Crazy Horse was an Oglala Sioux Indian chief. In 1875, the United States government ordered Crazy Horse and other Sioux to enter a reservation. They refused. In 1876, Crazy Horse led the Sioux and Cheyenne, who defeated General George Crook in the Battle of the Rosebud in Montana. Eight days later, he led the Indians in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer and his command were wiped out.

As a boy, Crazy Horse was named Curly. After his first great war deed, his father, who was himself named Crazy Horse, gave his name to the boy. Crazy Horse had light skin and hair. He had a quiet manner. He had unusual spiritual powers. The Sioux called him their "Strange One."

In 1877, Crazy Horse voluntarily surrendered to American troops. Crazy Horse was killed in 1877 at Fort Robinson, Nebr., by a soldier while the chief was being forced into a jail cell. A gigantic figure of Crazy Horse is being sculptured out of a mountain in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

SOURCE: IBM 1999 WORLD BOOK