He was the greatest Indian warrior of the nineteenth century. His victory over General Custer at the battle of Little
Bighorn in 1876 was the worst defeat inflicted on the frontier Army. And the death of Crazy Horse in federal custody
has remained a controversy for more than a century.

The Killing of Crazy Horse pieces together the many sources of fear and misunderstanding that resulted in an official
killing hard to distinguish from a crime. A rich cast of characters, whites and Indians alike, passes through this
story, including Red Cloud, the chief who dominated Oglala history for fifty years but saw in Crazy Horse a dangerous
rival; No Water and Woman Dress, both of whom hated Crazy Horse and schemed against him; the young interpreter Billy
Garnett, son of a fifteen-year-old Oglala woman and a Confederate general killed at Gettysburg; General George Crook,
who bitterly resented newspaper reports that he had been whipped by Crazy Horse in battle; Little Big Man, who betrayed
Crazy Horse; Lieutenant William Philo Clark, the smart West Point graduate who thought he could .work. Indians to do the
Army.s bidding; and Fast Thunder, who called Crazy Horse cousin, held him the moment he was stabbed, and then told his
grandson thirty years later, .They tricked me! They tricked me!.

At the center of the story is Crazy Horse himself, the warrior of few words whom the Crow said they knew best among the
Sioux, because he always came closest to them in battle. No photograph of him exists today.

The death of Crazy Horse was a traumatic event not only in Sioux but also in American history. With the Great Sioux War
as background and context, drawing on many new materials as well as documents in libraries and archives, Thomas Powers
recounts the final months and days of Crazy Horse.s life not to lay blame but to establish what happened.

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