Crazy Horse

Crazy Horse Memorial

Today marks the 142nd anniversary of the death of Custer and his troops from the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Big Horn. As a little blue-eyed white girl living in New Jersey, I had fallen in love with Custer (Errol Flynn) after seeing that 1941 black and white movie They Died With Their Boots On. My dad and I watched it together. I was sitting on his lap in the living room on a Saturday afternoon watching an old movie channel and he was using it as a teachable moment. But the only thing I can remember from that day was how gorgeous Flynn was, the regiment's earworm of a battle tune, and his-- Flynn's-- gallant last stand before the Lakota Sioux killed him.  God, how I hated to see him die. Having seen the original King Kong the week before-- again on my dad's lap-- I'm pretty sure they borrowed the music from Kong's last battle with the biplanes to augment Flynn's final moments, you know, to instill some sympathy for that dashing, gorgeous, bastard.

But today is Crazy Horse's day. He earned it. He was a true fearless leader and deserves that mountain they're carving on his behalf in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Unfortunately, there are no known photographs of the man and there is very little of a written record of his life. But we do know he was married to a woman called Black Shawl (Tasina Sapewin) and they had one child, a daughter called They Are Afraid of Her. When she died at age three (possibly from cholera), it is reported Crazy Horse was devastated and never recovered from that loss. 

And we know this: Crazy Horse's war cry as he led the charge that killed Custer.

​"Maka ki ecela tehanl yanke lo!"
Only the Earth lasts forever!