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.
Links
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