On May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse and nearly 900 Sioux and Cheyenne followers came into Fort Robinson, Nebraska, near present-day Crawford. On the edge of starvation, they gave up.
Crazy Horse’s surrender meant that the northern plains Indian wars had come to an end. For history, it was an epochal moment. For a people, it was a sad collapse of a proud way of life.
Read more about this complex story online.
“War or Peace: The Anxious Wait for Crazy Horse,” by Oliver Knight, Nebraska History 54 (1973): 521-544.
http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/1973-4-Wait_Crazy_Horse.pdf
Learn about the military census taken to ennumerate and name all these people and the insights revealed about Oglala Lakota social organization, including how Army decisions broke those structures down. Click here for more about “The Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger”:
http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/books/ourbooks/ledgerha.htm
See for yourself the dramatic place this story unfolded and learn more through facinating exhibits at the NSHS Ft. Robinson Museum. http://www.nebraskahistory.org/sites/fortrob/index.htm Open now and on Memorial Day, too.
