Red Cloud found Crazy Horse on the trail to the Red Cloud Agency on April 27. ‘All is well, have no fear,’ Red Cloud told him. ‘Come on in.’ Without hesitation, Crazy Horse laid out his blanket for Red Cloud to sit on and gave the older man his shirt as a symbol of surrender to him. Turning himself in, though, must have been agonizingly difficult for Crazy Horse, who had always lived as a free man in the traditional Lakota manner. Now, he would have to take handouts and obey the white man. But he was determined to do what was best for his people.

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On May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse and 889 other Oglalas appeared outside Camp Robinson, near the Red Cloud Agency. They were the last major group of Lakota holdouts on American soil to surrender. The Great Sioux War was finally over, and Crazy Horse told his escort, Lieutenant William Philo Clark of the 2nd Infantry: ‘Friend, I shake with this hand, because my heart is on this side….I want this peace to last forever.’ As a token of surrender, Crazy Horse’s longtime friend He Dog gave Clark his war bonnet and shirt. Crazy Horse gave nothing, saying, ‘I have given all I have to Red Cloud.’

Crazy Horse carried a Winchester rifle across his saddle as he rode to the fort. He wore a single hawk’s feather in his hair. His braids, wrapped in fur, fell across his buckskin shirt. He Dog and another old friend, Little Big Man, rode on either side of him. The procession stretched for two miles. Crazy Horse’s loyal followers and the agency Indians alike began singing and cheering for Crazy Horse. ‘By God,’ said an Army officer who witnessed the event, ‘this is a triumphal march, not a surrender.’ The reception was a clear sign that Crazy Horse was a hero, even among many agency Indians who had not spent time with him in years.

Lieutenant Clark informed Crazy Horse that he could be chief of all the Lakotas if he visited President Rutherford B. Hayes in Washington, D.C. But Crazy Horse wasn’t interested, even after Clark made him a noncommissioned officer in the U.S. Indian Scouts on May 15. Crazy Horse did say he wanted the agency that had been promised him. He wanted it to be at a grassy spot on Beaver Creek where he had camped many times (in what is now northeast Wyoming). Clark and Crazy Horse soon came to an impasse. Crazy Horse wouldn’t be going to Washington, but he wouldn’t be getting his own agency (or become the big chief), either. Crazy Horse was also worried that the U.S. government would relocate all the Lakotas along the Missouri River. Just as Crazy Horse was suspicious of the Army and government, Clark and many others were suspicious of the popular new prisoner. Clark later described the Oglala as ‘remarkably brave, generous and reticent, a pillar of strength for good or evil.’

Crazy Horse was apparently not suspicious of scout-interpreter Frank Grouard, but he should have been. Grouard had lived with the Lakotas for a time, and Crazy Horse regarded him as a friend. Back in March 1876, however, Grouard had guided Colonel Joseph Reynolds when Reynolds attacked a Cheyenne village that Grouard believed was Crazy Horse’s camp. Grouard greeted Crazy Horse at Camp Robinson like a long-lost buddy, but he no doubt feared that the Oglala would learn the truth. As interpreter Louis Bordeaux later noted, Grouard had reason for wanting to get rid of Crazy Horse.

Not all the Lakotas supported Crazy Horse, either. Red Cloud and Spotted Tail, whose agencies were about 40 miles apart, were jealous of the young hero. They and their cohorts began spreading rumors that Crazy Horse intended to break out and renew his fight against the whites. Eventually, Crazy Horse softened his stance on the Washington trip. In July, he decided he would go. At a council on July 27, Lieutenant Clark read a message from Crook that said 18 of the best and strongest Lakotas, including Crazy Horse, would make the trip to the nation’s capital. The general also promised that the Lakotas could go on a buffalo hunt. Crazy Horse was all for it, but Red Cloud was not, fearing that such a hunt would add to Crazy Horse’s stature. At the close of the council, Young Man Afraid of His Horses suggested that the customary council feast be held at Crazy Horse’s camp. Red Cloud and his followers promptly left the council in protest, and that night warned Indian agents Benjamin Shopp and James Irwin that Crazy Horse could not be trusted. To Crazy Horse’s chagrin, the sale of ammunition to the Lakotas was halted on August 4, and the next day the buffalo hunt was postponed. Furthermore, Red Cloud had his friends tell Crazy Horse that the trip to Washington was a ruse, and that if he went along he would be shipped off to prison in the Dry Tortugas, off the coast of Florida, where the worst Indians were put. Crazy Horse listened to the talk and, over the objections of He Dog, told the Army authorities he would not be going to Washington after all.

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