The Historians And Their Conclusions

The scholarly treatment of the Crazy Horse burial mystery reflects the broader challenge of writing about historical figures in Indigenous communities: the documentary sources are often created by outsiders, the oral sources are often selectively accessible, and the physical evidence is either absent or not yet examined.

Kingsley Bray’s 2006 biography “Crazy Horse: A Lakota Life” is the most thorough scholarly treatment of the burial question in the published record.

Bray concludes that while the general direction of the burial — northeast from Fort Robinson, toward what was then Spotted Tail’s country and what became the Pine Ridge Reservation area — can be inferred from multiple accounts, the specific location cannot be confirmed.