The Army’s anxiety about Crazy Horse — about what he represented and what he might do — produced a decision in early September to arrest him and imprison him at Fort Robinson.

What happened next is a matter of contested historical record.

September 4-5, 1877: The Death At Fort Robinson

On September 4, 1877, Crazy Horse was brought to Fort Robinson.

Lieutenant Jesse Lee was involved in escorting him, as were the Lakota scout Little Big Man.

The stated purpose of the visit was a meeting with General George Crook.

When it became clear that he was being taken to the guardhouse — when he saw the bars on the windows, when the reality of imprisonment became undeniable — a struggle broke out.

The accounts of exactly what happened in that struggle are one of the contested elements of Crazy Horse’s death.