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

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.

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

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.

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

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

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

Cracking work guys, loving this series

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!

Brilliant series chaps. 😊

It always troubles me when the bodies / and conditions of George Custer and Tom Custer are glossed over…. which they kinda do here. A few things::: 1. GAC wasn’t respected or honored by the Plains Indians (PI). There was NO reason for them not to mutilate his body unless they weren’t sure of his identity. There is the apocryphal story that a PI woman put awls in his ears because he wouldn’t listen. And an arrow shaft in his penis to shame his body. But in my opinion, this is taking the facts (the condition of GAC’s body) to fit the story. GAC was a hated enemy. If they truly knew his identity on the battlefield (btw, there were several officers that either wore full buckskins or partial buckskins in the battle, including Tom Custer), there is no doubt that he would’ve been fully mutilated. 2. Speaking of which, Tom Custer’s body was wreaked - head caved in, limbs mostly cut off, scalped, shot, gutted, deep slicing wounds down to the bone, pierced with almost 20 arrows (which happens when the hatred of the PI is so strong that even after their enemy is dead, they just fill the body up with arrow shot after arrow shot.) Tom Custer’s body, which was only yards away from GAC, was so mutilated that he was only recognized by the tattoo of his initials on his arm. So why was TC’s body wreaked, but GAC’s body left relatively unscathed? To me, there are 1 of 2 reasons: 1. Tom Custer was a 2 time Medal of Honor winner…which is practically unheard of. He was known as an unlikeable son of a bitch. And an absolutely demonic soldier. So it is entirely plausible that TC was such a barbaric and deadly fighter in this battle that after he was killed, the PI’s wanted to completely destroy and degrade his body. Yes. That’s possible and plausible. Or, 2. It’s even more likely that his maniacal battle prowess led the PI to assume/believe that he, in fact, was actually GAC. It should be noted that GAC’s hair was cut short before the battle. And TC’s hair was long. It is certainly feasible that the PI simply confused the 2 similarly dressed brothers. Hence, the vastly disparate treatment of the 2 bodies.

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.

When i was a young lad in the early 1960s I read a story about Chief Joseph led his band of Nez Perce who he led towards Canada and Sitting Bull. The were forced to surrender less than a 100 miles from 'safety'. I seem to remember that the treck was over a considerable distance.

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.

You two are magnificent.

The famous note to Benteen, not only says, “Bring packs,” but a post-script reiterates, “Bring packs.” (You can find a photo of the original online-complete with a transcription in Benteen’s hand on the same paper.) As noted, “hurry” and “bring the commissariat” are contradictory. Like heading out for an evening and saying, “It’s time to go, but stop for a haircut and shoeshine.” Given the known expenditure of ammunition by Reno’s battalion, and the double emphasis on bringing the packs, it seems logical that Benteen wouldn’t ride forward without the pack train in company.

There is a spiritual dimension to the battle of the LBH. The night of the 24th June at the Busby encampment the officers of the 7th serenaded Custer as he sat before his A tent. The last song was a hymmn. The Doxology. The officers did not get a sleep that night and half of them were dead within 18 hours.

Great series!

Thank you for this iv just found your channel

Would you please do a documentary series as long and as detailed that shows the actions taken against the tribes that didn’t want to be murdered?

I once went to Miles City in the great plains of Montana, and thought it was named for the fact that you can see for miles. Turns out, it was named for General Nelson Miles.

''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!''

It's amazing how Red Cloud went from I defiant warrior, to a little cowardly lacky for the whites. While Crazy Horse was a warrior for every daily of his life.

The Souix were invading the Crow homelands the Crow were untited with the army to expell the Souix.

Compared to how many of Custer’s troops died, Crazy Horse got off lightly.

Also Black Elk Speaks is a wonderful tale transcribed by John G. Neihardt. Mari Sandoz Crazy Horse is fantastic as well.

Sitting Bull said that he prayed to the Great Spirit and made offerings of tobacco in little pouches on a high point just east of the LBH river - the day before the battle. Perhaps on Weir Point. Custer may have ridden over them en route to his demise. Perhaps the offerings were placed on Last Stand hill. Nobody knows.

This is so sad. Never been to US, but spent some time in Australia with aboriginal people.

I have very much enjoyed this series Tom and Domenic! You have done a better job of covering this material than the vast majority of Americans. But it seems to me, and I have watched all your episodes, that you have not availed yourselves of any of the works of the best historian on this subject and that is the recently deceased Robert M. Utley. Why is that? Among those who know this subject matter he is still recognized as the one person who did the best and most thorough research on this material. Perhaps you did look at his work but you have never cited him on your podcast, yet his biography of Sitting Bull, "The Lance and the Shield; The Life and Times of Sitting Bull" is still _the_ standard work on the subject! You have deprived everyone of a plethora of information about his life by not referring to him and his vast body of work. Utley worked as a US National Parks Service ranger at the Little Bighorn battle site for six years and then worked as the Parks Service's chief historian for many years. Finally retiring from that he spent the rest of his life writing and researching on the subject of the Plains Indian wars and many of its principle figures like Sitting Bull and Custer. Anyway, if you, Tom and Domenic, do read the comments section here I would like you to explain if you have used Utley's works and for which sections of your podcasts. Thank you once again for this wonderful series on this subject. 🤠🤠🤠❤❤❤

Please provide that source of information of your statement.

Sitting bull crucifix was given to him by father desmet a priest bull was not a catholic he was an Indian with his own ideas of spiritualism but wore the cross because he thought of it as a good omen

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

All the Sioux wanted was to be left alone to grill.

You should tour Fort Robinson and Agate Fossil beds National monument, lots of great Sioux Artifacts.

For all the revision of plains indians that turned them into hippies read books like Empire of the Summer Moon for one. Rape and torture was endemic. The way of life. Done to other tribes well before the whites showed.

Maybe someone could expand on the cost of the Indian war. The presenter said it cost $1 million dollars per Indian. That can’t be right can it? I tried to check on line but i can’t find the answer easily.

It wasn't a stunning victory. They were far better armed, had far superior numbers, more advanced weapons and knew the lay of the land

If Reno had stayed in the timber instead of running there was a chance that the 7th could have survived more of less intact. Not won, but survived, forcing the Lakota and Cheyenne village to retire/escape in good order.

Im sicangu aka burnt tight or brule either way I'm Lakota ...I find this a bit interesting 🤔...

Great series. I reflect that where the buffalo roamed, before man came to America, there are now nuclear missile silos. I truly believe that the Americas, that place of immense pristine beauty, was better off, much, before tye arrival of homo sapiens, and certainly before the arrival of Europeans. In only 500 years an entire ecosystem destroyed. Replaced by hydrogen bombs.

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.

Any chance of Dominic making an "Adventures in Time" addition using the information from this podcast series?

Heap big story, listened for many moons.

There were about 50,000 Sioux and 36 million Americans. What did they think was going to happen?

Did I understand correctly that $1 million dollars was spent on each Indian killed during the Indian Wars? Is that figure in today's dollars or the currency of the time? And what is the time span of the "Indian Wars"? I know the time of the end of the wars varies a bit, depending on your source.

Can we have Part 2 please?

Apparantly the Sioux called the Canadian border the medicine line.

Sweet

Such a great series. Thanks chaps. Any chance of doing a series on the history of the Palestinians? Trying to understand their plight, but so much propaganda to wade through. Would trust you guys so much more than i trust most commentators.

Wait. What happened to Robespierre?

It is sad story - its war that should have not happened.

... and the song remains the same...!

Please, the Puritans and the Mayflower!

Although money is not enough. This is why I wish the Native Americans get everything and more from their casinos, oil on their land and all that is richly due.

hangs around the fort

Decisive Pale Face Victory. Sucks to suck

Uneasy death heaps blood on the land, the past is a terrible necessary substance 👈😕

The story of Crazy Horse really is a tragedy and a true microcosm of the overall native Indian story; lies, betrayal, greed, white supremacy and all out extermination. It’s one of the very many tragic tales of history, where one race explores, inhabits, dominates and expands, sucking resources from the land.

They did. Listen to the earlier cars

One does not sell the land the people walk upon

Custer was at little big horn because he was ordered to get the so-called hostile back on the reservation not to help the crow

Wondwefukky done gentlemen

6:52 It's chilling how this US policy of depravation has remained unchanged for centuries - in recent times by sanctions.

The famous picture of Sitting Bull always cuts off and never shows his crucifix. The Sioux were Catholic. It would have been interesting if they would have stayed mire peaceful and had the Holy See help them negotiate.

bear coat miles

Isn’t a bit hypocritical for any citizen of the UK to criticize America’s treatment of its indigenous people. Our record in this accord is truly shameful and as a member of the Cherokee Nation whose ancestors traveled the Trail of Tears I know first hand the hopelessness and poverty of the First Americans. But, c’mon, Britishers. You have NO room for talk. Shall I list the sites of Britains atrocities against the natives of their brutal conquests: Ireland, the Boer Wars in South Africa and the rape and pillage of the Zulus and the Boers(the British developed the first concentration camps), the Sudan, India, Egypt, Nambibia, to name those of the last 150 years or so. People in glass houses should not throw stones.

The battle of Little Bighorn was the first and last podcast I will listen to by you two. Infantile, 52:10 childish, sniggering, laughing at your own “jokes”. The content was fairly basic and certainly nothing new. Grow up, get over yourselves.

Sounds like Gaza!

The parallels between the treatment of the Native Americans and the Palestinians is clear.

Custer was at the LBH because the Crow wanted Army help in expelling the invading Sioux from their lands. The Sioux were a warrior based society that thrived on conflict. Do your homework Brits!

So dull. Are you deliberately phoning in this dreary content?

Way way too long

Going on 80.. interest in history all my life..Crazy Horse.. of all characters.. CRAZY HORSE Is carved out of a mountain of stone.. the greatest ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️.. memorial ever,, no king.. queen.. president.. there is no greater monument globally than CRAZY HORSE.. all the men who betrayed him.. the Grant administration.,the soldiers .. the people media taught to hate.. our entire government.. all the banker.. turned to dust.. or a faded yellowing page..only CRAZY HORSE stands as a granite mountain.,.. the Missourian artist from the show me State..❤️❤️❤️🤣🤣🤣🤚💡💎⚔️🇺🇸..4:19 AM Tuesday August 20.2024..LA.. 29.055 days on planet earth 🌍..