One day, when Crazy Horse was 13, he rode to a hill on his horse. He dug a pit and took off his clothes for a peace offering so he could get a vision. He waited and prayed for three days and two night until finally he got a vision. He did not know what it meant though. Three years later he told his father about the vision. His father told him the person in your vision is who you will be when you grow up.

Crazy Horse was born in about 1849 on Rapid Creek in the Black Hills of what is now South Dakota. His American name was Crazy Horse. His parents called him Curly when he was little. After the vision his father named him Tashunka Witco. One of his good friends was Sitting Bull.

He was always a good horseman and he killed a buffalo on his first hunt. Even when he was a boy he was a leader. He stole horses when he was 17 and led his first war party when he was 20.

Crazy Horse married a Cheyenne woman named Black Shaw. White men came onto their lands and started a battle so Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse became war leaders.

When soldiers were taking him to jail on May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse tried to get away and a soldier killed him with a bayonet.

Now people are carving statue of Crazy Horse out of a mountain in Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota. Learn more about the memorial by clicking on the photograph.

Photograph used by permision of the Crazy Horse Memorial

We got our information from:

Crazy Horse's Vision by Joseph Bruchac
The Life and Death of Crazy Horse by Russell Freedman

Click here to learn more about Crazy Horse.

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