S. D. Nelson - Crazy Horse and Custer: Born Enemies

Young Crazy Horse and George Armstrong Custerborn enemies

I will give my flesh and blood that I may conquer my enemies!
Lakota Sun Dance vow

Prepare war... Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, I am a warrior.
Joel 3:10, Bible

Two spirited boys, both alike in worthiness and desire, were bound against each other from birth. Like all boys, they laughed and played. Both loved riding horses and were especially good at it. They thrilled to the pounding of their horses hooves on the earth and the rush of wind in their hair. The two youths were taught that personal glory could be won through violent conflict. It was this fatal teaching that would form their destiny and bring a dark end. Shaped by their two different warrior cultures, they grew into manhood, only to meet beneath a blue sky on the western prairies of America in an epic fightthe Battle of the Little Bighorn.

My voice is for war!
GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER, age seven

1839: George Armstrong Custer Is Born in New Rumley, Ohio

Emanuel Henry Custer was a widower with three children. After the death of his first wife, he married a woman who had three children from a previous marriage. It was from this second marriage to Maria Ward Kirkpatrick that young George Armstrong Custer was born. His mother and older sisters doted on him, spoiling him. As the child grew and began to talk, he tried to pronounce his middle name, Armstrong. To everyones delight, the word came out as Autie. Ever after, his family called the blue-eyed boy Autie. The Custer home provided common comfort. There was always enough food for a growing boy. His father was a blacksmith and a farmer on land that once belonged to Indians. There were always chickens, cows, and horses about. Young Armstrong helped his father in the blacksmith shop and took right to riding the varied horses in the corral. Emanuels smiles and embraces made it clear that he loved his spirited son. But the prideful man had strong, dark opinions about the ways of this world and voiced them loudly.

Autie and his father

Come, Grandson, I want to tell you a hero story.
A Lakota Elder

Circa 1840: Crazy Horse Is Born on the Open Prairies of Present-Day South Dakota Near Bear Butte

The Lakota holy man, named Tasunke Witco, raised the boy in his lodge. The child was different. He did not have bronze-colored skin and raven-black hair like the other children of his tribe. He was born of mixed bloodpart Lakota and part white. The Lakota historian Joseph Marshall says they called him Light Hair because of his light brown hair and fair complexion. Tasunke Witco had many wives. (Having more than one wife was a common practice among the Lakota people.) No one knows for certain the identity of Light Hairs biological father. He may have been a French-American fur trader. One of Tasunke Witcos wives, Rattling Blanket Woman, was Light Hairs birth mother. In a state of depression, she hanged herself when Light Hair was only four years old. Thereafter, the boy was cared for by the other wives and older sister of the family. The old ones said, A boy will learn the way of the warrior from his fathers and grandfathers after he learns courage from his mothers and grandmothers. Light Hair did not smile often and stayed distant from others.

Light Hair with his mother

When I was merging upon manhood, my every thought was ambitiousnot to be wealthy, not to be learned, but to be great.
GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER

A Born Soldier

Even though the Custer family lived in the northern state of Ohio, Emanuel supported the racist ideas shared by many white people living in the southern slave states. They insisted that people with black-colored skin were subhuman and should be used like farm animals. Auties father also had little regard for Indians and Mexicans, whom he thought to be inferior half-wits. Emanuel belonged to the local militia and took his impressionable boy to military exercises and drills. When Americas war with Mexico began in 1846, Armstrongs father could often be heard stating loudly, My voice is for war! These words found a place in the young childs mind. Like other boys, Autie probably played with painted toy soldiers. The miniature men with their muskets, swords, horses, and cannons would have sparked his imagination. His stepsister Lydia, who was many years older, sewed him a velvet military uniform. Waving a flag, the boy marched about for everyones amusement. He, too, declared loudly, My voice is for war! Papa Custer beamed with pride. The smiling onlookers agreed that little George was a born soldier.