The Academic Treatment And Its Limitations

The scholarly treatment of Crazy Horse’s life and death has been extensive, and the burial mystery has been addressed in most of the major biographies and historical treatments.

The limitations of the scholarly treatment are structural rather than the result of scholarly failure.

The primary sources for Crazy Horse’s life are predominantly created by outsiders — Army officers, Indian agents, journalists — who were not privy to the specific knowledge that the Lakota community held.

The oral sources that carry the community’s own knowledge are selectively accessible, for the reasons already discussed.