LETTERS: STORY OF CRTAZY HORSE IS APPRECIATED

To the editor:

Thank you for the story of Crazy Horse in the May 31 paper. Crazy Horse was an Ogala Sioux, and his story is told in a book, "Black Elk Speaks," by Dr. John Neihardt, who was many years ago a distinguished visiting professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia. I have been given permission to quote from the book by the University of Nebraska Press:

"Some soldiers came there bringing Crazy Horse with them. He was riding his horse alone a little way ahead. They told Crazy Horse they would not harm him if he would go to the soldiers' town and have a talk with the white chief there. But they lied. They did not take him to the chief for a talk. They took him to the little prison with iron bars on the windows, for they planned to get rid of him. And when he saw what they were doing, he turned around and took a knife out of his robe. ... While there was a struggle, a soldier ran a bayonet into Crazy Horse from one side at the back, and he fell down and began to die. Then they put him in a box, and I heard that they had to cut him in two because the box was not long enough. They fastened the box on a pony drag and went away alone toward the east and north. I saw the two old people going away alone with their son's body. Nobody followed them. They went all alone, and can see them going yet."

M.H.K. FLENTGE

Cape Girardeau