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VOICE ONE:
I’m Phoebe Zimmermann.
VOICE TWO:
And I’m Steve Ember with the VOA Special English program PEOPLEIN AMERICA. Today, we tell the story of a native American, CrazyHorse. He was a leader of the Lakota Indians. Some people call histribe the Oglala Sioux.
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VOICE ONE: Crazy Horse’s people belonged to one of seven greatfamilies who called themselves Lakota. The word Lakota means’friends’ or ‘allies’.
The Lakota people were hunters. They moved with the seasons. Theymoved through the great flat lands and the great mountains of thenorth-central United States. The Lakota depended on wild animals forfood and clothing, and for the materials to make their tools andhomes. They depended especially on the buffalo, the great hairyox-like creature. Huge groups of buffalo ran free across theirlands.
VOICE TWO:
Great changes came to the Indian territories during the middleeighteen-hundreds. The population of the United States was growing.Settlers left the cities of the East for the wide open spaces of theWest. The settlers followed the railroads extending across thecontinent. More settlers moved West when gold was discovered inCalifornia in eighteen forty-nine.
The ways of the settlers were notthe ways of the Indians. The culture of the white people clashedwith the culture of the red people…often in violence.
The United States army was sent to move the Indians and protectthe settlers. Many Indian tribes refused to move. Their lands, theysaid, contained the bones of their fathers and mothers. It was holyground. They fought the soldiers.
VOICE ONE:
Crazy Horse’s tribe, the Lakota, had many powerful leaders andskilled warriors. Crazy Horse, himself, was greatly feared. Thesoldiers could not defeat him in battle. Most white people did notunderstand why the Lakota fought so hard. They knew little of theIndians’ way of life. They did not know Crazy Horse at all.
Much of what we have learned about Crazy Horse came from his ownpeople. Even today, they still talk about him. To the Lakota, he wasboth a warrior…and a holy man.
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VOICE TWO:
No one knows for sure when Crazy Horse was born. Perhaps aroundthe year Eighteen-Forty. But we do know when he died. InEighteen-Seventy-Seven, when he was in his middle thirties.
There are no photographs of Crazy Horse. But it is said that hewas not very tall. And his skin was lighter than most of the Lakotapeople.
As a boy, Crazy Horse loved to listen to the teachings of theLakota religion. His father was a holy man of the tribe – a medicineman. He taught the boy to honor all things, because all things had alife of their own. Not only people and animals had spirits, he said,but trees and rivers, as well. Above all was the Great Spirit.
VOICE ONE:
Crazy Horse’s father also told him that a man should be judgedonly by the goodness of his actions. So the boy tried hard to tellthe truth at all times and not to speak badly of others.
Crazy Horse learned to be a hunter. He could lie quietly forhours watching wild animals. When he killed a bird or a deer, healways sang a prayer of thanks and sorrow. He always gave the meatto the poor and to the families that had no hunters. That was whatLakota chiefs did.
VOICE TWO:
In time, Crazy Horse learned that the Indians were not alone intheir world. He watched one day as tribesmen brought back the bodyof one of the chiefs, Conquering Bear. The chief had been shot manytimes by soldiers after a dispute over a white man’s cow. Two timesin the next few years, young Crazy Horse saw the burned remains ofIndian villages. All the village people, including women andchildren, had been shot by soldiers.
All these events helped shape the personality of the youngIndian. Crazy Horse became very quiet. He would go away from hisvillage and spend days alone. His people began to call him, “thestrange one”. The name Crazy Horse — in the language of the Lakota– meant “wild” horse.
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VOICE ONE:
When it was time for him to plan his future, his father took himhigh into the mountains. Together, they sang a prayer to the GreatSpirit, a prayer like this:
“Grandfather, Great Spirit, you have existed always, and beforeyou there was no one. Stand close to the Earth that you may hear thevoice I send. You, where the sun goes down, look at me! You, wherethe snow lives…you, where the day begins…you, where the summerlives…you, in the depths of the heavens, look at me! And you,Mother Earth. Give me eyes to see and the strength to understand,that I may be like you. Only with your power can I face the winds.”
VOICE TWO:
Crazy Horse stayed on the mountain by himself for three days andnights. He did not eat or drink. He prayed that the Great Spiritwould send him a dream to show him how to live.
Crazy Horse dreamed. He entered the world of truth and of thespirits of all things. The Lakota people called this “the realworld”. They believed our world was only an image of the real world.
VOICE ONE:
In his dream, Crazy Horse saw a man riding a horse through cloudsof darkness and battle. Bullets flew around him, but did not hithim.
The man wore a stone under one ear, and a bird feather in hishair. His body was painted with sharp white lines, like lightning. Alight followed him, but it was sometimes covered by darkness.
Crazy Horse understood the dream as a sign. He knew his peoplewere entering a time of darkness. He dressed himself like the man inthe dream, so that no bullets would hurt him. He would try to savehis land for his people. He would try to protect their way ofliving.
VOICE TWO:
Crazy Horse prayed every day…as the sun rose, at noon, and asnight came. He prayed whenever he had something difficult to do. Theprayer songs would carry him back to the peace of “the real world”.He would know the right thing to do.
In the village, Crazy Horse did not keep things for himself. Heeven gave away his food. If others needed the food more, he wouldnot eat at all. Crazy Horse spent much of his time with thechildren. He talked and joked with them. Yet his eyes looked throughthe children. He seemed to be thinking of something else.
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VOICE ONE:
Crazy Horse fought in more than twenty battles against theAmerican army. He was never hit by an enemy’s bullet. In battle, hismind was clear. “Be brave!” the young men would shout as theyfollowed him into battle. “The Earth is all that lasts.”
But the Earth the Indians knew did not last. The government wouldtake most of it. The army destroyed Indian villages, and capturedthose who would not surrender.
VOICE TWO:
Almost all the buffalo were gone, killed by white hunters. Thepeople were hungry. Many Lakota and other Indians came to CrazyHorse for protection.
The government sent a message to Crazy Horse. It said if hesurrendered, his people could live and hunt on a part of the landthat he chose. Crazy Horse and his people could fight no more. Theyaccepted the government offer. They surrendered.
The government, however, did not keep its promise to let themchoose where they would live. Several months later, on Septemberfifth, Eighteen-Seventy-Seven, Crazy Horse went to the armycommander to make an angry protest. Guards arrested him. Hestruggled to escape. A soldier stabbed him with a knife. The greatLakota Indian chief died the next day.
VOICE ONE:
In Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, the tribe asked an artist to make astatue of Crazy Horse. The Indians wanted a huge statue cut into theside of a mountain. It would show Crazy Horse riding a runninghorse, pointing his arm to where the Earth meets the sky…to thelands of the Lakota people. The tribe told the artist: “We wouldlike the white man to know the red man had great heroes, too.”
If you visit the mountain to see the statue, you may hear in thewind the song of an old man. He sings: “Crazy Horse, your peopledepend on you. Be brave. Defend your people!”
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VOICE TWO: This Special English program was written by BarbaraDash. It was produced by Mario Ritter. Our studio engineer wasSulaiman Tarawaley. I’m Steve Ember.
VOICE ONE:
And I’m Phoebe Zimmermann. Join us again next week for anotherPeople in America program on the Voice of America.