Why don’t we have any confirmed photos of Crazy Horse?

Why don’t we have any confirmed photos of Crazy Horse?

Dan Winrow
Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Jeff Barnes, a fifth-generation Nebraskan and author of a guide to posts of the Plains Indian Wars, says, “There are varied reasons given—he supposedly told Indian agent Valentine McGillycuddy, who wanted to have a photograph made, ‘My friend, why should you shorten my life by taking from me my shadow?’ Also, he may not have been willing to satisfy the curiosity of whites wondering what he looked like.”

Or Crazy Horse was never close enough so a photographer could take his picture.

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Marshall Trimble is Arizona’s official historian. His latest book is Wyatt Earp: Showdown at Tombstone.  If you have a question, write: Ask the Marshall, P.O. Box 8008, Cave Creek, AZ 85327 or e-mail him at  marshall.trimble@scottsdalecc.edu