Some accounts of the period suggest that Crazy Horse considered crossing the Medicine Line — going to Canada as Sitting Bull had — in the summer of 1877, before his arrest and death.

Whether these accounts are accurate or are part of the rumor that was circulating about his intentions is not established.

What is established is that the choice between Canada and surrender was real for Crazy Horse’s followers after 1877.

Many did cross the Medicine Line, joining Sitting Bull’s camp in Canada.

Some of these eventually returned to the United States.

The people who knew Crazy Horse most closely — who understood his intentions, who carried his community’s knowledge — were distributed across this geography in the years after his death: some at Pine Ridge, some at Rosebud, some in Canada with Sitting Bull.