Lesson 13 Crazy Horse (1)

Barbara Dash

1、Crazy Horse was a leader of the Lakota Indians. White people call his tribe the Oglala Sioux. Crazy Horse’s people belonged to one of seven great families who called themselves Lakota. The word Lakota means “friends” or “allies”.

2、The Lakota people were hunters. They moved with the seasons. They moved through the great flat lands and the great mountains of the north-central United States. The Lakota depended on wild animals for food and clothing, and for the materials to make their tools and homes. They depended especially on the buffalo, the great hairy ox-like creature. Huge groups of buffalo ran free across their lands.

3、Great changes came to the Indian territories during the mid-1800s.The population of the United States was growing. Settlers left the cities of the East for the wide open spaces of the West. The settlers followed the railroads extending across the continent. More settlers moved west when gold was discovered in California in 1849.

4、The ways of the settlers were not the ways of the Indians. The culture of the white people clashed with the culture of the red people—often in violence.

5、The United States army was sent to move the Indians and protect the settlers. Many Indian tribes refused to move. Their lands, they said, contained the bones of their fathers and mothers. It was holy ground. They fought against the soldiers sent by the government.

6、Crazy Horse’s tribe, the Lakota, had many powerful leaders and skilled warriors. Crazy Horse himself was greatly feared by the soldiers. He was very brave and the soldiers could not defeat him in battle. Most white people did not understand why the Lakota fought so hard. They knew little of the Indians’ way of life. They did not know Crazy Horse at all. Much of what we have learned about Crazy Horse came from his own people. Even today, they still talk about him. To the Lakota, he was both a warrior and a holy man.

7、No one knows for sure when Crazy Horse was born. Born around 1840, his name was first Light Hair. It is a common practice among those Native Americans to change the name of a child as they grow up. At the age of 10, Crazy Horse was known as His Horse on Sight. Then, at the age of 18, he got the name Crazy Horse which once belonged to his father, one of the tribe chiefs. The name Crazy Horse—in the language of the Lakota—meant “wild horse”.

8、Though we don’t know exactly when he was born, we do know when he died. He died in 1877, when he was in his middle thirties.

9、There are no photographs of Crazy Horse. But it is said that he was not very tall. And his skin was lighter than most of the Lakota people. As a boy, Crazy Horse loved to listen to the teachings of the Lakota religion. His father was a holy man of the tribe—a medicine man. He taught the boy to honor all things, because all things had a life of their own. Not only people and animals had spirits, his father said, but trees and rivers as well. Above all was the Great Spirit.

10、Crazy Horse’s father also told him that a man should be judged only by the goodness of his actions. So the boy tried hard to tell the truth at all times and not to speak badly of others.

11、Crazy Horse learned to be a hunter. He could lie quietly for hours watching wild animals. When he killed a bird or a deer, he always sang a prayer of thanks and sorrow. He always gave the meat to the poor and to the families that had no hunters. That was what Lakota chiefs did.

12、In time, Crazy Horse learned that the Indians were not alone in their world. He watched one day as tribesmen brought back the body of one of the most famous chiefs, Conquering Bear. The chief had been shot many times by soldiers after a dispute over a white man’s cow. Twice in the next few years, young Crazy Horse saw the burned remains of Indian villages. All the village people, including women and children, had been shot by the white soldiers.

13、All these events helped shape the personality of the young Indian. Crazy Horse became very quiet. He would go away from his village and spend days alone. His people began to call him “the strange one”.

（759 words）

Exercises

Ⅰ. How well did you read?

1. [Check the details] What does Lakota mean in English?

A. It means the Oglala Sioux.

B. It means “friends” or “allies”.

C. It means great families.

2. [Give the reason] Why did young Crazy Horse’s father teach the boy to honor all things?

A. Because his father was a medicine man.

B. Because his father thought all things had a life of their own.

C. Because the boy would be a tribe chief.

3. [Draw a conclusion] Why did the white kill the red men?

A. They killed the red men for money.

B. They killed the red men to get the buffalo.

C. They killed the red men to get their land.

Ⅱ. Read for words.

1. Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined words.

(1) He taught the boy to honor all things, because all things had a life of their own. (Para. 9, Line 4）

A. show great?respect to

B. sing beautiful words?about?

C. do what people agree to

(2) All these events helped shape the personality of the young Indian. (Para. 13, Line 1)

A. make B. develop C. keep

2. Choose one best paraphrase or Chinese meaning for the underlined expressions.

(1) They knew little of the Indians’ way of life. (Para. 6, Line 4)

A. knew nothing about

B. understood completely

C. had much knowledge about

(2) At the age of 10, Crazy Horse was known as His Horse on Sight. (Para. 7, Line 3)

A. was famous for

B. was given the name

C. got fame as

Ⅲ. Writing practice.

1. How did the white settlers settle in the west?

2. How do you understand “the culture of the white people clashed with the culture of the red people—often in violence”? Show examples, please.