The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse is a story of envy, greed, and treachery. In the year after the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Crazy Horse and his half-starved followers finally surrendered to the U.S. Army near Camp Robinson, Nebraska. The reverberations of that event led to the death of the great Oglala Sioux chief in the fall of 1877. Chiefs who had already surrendered resented the favors he received in doing so. When the army asked for his help in rounding up the Nez Perces, Crazy Horse's reply allegedly was mistranslated by Frank Grouard, a scout for General George Crook. By August rumors had spread that he was planning another outbreak. Arrested at Fort Robinson on 5 September, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a bayonet in a scuffle that was reported differently by every observer.

In this book the killing of Crazy Horse is viewed from three widely different perspectives—that of Chief He Dog, the victim's friend and lifelong companion; that of William Garnett, who was guide and interpreter for Lieutenant William P. Clark, on special assignment to General Crook; and that of Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy, the medical officer who attended Crazy Horse in his last hours. Their eyewitness accounts, edited and introduced by Robert A. Clark, combine to give The Killing of Chief Crazy Horse all the starkness and horror of classical tragedy.