Tashunka Witko (Crazy Horse)

Upon returning from my vacation in the Black Hills (South Dakota, Wyoming) and the Little Big Horn (Montana), I was inspired to draw Tashunka Witko yet again. He is my favorite person of all time. When he was a boy, he had a vision that if he took nothing for himself in battle, he would be invincible and no enemy fire could hit him. And that he was: he always played the decoy, always rode ahead of everybody else, enemies of the Lakota (Sioux) used to say 'we know Crazy Horse better than all you other Lakota, because he's always closer to us than he is to you.' His vision instructed him to not take any scalps, not tie his horse's tail or his own hair in battle, wear his one or two feathers pointing down instead of up, wear war paint of hail and lightning, rub a special stone over his body before battle, and sprinkle gopher dust on himself and his horse to make them invisible (hence the sparklies). His powers came from the Wakinyan, the Thunderbeings (hence the lightning all over the place), and the Red-Tailed Hawk also figured significantly in his visions. He was shy, eccentric, and rather antisocial so few concerete things are known about him, but nobody questioned his skill in battle. So here is my tribute to Tashunka Witko and the mystic warriors of the Plains. Drawn entirely in marker. Pieced together from 8 scans.

Tashunka Witko (Crazy Horse)

Copyright © 2003 by Yumeni www.twilightvisions.com. All rights reserved.
Revised: 12 May 2010 07:46:43 -0400 .

 

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