The Surrender: What It Meant And What It Didn’t

The surrender of Crazy Horse on May 6, 1877, at the Red Cloud Agency near Fort Robinson, is one of the most discussed moments in the history of the Lakota people.

He came in with approximately 1,100 followers — a substantial community, still largely intact as a social unit even after the pressures of the preceding year.

The surrender was not the result of military defeat; he had not been defeated in battle.

It was the result of the exhaustion of the material conditions that sustained resistance: the buffalo were increasingly scarce, the winter had been severe, the people needed food and stability that the resistance could no longer provide.