Crazy Horse’s grandson speaks in Daleville

“All books written about my grandfather, movies that are made are all assumptions; not true,” Crazy Horse Family Administrator and grandson of Crazy Horse Floyd Clown Sr. said. “They’re fiction.”

Clown spoke at the Daleville Cultural and Convention Center on Feb. 29.  Daleville was the 317^th and last stop in the coast-to-coast mission to get the “truth” about his grandfather to the public.

Most people would refer to Crazy Horse as Clown’s great-grandfather, but Clown noted that in Native American culture, the term “great” is not used to show lineage. He said there are only aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, grandsons, granddaughters, grandmothers and grandfathers. He described using the terms such as “great-grandfather” as “European.”

Clown has addressed crowds and their questions regarding his grandfather and has spoken at all the stops for free.

One of the truths he spoke was in reference to the name “Crazy Horse.” He said the warrior the public knows as Crazy Horse was actually the third person to hold the name.

He explained that Native Americans pass down names so the warrior Crazy Horse inherited the name from his father, who inherited the name from his father.

Clown said that upon the warrior’s death, the name was returned to his father since his father was still alive at the time of Crazy Horse’s death.

He said that the family has been in hiding since Crazy Horse’s assassination in 1877. Floyd said his grandfather predicted his own assassination at the same sun dance where Sitting Bull was given his visions of what was to come at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Clown said that his grandfather etched his vision of the assassination onto the belly of a rock that resembled an owl.

“That’s why our family knows it was an assassination of our grandfather,” Clown said, because of the vision Crazy Horse had.

He said the family came out of hiding in 2001 due a federal court case against Hornell Brewing Company for using Crazy Horse’s name in their malt liquor line without permission.

“In 2001, we were told to tell our true identity,” Clown said. “My grandfather said it was time for truth, no more assumptions. So we’re correcting everything that was (wrong) about my family and grandfather.”

Clown said the case is still ongoing, but it is through this case that his family has proven that they are the “blood-heirs” of the Crazy Horse estate. He said in 2001 that there were about 600 descendants from the paternal side and 2,400 from the maternal side of the family.

Clown said that he is confident that his family will win the case and therefore regency over his grandfather’s name. He hopes the case will provide precedent for the families of other famous Native Americans, such as Sitting Bull and Geronimo.

“So in 2001, the Crazy Horse Family by example was showing all the Red Nations, this is how you legally protect your grandfather’s name under the federal and international law,” Clown said.

Also as part of this journey for “truth,” Clown and the blood family decided it was time to spread the “true” legacy of the warrior Crazy Horse from the oral stories the blood family had passed down for generations. To achieve this, Clown and his family partnered with William Matson to write the definitive book about Crazy Horse and his legacy from these histories.

“If you look in the back (of the book), there are no references because all of these stories come directly from the blood family,” Clown said.

Clown said that while the book is available to the public, it was truly made to keep the family’s history alive for the family’s children and grandchildren.

With the journey finally coming to end, Clown shared one sentiment.

“The truth is long overdue,” Clown said.