Little Crow

Little Crow was born Tayoyateduta (His Red Nation) in ca. 1810 in the Mdewakanton Dakota village of Kaposia. He was the first son of the chief, Wakenyantanka (Big Thunder), and his wife Minneakadawin (Woman Planting in Water) and the grandson of Chetanwakuamani, who was noted in history for signing the Zebulon Pike treaty of 1805. Little Crow grew to be a very ambitious man, and one without physical fear. He acquired a reputation of being a brave warrior. During these years, he also learned to read and write English. When his father accidentally shot and killed himself in 1846, Little Crow became the chief of his tribe. Two of his half-brothers attempted to assassinate him shortly thereafter, but only succeeded in wounding him. Little

When treaty negotiations began at Mendota in 1851, Little Crow was elected as the speaker for his tribe. After these negotiations were completed, he became the first chief to sign the Treaty of Traverse Des Sioux. Little Crow thought that this treaty would enable his people to "never be poor". This was not the case however. Almost immediately, trouble began. The government did not want the Dakota to own their own land, which was one of the stipulations of the treaty. Although they protested, the chiefs had no choice but to sign the revised treaty. Part of the money from the sale of the land was paid to traders instead of to the tribes, to be held in "trust" for future purchases. However, the Indians never saw any returns from the money.

In 1858, Little Crow and the other Dakota chiefs traveled to Washington D.C. in hopes of convincing the government to redress the broken promises of the last treaty. Instead, the government threatened to take the land they wanted by force and so coerced the chiefs into signing away a ten-mile tract of their reservation. Although Little Crow had spoken for the entire delegation, tribal resentment over the signing away the land caused his popularity to decline.

During the following years, unrest among Little Crow’s people grew as the provisions and annuity money promised by the treaties was often too late, too little or not at all. When news of the Spirit Lake massacre committed by Inkpaduta and his band threatened to cause a war to break out, Little Crow stepped in once again. He volunteered to lead a war party against Inkpaduta’s small band and they brought back four scalps and several women captives. Then Indian superintendent, William J. Cullen, admitted that Little Crow’s intervention had helped to advert the very real possibility of a war.

When the Dakota heard of the white people’s Civil War in the spring of 1861, they were very curious about what it would mean to them; some worried that the Confederates would enslave the Indians should they win. Tensions among the Dakota increased in the summer of 1862, when the annuity payments were not made on time. In August, starving Indians broke into the agency warehouse, forcing the Indian Agent, Thomas Galbraith, to give them provisions. The tribe soon called for an election for a new speaker, feeling that Little Crow had failed them.

However, four days later, on August 17, Little Crow was awakened with the news that four young Wahpetons had killed several white men and women at the Acton Post Office. The tribe needed Little Crow’s experience with the white men to deal with this new situation. Little Crow knew that the white men would take vengeance for their slain women. The chiefs had only two plausible options: to turn over the murders to the soldiers, or to go to war. The first option was discarded after much discussion. The civil chiefs were divided over the war issue—Wabasha, Traveling Hail, Taopi and Wakute opposed it; Big Eagle, Red Legs, Mankato, and Little Six supported it. Despite all of the confusion, Little Crow lead a number of warriors to the Redwood Agency early the next morning and killed around 20 white men. Thus began the U.S.-Dakota War. Many of the Dakota began rampaging across the countryside, killing many white settlers. Little Crow disapproved of killing people who had not harmed them and pleaded with the warriors to spare the women and children. Little Crow lead an ineffective attack on Fort Ridgley on August 21 and again on August 23. He led the attack on New Ulm, succeeding in burning most of the town, and raided Hutchinson and Forest City. When Henry Sibley’s army arrived in Yellow Medicine, where the Dakota were camped, Little Crow knew that this was probably the last fight. On the morning of September 23, the Dakota attacked and were driven back by Sibley’s skirmishers, most of who were Civil War veterans. Among the thirty or so Indians killed, was the chief, Mahkato. Little Crow could no longer rally the warriors. He retreated up the Red River with some of his people. He continued to try to rally support among

On June 10, 1863, Little Crow left from his sanctuary at Spirit Lake to make a raid into Minnesota to gather up horses for himself and his family. He brought with him several men and one woman. The group soon split up, leaving Little Crow and his fourteen-year-old son alone in the "Big Woods". On the morning of July 3, 1863, Little crow and his son, Wawinape stopped to pick raspberries near Hutchinson. A settler named Nathan Lamson spotted the two Indians while he was hunting with his son and shot and killed Little Crow. Wawinape was injured but managed to return to his people at Spirit Lake.

Wawinape was later captured and sent to Davenport, Iowa, where he converted to Christianity and took the name Thomas Wakeman. He became the founder and first Dakota Secretary of the Y.M.C.A. Wawinape had four sons and two daughters: Solomon, Ruth, John, Jesse, Ida, and Alex Rev. John Wakeman was a Presbyterian preacher, Jesse Wakeman, who succeeded his father at the Y.M.C.A., and Alexander Wakeman, who was an American Marine in France during World War I, and later graduated from an Eastern medical college and became a prominent practicing physician. Ida discovered Little Crow's bones hanging in a Minnesota museum. She returned home and told her brother, Jesse, who in turn went to the museum to see for himself and then preceded to fight for the return of his grandfather. Eventually the bones were returned and Little Crow was buried in 1971

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Bibliography

Diedrich, Mark

    1987  Famous Chiefs of the Eastern Sioux. Minneapolis: Coyote Books.

Hughes, Thomas

    1969  Indian Chiefs of Southern Minnesota. Minneapolis: Ross&Haines, Inc.

Wade, Bonnie

    2001  Personal communication, April 7.

Written by Minnesota State University, Mankato student