Crazy Horse

Montreal beat Toronto in ice hockey.

that's good um okay i'll go with that sure um you visited the crazy horse with this long how give us an idea how big that is compared to the uh the president's heads what's the name of that thing

the president's heads that's called mount rushmore

oh yeah i always like this one crazy horse Memorial.

It makes it so it's as big as Mount Rushmore, the four dudes.

Yeah.

I read somewhere that you could fit all four of the heads of Mount Rushmore onto the head of crazy horse.

I don't know if that's true.

They would eventually become the most famous Lakota leaders of the 19th century.

Crazy Horse was born into the Oglala Lakota, probably around 1840, in or near the Black Hills.

As a young man, he developed a reputation for courage and skill in battle.

But there was something distinctive about him.

Crazy Horse did not seek wealth or prestige in the way some leaders did.

He became known for his personal bravery, his discipline, and his refusal to accept the growing American presence on Lakota land.

His resistance would eventually make him one of the principal war leaders of the Lakota.

And unlike some Lakota leaders who were prepared to negotiate with the Americans, Sitting Bull became increasingly opposed to the growing American presence and to the idea that the Lakotas should abandon life on the plains.

I'd like to have gone with him.

Well, maybe Custer will bring back Sitting Bull or Crazy Horse.

You'll be able to have your interviews.

I've about given up hope.

And he, he, he lived out his life.

He, he outlived all the great chiefs, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.

He brought his people, tried to be safety.

He, he stood up to the Americans the best he could.

He took a lot of risks and didn't particularly care about the lives of his men were lost.

He wanted the glory on the field, which ultimately led to him facing Crazy Horse and not surviving.

And that was 1876, I believe, if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah.

And he's out in the west.

He starts getting pressure.

To say, hey, if you can take out Crazy Horse, if you can end the Indian problem, you will be the next iteration of the military hero and you will be the Democrat nominee for president.

That was the level of thinking.

And then came the news right where some real Indians rudely interrupted all the celebrations.

The news arrived that General George Armstrong Custer had been defeated, indeed wiped out, all his men killed, well almost all, by the Sioux, led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse at a place called Little Custer's Last Stand, images of which would end up behind the bar in every saloon west of the Mississippi, and a hell of a lot of them east of the Mississippi, for the rest of that century.

That victory for the Indians, of course, would be a pyrrhic victory in their struggle to hold on to land, What was also occurring here by 1876, of course, the subtext of this great national celebration, if not its central theme, was the sectional north-south reunion, the great reconciliation from the Civil War.

Now one might say that's inevitable.

Yeah, this is my understanding.

I've really tried the best I can to study every spiritual tradition that I can find that uplifts humanity, whether it be our Sikh relatives, whether it be the teachings of Mahabharata, which, you know, we began to understand the teaching of Krishna, the sacred teachings of Lord Buddha, of course, all our indigenous prophecies from the Hopis to White Buffalo Captain, the great peacemaker, Digan Dawida, Viracocha, Crazy Horse, you know, Chief Seattle, so many, so many.

And, you know, as well, Islam, the Baha'is, everyone I want to understand.

And this is what I found out, from my perspective.

So don't you worry about him.

After what he and Crazy Horse did to Custer at the Little Bighorn, he'll never come back to this country.

But Sitting Bull have buffalo sign like this.

Maybe bad medicine for us.