Edward Clown Family - Crazy Horse: the Lakota warriors life & legacy: the Edward Clown family

CRAZY
HORSE

The
Lakota
Warriors
Life & Legacy

The Edward Clown Family
as told to
William B. Matson

CRAZY HORSE

The Lakota Warriors Life & Legacy

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2016 The Edward Clown Family and William B. Matson

Photographs 2016 as noted throughout the book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portions quoted for purpose of review.

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

Orders: 1.800.835.4993

www.gibbs-smith.com

ISBN: 978-1-4236-4124-7

This book is dedicated to all of the Crazy Horse family members who left before us, and to the ones who are still here today.

It is also dedicated to Williams father, Emerson N. Matson.

I t is rare when a Lakota family is willing to share their familys oral history in detail, even more so when the family is that of the great Lakota leader, Crazy Horse. Crazy Horse was one of the most revered leaders the Lakota ever had. Brave by example, he always put his people first, and they loved him for it. He led his people against the invasion of George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry, one of the most modern, welltrained, and equipped armies in the United States arsenal in 1876, at the Battle of Little Bighorn, and routed them. It still stands as the greatest defeat of the US military on American soil of all time. Crazy Horse also led his people in victories over the best US military leaders of their day, like General George Crook at the Battle of the Rosebud and Captain William Fetterman at the Fetterman Fight at Fort Phil Kearny.

When the US Army finally did convince Crazy Horse to turn himself in, he did so because he had obtained a promise from the army that his people could continue to roam the sacred Black Hills as they always had. He considered his surrender a small sacrifice compared to what his peoples continued presence in the Black Hills meant to them. When he discovered that the promises were all a ruse, he rose up for all to see and fought to be free once again, and was killed doing so. Today Crazy Horse stands as a man who sacrificed himself to maintain the Lakota way of life for his people. He is a shining light for many Lakota who live in the darkness of reservation life.

Edward Clown was the son of Crazy Horses sister (half-sister by bloodsame father, different mother), Iron Cedar. Iron Cedar was raised in the same tipi as Crazy Horse and lived her life among his closest family members. Floyd Clown was raised by Edward Clown and his wife, Amy Talks. Doug War Eagle and Don Red Thunder were raised by another of Edwards sons, Blaine Clown. They all refer to Crazy Horse as their grandfather.

In the Lakota culture, grandfather is a term of respect. For actual family members, it is an honoring or sign of reverence for male family members who came before them. In traditional European terms, Floyd, Doug, and Don would actually be considered grandnephews to the famous warrior. However, in the Lakota culture they are grandsons.

A relative in the Lakota culture is precious. And in the time of Crazy Horse, sharing a campsite, visiting relatives in other camps, and going out of the way to greet relatives after they were away for a period of time was done quite frequently. As groups of Lakota surrendered to the army, counting the relatives greeting surrendering Lakota outside the soldier fort and then joining as part of the surrendering group was probable. It also afforded those same relatives a chance to cash in on the extra blankets and rations afforded surrendering Lakota by the US government.

So many books on Crazy Horse are drawn from sources other than those of family members. They are quite often drawn from sources that stress regimented beliefs about indigenous cultures, and people promoting specific agendas. As an example, the use of census and ration and surrender records, although having its purpose, can at times be misleading. It was quite possible that many Lakota were counted more than once, and in more than one place. The language barrier also led to inaccurate information being logged into the formal records, as well as soldiers filling out paperwork with their own assumptions or faulty data. And those historians who maintain that the Lakota people fell in line and willingly gave their information like sheep obviously have never lived among them.

Government documents and notations from the army, tales from missionaries, and stories from contemporary journalists and scholars all have found their way into what has become the accepted historical record about Crazy Horse. The Clown family members felt the need to put their stories into print because so many historians and authors had written what they knew to be inaccurate books about Crazy Horse and other members of their family. They decided it was time to clarify who Crazy Horse was, who their family was, and what they know. The value of what they share here is priceless.

Spending an unlimited amount of time with the Clown family members was an honor and unbelievably enlightening. I saw and heard them in unguarded moments. I saw them angry, I saw them laugh. I saw them cry. I have seen them forgive. I asked obscure questions. Floyd Clown, Doug War Eagle, and Don Red Thunder were gracious and generous enough to answer. They supervised and had the final approval on this manuscript and would only allow it to be published if it remained unchanged. Now that the manuscript is finally in print, you can be assured that it is identical to the one they approved.

Since this is the familys story, it is written from their point of view or in the first person. It would have been disrespectful to write it differently than the way they told it. While they recounted their oral history, they would re-enact their relatives at times by reciting specific lines in a different tone of voice, as though they were speaking as that relative. These lines were repeated word for word as though they were quotes, and they were the same if I asked to hear the story again at a later date. Thus these lines are in quotations throughout the book as a service to the reader.

What happens behind a wall of a home or tipi is normally just that familys business. Private. But today, members of the Edward Clown family have been generous enough to share their familys story as passed down by Iron Cedar. The family has chosen to give this story to the world, albeit under a strict monitoring of my pen to insure that their story remains true to the story their ancestors told. To stay true to the life that Crazy Horse and his family lived.

Drawing of Crazy Horse.

T he history of North America did not begin with Leif Erikson or Christopher Columbus. Nor did it begin with the Spanish explorers or the Pilgrims. It began with our Native nations. North America had thriving and prosperous nations from the Pacific to the Atlantic Oceans long before the Europeans figured out that the American continents even existed.

The Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota Nation was and is one of these Native nations. Our family is one of the families that make up this nation. We are members of the Crazy Horse family.

We do not like the fact that our history has been painted incorrectly by other cultures. After all, would the United States accept the French or Chinese version of American History? Absolutely not. You would get an identical rejection from the Chinese or French in accepting the American version of their history. So why must our people continue to be defined by other cultures? This is one of the reasons that we need to tell our own history.