Tasunke Witko (Crazy Horse): A Documentary Film

I'm dis thankful that I'm able to live in a place that I know that crazy horse walked and these lands hold not only are our ancestors bones but they also hold the spiritual essence of those who have lived here before they continue on that their presence continues on with us the lakota word for the black hills is one of the words is hey saba cassava black mountains hosaka is the center of the universe for the Lakota Nation for the local to people it's the heart of all that is the place where we live is a place that Crazy Horse understood respected and died for we came from Mother Earth out of the Black Hills and so when we go to wind cave or we go to any cave in the Black Hills we think of that emergence we think of when our people once lived inside Mother Earth and we think of the the time when we emerged and we live now a different life on top of Mother Earth the day away are they you once were now we're week J week J with Tasha Julia common people common women men when I come to the Black Hills like if I'm gone for a certain amount of time and I come to the Black Hills for a gathering or for just just for drive or for a visit and I hear a lot of my relatives say that as well they feel when we come here to the Black Hills it feels like we're home Bear Butte is one of our sacred prayer areas in mountains and yet it's still a great you know vision questing humble Asia site another place you know haha with some people noisy acara we would go there and get our sweat lodge rocks so all of these places had a as sacred and an important part in in our migratory move around the northern plains crazy horse also known as his horse is wild that tissue kvitko was born about 1840 in the an area of the Black Hills and lived to 1877 some of his major things that he's known for was the fort field care knee fight in which Federman and his men were all wiped out and in several incidents along what was known as a Bozeman trail and of course the famous Battle of the Little Bighorn the shunka with go lived in a time turbulent times and times of change there are a number of different names that luck hope that people can have and sometimes they they won't get their adult sacred name right away sometimes they do sometimes they don't in this in tinkle which goes in sense he did not get his his adult sacred name right away that was not given to him until later when he was a child they called him uh curly for his hair was was curly that was unusual the at lighter skin that was unusual in their language would call him gee she means the light heroin and it's kind of like uh the sacred White Buffalo among the Buffalo nation crazy person was a mystical person since childhood sometimes aims are bestowed upon people because of the of the way that they conduct themselves that observe their behavior and so they'll give them a name because of of their characteristics sometimes as in Crazy Horse's situation a name was passed down that was his father's name there's a lot of people that want a photo of Crazy Horse and and I wouldn't go so far to say that there isn't one that exists but there's none that I have seen that are proven he's on record that he did not want his picture photograph there are a number of pictures at surface and we've researched all of those in now there's also a sketch that has recently been released of him by family one of the photographs it's widely circulated it's a nice stressed man and and he's posed in I elaborate studio and he was never in an area like that this has a tile floor and a elaborate studio backdrop in another one sir just the photos were propped or something like that there's one that's that we call stabber that was taken by Alexander Gardner at age of 14 years old a boy became a man it is told by the relatives that when crazyhorse tisha Kuwait God did his a Vision Quest and he humbly trp he had his vision question in various different locations one of those places was mato Paha at that age in his life he received this sacred vision which was he received was a time when he received a power of war in our language we caught a walk away means a war medicine this medicine that he received came from the Thunder being given to walk in Latin our people who have shared these stories about and passed down say that thunder and lightning guided his life and part of his medicine was T lightning design marks on his arms and legs and his upper torso heal cymbals p-body war these are what he received in his vision that thunder being itself would be his protector that is a very powerful kind of power to have it's very it's it can be destructive because thunder and lightning lightning typically can be instructive cause fires cause things to break thunder the booming thunder the voice of the creator and thunder so you had a responsibility then to be sometimes to be the voice of reason and the voice of loudness sometimes so the people who listened and created the mysticism about people were awed and his capability and his up bravery and cunning in the time of battle and his ability to overpower the enemy relatives have told us that different people have said when they think about Crazy Horse they think about him as having lived a life of being alone and lonely he understood that that he was different and he felt that he sometimes separated himself from the people he found that kind of guidance that he needed in his life by displacing himself and seeking out that that from other not from other people but from places where he can get direct connection to the spirits into the the land so maybe it was lonely maybe it was wanting and needing to be alone Crazy Horse was a very humble person and he was he was taught the ways of a warrior and to be humble by by his mentor uncle hai backbone who mirrored that same quality and that's the way both of them were they may only wore one or two feathers they never you know had a headdress which would show all their accomplishments but his proven record was witnessed by many warriors in the people themselves so you didn't have to speak of his deeds to brag about them and that's how he rose to power as a warrior war leader Crazy Horse would would have lived by the values of respect generosity courage fortitude and wisdom those are the values that we as traditional Lakota people hold true today and hopefully hold true to the memory of Tears uncle wiggle now Crazy Horse was part of a warrior society in which only the bravest of the brave were part of he was a tokala he was a Kitfox Crazy Horse would be appointed a shirt wear shirt wears could be appointed from different societies for for their outstanding accomplishments it's a war shirt but it's a shirt it's a status shirt made out of leather um buckskin and it's decorated it's designed it's it's decoration on it is personalized to the person that is wearing it and he would not back down from whatever it needed to be done some of the hid men came by and they would stop at each Lodge his circle and the other three were all expected to be sure wares and they stopped and it was no surprise to the the people you know when they chose people like sword and American horse but when they stopped the lodge of of Crazy Horse and Waliullah they were very surprised in a way because he was actually from a family that wasn't like in a hereditary shirt where type family and so but they said when he was chosen that cheering was like about four times louder you we have a few instances in which Toluca with goal spoke up against the selling of the Black Hills against the the kinds of intrusion by settlers by people coming in Crazy Horse was in a Grand Council at the Bear Butte it was a very important council and it was for to bring the people together of the seven council fires into unity to actually resist some of the encroachments that were taking place on their lands and his speech was to remind the people of the importance of our ways our traditions our culture our language and our sacred lands the Bozeman trail was an area that was just north of Fort Laramie it's on the east side of the Bighorns all the way up there and so by that time period of the 1860s there was gold and silver discovered in Montana and there was a push to protect some of the miners who were up in that area and so these these forts would eventually be established there's just numerous episodes of warfare going on it aren't even recorded today but almost every other day there was some kind of a battle going on between the Lakota Cheyenne and against the US they had an officer there named William J Fetterman who was known as kind of brash arrogant and he disobeyed orders and he was told not to leave the site of the fort not to pursue the lawyers over this Lodge trail ridge to the north there and he did so anyway and Crazy Horse was acted as a decoy artist in fall off his horse like and act like he was wounded and run it alongside his horse and leading them further and further and further until when they got over the hill then they were overwhelmed by March number of Lakota and Cheyenne due to all that pressure and do especially to what happened to Fetterman when he lost 80 men on December 21st 1866 those forts would be closed and the Lakota burned those to the ground and at that time they declared a victory over the u.s. the US says it's no longer feasible to maintain them they're gone they're burned to the ground difficult to maintain you at that time in history the Lakota paratha great defense against all odds you know to defend our land territory sacred Black Hills and it was in a time of desperation also the buffalo herds dwindled down to almost nothing the people were worried about their way of life in them the Buffalo was the way of life this ultimatum C had been issued by the US that if you where's didn't come in by January 31st 1876 they would be declared hostile and thus at war with the US the entire Lakota Nation came together along with the allied tribes Asha gila Cheyenne the fewer apples they'd amassed this great camp their first on the Roseland they met crook in battle here on June 17th and he defeated him enjoy him Bakula little over a week later on June 25th it was a Sunday at the Little Bighorn and there was great you know leisure in the camp and and nobody expected and it an attack this was also a big religious gathering this happened on the Solstice when when Reno made his attacked on the south and and Benteen was was sent further to the south to look for the enemy and Custer proceeded on up to her the area where he would perish with his men they didn't realize any of them and they didn't realize what a huge camp that was Custer was racing in there he is afraid they're going to escape get away and he wanted to catch him and and he caught him and most of our accounts of that of the family that Custer likely lost his life or was severely wounded very early in the fight down by that River and then well then they say well why wasn't his body found down there you know why was it up on Last Stand Hill well you know they I feel they had taken their leader back up on the hill with them you know you wouldn't leave your your leader there as you make their repast make a retreat that time Crazy Horse was already a hero and all the young warriors the warriors looked towards him or direction and they relied upon his strength as a fighting man and he was consider spotlighting that battle by all the accounts even when when all the soldiers were dead on Last Stand Hill is people like you know the Hulk Pappas and them I mean they all observed Crazy Horse and hump and crow King and moving robe woman they were all on that hill they said these were the people who were there we recognized him as as great leaders and here they were on Last Stand Hill they winter doubt that winter of 1876 along the Yellowstone River we call it the a-ha Kochba and that's where grazers winter doubt after the Little Bighorn battle and one was him he had over close to 3,000 followers they had a difficult winter that year there was no food the conditions in this camp were almost of starvation they were hounded by the soldiers day and night from all directions so they had to keep movin in freezing weather in the spring of 1877 at one point Crazy Horse looked upon his people and the people were gone from hunger starvation and yet they hung on to him and he followed him so when he turned and looked at his people he felt it in his heart you know they say they felt a-- for his people and they said that he wanted his people to live and survive it the type of war is over the Buffalo are gone totally of life was gone there were five major surrenders that took place in in late April and May of 1877 in the Powder River Country Crazy Horse would be sent to Camp Robinson touched the cloud would would be sent to the neighboring spotted tail agency about 50 miles east of there dullknife would be placed in Oklahoma and hump would join general miles as a scout and the fifth person Lane there was was killed that was an intention to divide those five people well in the final days of crazy versus life there was a lot of tension that built up to what Pylea occurred the day was killed first he wanted to make sure that his wife was taken care of she was sick at the time with coughing sickness so he took her to spot a tail agency for her protection and he could sense you know the tension that was building around him between the agency chiefs and himself and the officers the soldiers that were guarding know when after that's what Intel agency and they placed under arrest and brought him back to Robinson and Derrick for Robinson they misled him to believe that out there was going to be a discussion about a reservation for his band his followers up there on a ton River in Montana and this is what he thought you know that the government wanted to finally talk to him but when he returned he discovered that they're getting him ready to place him under arrest and to send him away there was places like Florida or Marion different areas adjacent prisoners especially those that were considered hostile and he realized that this is what was in store for him so when he saw the guardhouse the bars and chains and that's when everything broke loose he began to scuffle he passed out it burned a guardhouse he brandished his knife fight his way up even to some of his corn with comrades rushed up in China pulled him back and a soldier rushed up behind his gun in the back you know bad heart bull our historian and you know the drawings of bad Harpo and the stories of our people and family clearly convey that there was a soldier who did the stabbing part but on the other hand some groups especially with the military and forts they they blame it on little big man he came to a point where he made a decision that he wouldn't it was not going to back down from the notion that he would pass on to the square world if it meant that he protected our way of life one of his comrades Judaism he searched for death and knows when he come that you do alloys yeah I should do alone so that's the way it has to be I don't think that he I don't think that he would been able to to to live to be eighty and ninety years old he died at a young age because he did what he was supposed to do in the time that he spent on mother earth he was able to create a passion within himself to protect and to ensure that the younger generation can still today understand our way of life as Lakota Dakota people towards morning after he passed away his stepmother rendered her song befitting a chief - huh hey the words my song see remember me when you see the plaque hills remember me a defender of my people a defender of this land never forget and so said Crazy Horse and he went on to the specifics of how he passed on is has no importance compared to the reason hey hey hey yeah hi hi face are pakki hai kabhi China I hey hey oh yeah hey hey touch me oh yeah hey hey Tasha okay wait oh hey I

Channel: Wo Lakota

Views: 559,282

Rating: 4.8802485 out of 5

Keywords: Crazy Horse, Lakota, South Dakota, Jace DeCory, Donovin Sprague, Wilmer Mesteth, Whitney Rencountre, Oceti Sakowin, WoLakota Project, Native American

Id: qnRzS_voHus

Length: 31min 24sec (1884 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 09 2016