Whether there was any discussion within Army command about the potential value of Crazy Horse’s remains — his skull, in particular — for the Army Medical Museum or other scientific collections is not established in the documentary record.

If such a discussion occurred, it was either resolved in favor of allowing the family to proceed without interference or was simply not recorded.

The absence of any Army attempt to follow the family or locate the burial is one of the most significant facts about the immediate aftermath.

It left the family free to conduct the burial in whatever way they chose, without interference.

That freedom was used to create the protection that has lasted nearly 150 years.