Because as a young man he had a dream in which he saw himself astride a horse and in battle unharmed by bullets and arrows.
Behind his ear was a smooth stone, and in his long unbraided hair was the feather of a red hawk. Crazy Horse became convinced that so long as he was dressed this way, he could never be harmed in battle.
And he never was. Although he was the most daring of Indian warriors, always at the center of the most dangerous fighting time after time, during his twenty years as a warrior, he was never even wounded.
It was Chief Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull who led the Sioux warriors the day they defeated General Custer at Little Big Horn.
A statue of Crazy Horse is currently being carved not far from the site of this momentous battle.