The Army’s decision to allow Crazy Horse’s family to take his body without interference is one of the less-examined aspects of the immediate aftermath.

From one perspective, this was simply practical: stopping the family would have required a willingness to provoke further conflict within the already-agitated Lakota community, and the Army had just created a significant crisis by having Crazy Horse die in military custody.

From another perspective, the Army’s lack of interest in what happened to the body after death is consistent with its approach throughout: it was interested in living Crazy Horse as a political and military problem.

Dead Crazy Horse was less threatening.