'Grandfather', or 'Grandpa Frank' as he was often called, was a nephew of Black Elk who worked to preserve Lakota traditions, including the Sun Dance and yuwipi ceremonies.

He supported Lakota sovereignty and treaty rights, and was a leader of the traditional faction during the armed standoff at Wounded Knee in 1973.

Fools Crow was born near Porcupine Creek on Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota on either June 24 or 27 between 1890 and 1892.

[1] In response to recent excesses of government corruption, on February 28, 1973, members of the American Indian Movement, with their allies and supporters, including Fools Crow, seized and occupied the village of Wounded Knee.

It was here, in 1890, that the followers of Spotted Elk, another, earlier traditional leader, had been massacred by the United States Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment.

Each decade since that "time of great melancholy", when hopes for sovereignty had "died in bloody snow", brought renewed demands for more Lakota land, always in violation of treaty agreements.

Those who opposed Wilson and his regime formed the "Oglala Sioux Civil Rights Organization", led by Pedro Bissonette, and worked to impeach him.

Immediately thereafter, federal forces moved into the area, including a counter–insurgency "Special Operations Group", which set up and manned sand–bagged machine gun positions at the BIA building.

On February 23, thus reinforced and without a proper tribal council quorum, Wilson was "exonerated" and quickly banned "all public meetings and demonstrations" on the reservation.

"[7] A few minutes later the meeting at Calico ended, and the caravan, fifty-four cars long, rolled through the winter night; old people and kids and tough guys and aunts and uncles. ...

The occupation lasted for 71 days, until an agreement was reached between federal officials and a Lakota delegation, which included Fools Crow.

Adams handed a letter through a barbed-wire fence to Fools Crow, who was wearing the traditional attire of buckskin and a headdress.

Fools Crow and the other leaders accepted the proposal, which stated that the White House would send representatives to Pine Ridge to discuss a treaty in the third week of May and would "get tough" on Dick Wilson, the unscrupulous chairman of the reservation.

Fools Crow and the other chiefs delivered the letter to the AIM leaders and told them that he believed that it was time to end it.

Since we were too few to fight and too many to die, Fools Crow asked the Wounded Knee leaders to try to find a peaceful resolution.

Once again, the government of the United States of America had lied.After the murder of Frank Clearwater at Wounded Knee, and because the U.S. government would not allow his body to be buried there, his wife agreed to bury him on Leonard Crow Dog's property on the Rosebud Indian Reservation, and had the wake at Fools Crow's house, where the body was placed in a tipi and covered with a blanket for mourners to come to pay their respect.