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Crazy Horse (1849)close

Also known as Tashunca-uitco, Crazy Horse was a Lakota Indian and was known as a legendary warrior. Not only was he skillful and daring in battle, but he was fiercely determined to preserve his tribe's traditional way of life, and fought against American encroachment on Lakota land. When the War Department ordered all Lakota onto reservations in 1876, Crazy Horse led the resistance. Because he had married a woman from the Cheyenne tribe, he was able to organize a force of 1200 Oglala and Cheyenne and then joined forces with Sitting Bull to defeat Custer's Seventh Cavalry at Little Bighorn. While Sitting Bull retreated to Canada, Crazy Horse refused until he was finally forced to surrender and live on the reservation in 1877. Not yet 30 years old, he left the reservation without permission to take his sick wife to her parents, and was arrested and then killed by one of the arresting officers when he tried to resist.

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