Eastman, in the Outlook, says that Spotted Tail was killed because he betrayed the Brules to the whites, and Crow Dog's killing him was the result of a pact made thirty years before by the Brules, that Spotted Tail should die if it were ever proved that he had played false to his tribe. This sounds like an apology for the murder of the great Indian, and the thought has probably been fostered by the friends of "the old man with a withered arm." No doubt there are those among the Indians who hated "the King of all the Sioux," through all the years, and were glad when he was finally assassinated.

After Spotted Tail was taken to Washington, he lost control of a good many of the young men of the tribe who wanted war. Big Mouth was the leader of the war party. One day in 1873, Spotted Tail called him out of his lodge. As he came out two of Spotted Tail's friends grabbed his arms, and Spotted Tail walked up to him and shot him dead.

It was eight years later that Crow Dog started trouble among the young braves, and some say that Spotted Tail was arranging to shoot him as he had shot Big Mouth. Crow Dog did not wait. In the terse language of the West he "beat him to it," and Spotted Tail was the one to die.

Father DeSmet speaks of Crow Dog as a man of courage and with a withered arm. This was forty years before Spotted Tail's death, and disagrees with the statement of Hyde that Crow Dog was "a young leader."