Apology offered in Crazy Horse Malt Liquor Case(Archive)

In a moral victory for the descendants of the Lakota Sioux warrior and spiritual leader Crazy Horse, SBC Holdings has settled a lawsuit accusing the company of using Crazy Horse’s name without permission.
The estate of Crazy Horse settled for 32 Pendleton blankets, 32 braids of sweet grass, 32 twists of tobacco and seven thoroughbred race horses, according to the Associated Press. “We’ve always felt that this case hasn’t been just about the money,” said Christina Kirk-Kazhe, a lawyer for the estate.
SBC Holdings (formerly Stroh Brewing Co., and unrelated to SBC Communications) has no current financial stake in Crazy Horse Malt Liquor, having sold its brewing business in 1999. The estate’s lawsuit continues against Hornell Brewing Company of Brooklyn, NY, which continues to produce Crazy Malt Liquor in what had been a joint enterprise with a now-bankrupt company acquired by Stroh in 1996. A spokesperson for SBC said that the company was “thrilled [that] it is able to resolve this matter in a way that is fair and more importantly, culturally significant to the estate.”
The estate is also fighting Liz Claiborne’s use of the Crazy Horse name for a line of clothing marketed in J.C. Penney stores. To read more about the Liz Claiborne controversy and view our action alert, click here.