Crazy Horse

(noun)

Crazy Horse (Lakota: Tȟaške Witkó in Standard Lakota Orthography), literally "His-Horse-Is-Crazy" or "His-Horse-Is-Spirited"; ca. 1840 – September 5, 1877) was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S. Federal government to fight against encroachments on the territories and way of life of the Lakota people, including leading a war party to victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in June 1876.

Related Terms

Examples of Crazy Horse in the following topics:

  • The American Indian Wars

    • Led by resolute, militant leaders such as Red Cloud and Crazy Horse, the Sioux excelled at high-speed mounted warfare.

  • Changes in American Indian Life

    • Sheep, pigs, horses, and cattle were all Old World animals that were introduced to contemporary American Indians.
    • In the 16th century, Spaniards and other Europeans brought horses to the Americas.
    • The reintroduction of the horse to North America had a profound impact on the American Indian culture of the Great Plains.
    • The tribes trained and used horses to ride, carry goods for exchange with neighboring tribes, hunt game, and conduct wars and raids.
    • The people fully incorporated the use of horses into their societies and expanded their territories.

  • Hooverville

    • A "Hoover wagon" was an automobile with horses hitched to it because the owner could not afford fuel.

  • American Technology

    • In the early 1830s, Cyrus McCormick's horse-drawn mechanical reaper allowed farmers in the West to harvest great quantities of wheat, leading for the first time to great crop surpluses.

  • The Revolutionary Army at Valley Forge

    • General Henry Knox, Washington’s Chief of Artillery, wrote that hundreds of horses either starved to death or perished as a result of exhaustion.
    • By the end of winter, approximately 700 horses had died.

  • The Industrial Revolution

    • In the early 1830s, Cyrus McCormick's horse-drawn mechanical reaper allowed farmers in the West to harvest great quantities of wheat, leading to great crop surpluses.
    • Reliance on horse power for machinery in the United States soon gave way to water power; this resulted in a concentration of industrialization developing in New England and the rest of the northeastern United States, where fast-moving rivers were located.

  • Commercial Farmers

    • John Deere's horse-drawn steel plow also led to more efficient farming practices, replacing the difficult oxen-driven wooden plows that farmers had employed for centuries.

  • Elements of Reform

    • Their willingness to work 18 hours obnoxiously was crazy compared to Americans who worked (part-time).

  • Opposition from the Courts

    • After the decisions came down, Roosevelt remarked at a May 31 press conference that the Schechter decision had "relegated [the nation] to a horse and buggy definition of interstate commerce".

  • The Wilderness Road

    • Horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs found a waiting market in the Carolinas, Maryland, and Virginia.