When Chief Joseph and other Nez Perces left their reservation in Idaho Territory and fled into Montana Territory in August 1877, Crook wanted to use Lakota warriors to subdue them. Crazy Horse refused, even though Clark offered him a horse, a uniform and a new repeating rifle. ‘I came here in peace,’ Crazy Horse told the lieutenant. ‘No matter if my own relatives pointed a gun at my head and ordered me to change that word, I would not change it.’

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Clark persisted. On August 30, Crazy Horse said, with exasperation, that despite his promise to the Great Spirit to fight no more, he would go north with the soldiers and fight until there wasn’t a Nez Perce left. Interpreter Grouard, seizing the moment, translated it as ‘go north and fight until not a white man is left.’ Bordeaux caught the willful misinterpretation, and the Minneconjou leader Touch the Clouds later accused Grouard of lying. But many white authorities at Camp Robinson and elsewhere seemed to want to believe Grouard’s lie. Crook was fast losing faith in Crazy Horse, but he didn’t want to make a mistake on the matter. On September 2, he left the Red Cloud Agency for a council on White Clay Creek with Crazy Horse and other Lakota leaders; he planned to discuss the fight with the Nez Perces. On the trail to the council, Crook’s party was met by Woman’s Dress, a nephew of Red Cloud, who told Crook that Crazy Horse intended to kill him at the council. Crook took the rumor seriously and turned back, sending orders for the agency chiefs to report to him at Camp Robinson.

On September 3, the friendly Lakota leaders all came, including Red Cloud, Spotted Tail and No Water, who had once shot Crazy Horse in a dispute over Black Buffalo Woman (see ‘Western Lore,’ P. 70). Crook told them that he wanted Crazy Horse arrested. Red Cloud and the others said that Crazy Horse was a desperate man and would fight if anyone tried to arrest him. It would be better, they said, to kill him. Crook said he could not condone murder, but he wanted Crazy Horse arrested and would provide cavalry to assist their warriors. After the Lakota leaders left, Crook gave orders to Colonel Luther Bradley, commander of Camp Robinson, to arrest Crazy Horse and put him on a train to Omaha. From there he would be taken to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas.

The next morning, September 4, the chiefs rode out of Camp Robinson with 400 agency warriors and eight companies of the 3rd Cavalry to arrest Crazy Horse. When they reached his camp, about six miles away, they found he had fled, along with his wife Black Shawl, who was suffering from tuberculosis, to the Spotted Tail Agency in the hopes of finding a more peaceful existence. At the Spotted Tail Agency, he was met by Touch the Clouds and other friendly warriors. They escorted him to Camp Sheridan, where he intended to tell the authorities about his move. Spotted Tail appeared with a crowd of his warriors and told Crazy Horse that he must listen to and obey him. Crazy Horse, Spotted Tail and Touch the Clouds then all went to the office of Captain Daniel Burke, commander of Camp Sheridan. According to Lieutenant Jesse M. Lee, acting Indian agent at the Spotted Tail Agency, Crazy Horse looked like a frightened animal as he explained that he never intended to go north and kill whites or to murder Crook. He had come to the Spotted Tail Agency, he said, because of all the bad talk at the Red Cloud Agency. He asked Lee to go to Camp Robinson with him to help explain the situation. Burke and Lee promised Crazy Horse that the Army did not wish to harm him and would listen to his side of the story.

On the morning of September 5, Crazy Horse took the trail toward Camp Robinson, along with Lee, Bordeaux, Touch the Clouds and other Indians–some of whom were friends of Crazy Horse and some of whom Lee found trustworthy. After traveling about 15 miles, the party was joined by a group of Spotted Tail’s warriors. At that point Crazy Horse, according to Lee’s account, realized that he was practically a prisoner. Still, he retained his spirit. Later on, he raced his horse ahead over a hill, where he met a Lakota family. When Spotted Tail’s warriors caught up with him, Crazy Horse told them he had gone ahead to water his horse. Lee, though, thought the family had given him a knife. Crazy Horse was ordered to ride at the rear of Lee’s ambulance the rest of the way.

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