Whether you like history or not, if you care about bravery, wisdom, passion, larger than life characters,

and some of the most emotionally intense moments in the human experience, you have come to the right place.

Danieli Balele is a university history professor, writer, and martial artist,

and he shall be your guide in a journey to the place where history and epic collide. I'm going to be. Oh, my.

Oh! This episode is dedicated to the memory of my friend James Weddell from the Youngton Sioux tribe.

His Dakota name was Ishta Topaika copy.

I learned much from him about loyalty, generosity, bravery. So this is my way of saying thank you.

Without further ado, let's go say history on fire.

If half of what he said about him is true, the man we're going to be talking about today

is one of those rare individuals for whom the phrase, larger than life, seems to have been created.

The subject of this multi-par series is 19th century Lakota leader crazy horse.

His life was characterized by a degree of heroism and bravery at a level much deeper than the

majority of human beings can even imagine, but by the same token his life was also characterized

by a degree of tragedy,

running much deeper than the majority of human beings can even imagine. It has entered our

common vocabulary to use the term Greek tragedy to describe something that's equally epic and tragic.

Well, the story we'll play with today very much fits the bill,

but there's nothing Greek about it.

This is a Lakota tragedy, true and true.

Crazy Horse was pretty much the embodiment of the strong silent type.

He was an introvert, no doubt about it, but he was also ridiculously powerful as a warrior.

Now, Lakota culture in the 19th century, there are a few things that stand out about it. Among them, the fact that most men,

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