The family’s act of protection — taking the body away in the night, burying it in a location they did not disclose — continued, in a specific way, the quality the name described.

The horse that could not be broken was not broken in death.

The man who had resisted being possessed was not, in death, possessed.

The Oral Tradition As Living History

In the Lakota understanding of history, oral tradition is not a backup for when documentary sources are unavailable.

It is a primary form of knowledge, maintained through specific practices of telling and retelling, with its own methods of verification and its own relationship to time and evidence.

The oral tradition surrounding Crazy Horse’s burial is not simply a set of stories that might or might not be true.