The assassination of Spotted Tail removed another significant Lakota leader and further destabilized the community’s political leadership.

The trial of Crow Dog — and the Supreme Court decision in Ex parte Crow Dog in 1883, which ruled that federal courts did not have jurisdiction over crimes committed by Indians against other Indians on reservation land — led directly to the Major Crimes Act of 1885, which extended federal jurisdiction.

The political and legal upheaval of the early 1880s on the Lakota reservations was the context in which the knowledge of Crazy Horse’s burial was being maintained.

The disruption of normal community life — the loss of significant leaders, the extension of federal authority, the pressure on traditional practices — was the environment in which the people carrying the burial knowledge were living.