By Bruce Brown
Published
THE FIRST TIME I heard Crazy Horse’s voice was late on a night in October — 125 years, one month and 10 days after he died.
I had been working for hours on a digital sketch of Crazy Horse, Tasunka witko (“his horse is crazy”), the Oglala Sioux war chief who is probably best remembered for delivering the coup de grace to Gen. George A. Custer’s 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Trying to portray Crazy Horse is hard since he is the only great figure in American history who never allowed his soul to be captured, as the Sioux conceived it, meaning he never allowed his image to be captured in life, either by photograph or artist’s portrait.