Considerable debate surrounds death of Crazy Horse given he was stabbed to death while in custody.

The official position is he was caught in an attempt to escape.

Fingers usually point to William Gentiles a guard as having been ordered to kill him.  Gentiles was then immediately transferred out of the region without a trial.

Another suggestion is that it was a conspiracy on the part of Red Cloud who had come to see him as a rival.

The fort commander was apparently a supporter of  Crazy Horse but had recently been given orders to arrest him and transfer him out of the area.

Another suggestion is that supporters slipped him the knife.

Crazy Horse growled, "Let me go! Let me go!" as he slashed the holding arms of Little Big Man.  Then with a mighty jerk he threw himself sideways and Little Big Man had to drop one hand, blood running from a slash across his arm.  Crazy Horse jerked free from Little Big Man as Kennington pointed his sword at him, yelling:

"Stand still, I don't want to kill you."

 But he spoke only in the White man's tongue and Crazy Horse did not understand.  Crazy Horse struck Kennington's sword aside with his knife and lunged forward, toward an opening in the crowd of solders.  He glared into the eyes of Red Cloud who was standing beyond the half circle of soldiers, ordering,

"Kill him Kill him!"

Crazy Horse lunged from side-to-side, trying to break thought, slashing out at the deadly clutch of solders.

Then Little Big Man grabbed his arms from behind.  Crazy Horse struggled into the open, dragging the stocky Indian through the door.  Lone Bear was in the crowd crying out, "He is holding his arms! He is holding his arms.  You can kill him.  Kill Crazy Horse!"

Twenty solders that had been hidden in the crowd jumped forward with bayoneted rifles, surrounding the Oglala, blocking his escape.  They raised their rifles as Red Cloud shouted "Shoot him, Shoot to kill!"

Kennington pulled his sward and knocked the rifles down as fast as they came up ordering, "Don't shoot, Don't shoot.  There will be no killing!"

Illustration: The Killing of Crazy Horse by Ken Mundie