
others primarily for the benefit of rations. —
Brock