His presence at council meetings shifted dynamics.

The agency officials and the military officers who dealt with him found him difficult to manage: he did not perform the compliance that was expected.

Rumors circulated throughout the summer of 1877 that he was planning to break out, to return to armed resistance, to flee to Canada to join Sitting Bull.

Some of these rumors were deliberate distortions spread by political rivals within the Lakota community.

Others reflected genuine observations of Crazy Horse’s restlessness and the conversations he was having with his followers about what might happen next.