Crow Dog was one of the leaders who helped popularize the Ghost Dance. After receiving a vision, he warned several dancers to stay away from a large gathering of tribes in 1890 thus saving them from being victims of the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Spotted Tail was the uncle of Oglala Lakota war leader Crazy Horse (c.1840-1877). In 1948, construction of the Crazy Horse Memorial began. Located about 17 miles from Mount Rushmore, it is an unfinished sculpture carved out from a mountain.
The case of "Ex parte Crow Dog (1883)" established that Indian tribes retain their sovereignty. However, also gave Congress the power to pass any law they choose (including laws altering treaties that had been previously entered into), even over the opposition of the tribe or tribes affected.
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand, took place 25-26 June 1876.
On 5 Aug 1881, Crow Dog (1833-1912), a Brulé Lakota (Sioux) subchief, killed Spotted Tail (c.1823-1881), a Brulé Lakota tribal chief. It was caused by a long simmering feud, but the underlying reasons were in dispute. According to the author of "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee": "White officials... dismissed the killing as the culmination of a quarrel over a woman, but Spotted Tail's friends said that it was the result of a plot to break the power of the chiefs...."