Crow Dog was under a vow to slay the chief, in case he ever betrayed or disgraced the name of the Brule Sioux.
There is no doubt that he had committed crimes both public and private, having been guilty of misuse of office as well as of gross offenses against morality; therefore his death was not a matter of personal vengeance but of just retribution.
A few days before Crow Dog was to be executed, he asked permission to visit his home and say farewell to his wife and twin boys, then nine or ten years old.
Strange to say, the request was granted, and the condemned man sent home under escort of the deputy sheriff, who remained at the Indian agency, merely telling his prisoner to report there on the following day.
When he did not appear at the time set, the sheriff dispatched the Indian police after him.
They did not find him, and his wife simply said that Crow Dog had desired to ride alone to the prison, and would reach there on the day appointed.
All doubt was removed next day by a telegram from Rapid City, two hundred miles distant, saying: “Crow Dog has just reported here.” The incident drew public attention to the Indian murderer, with the unexpected result that the case was reopened, and Crow Dog acquitted.
He still lives, a well-preserved man of about seventy-five years, and is much respected among his own people.
It is said that, in the very early days, lying was a capital offense among us.
Believing that the deliberate liar is capable of committing any crime behind the screen of cowardly untruth and double-dealing, the destroyer of mutual confidence was summarily put to death, that the evil might go no further.
Even the worst enemies of the Indian, those who accuse him of treachery, blood-thirstiness, cruelty, and lust, have not denied his courage, but in their minds it is a courage that is ignorant, brutal, and fantastic.
His own conception of bravery makes of it a high moral virtue, for to him it consists not so much in aggressive self-assertion as in absolute self-control.
The truly brave man, we contend, yields neither to fear nor anger, desire nor agony; he is at all times master of himself; his courage rises to the heights of chivalry, patriotism, and real heroism.
“Let neither cold, hunger, nor pain, nor the fear of them, neither the bristling teeth of danger nor the very jaws of death itself, prevent you from doing a good deed,” said an old chief to a scout who was about to seek the buffalo in midwinter for the relief of a starving people.
This was his childlike conception of courage.
The cosmic law that manifests as each being's own duty — right order known not as abstract truth but as the specific obligation of one's nature and station (svadharma), so that maintaining the cosmos and performing one's proper work are one act; the Gita's 'one's own duty, though defective, is better than another's well performed.' Sits beside asha_cosmic_order and maat_cosmic_order as a right-order concept but is distinct in individuating the order into personal vocation; distinct from good_thought_word_deed (ethical triad) in binding duty to cosmic station.
The text describes Crow Dog's vow to slay the chief as an act of 'just retribution' rather than personal vengeance, illustrating a sense of duty (svadharma) tied to one's station and the maintenance of tribal honor.
The Zoroastrian triad of right thought, right speech, and right action as the foundation of ethical life; truth-in-living.
The passage emphasizes the capital offense of lying and the necessity of truthfulness to maintain mutual confidence, reflecting the ethical triad where right speech and action are foundational to social order.
Active compassionate care for others as a central spiritual obligation or expression of divine love.
The definition of true bravery includes the imperative to perform a 'good deed' for the relief of starving people despite personal danger, highlighting active compassionate care as a central virtue.