(1810-63)
Mdewakanton (Sioux) chief and Dakota leader
Little Crow was born about 1810 at the Dakota village of Kaposia, along the upper Mississippi River just below present-day St. Paul, Minnesota. His parents belonged to the Mdewakanton tribe, part of the eastern Sioux, or Dakota people. The Kaposia people occupied southeastern Minnesota. Other related Dakota tribes—the Wahpeton, Wahpekute, and Sisseton—lived west of them. Little Crow's people encountered Europeans as early as 1650 and by the time of his birth, they had already been well integrated into the fur trade.
When Little Crow was about nine years old the U.S. government erected Fort Snelling across the river from what would become St. Paul, Minnesota. The fort soon held several companies of troops and an Indian agent who urged the Dakotas to stop fighting with their old enemies, the Ojibwas, and to abandon their life of hunting and gathering. Most of Little Crow's relatives at Kaposia ignored this advice, preferring the mobility and independence of the chase. Because of overhunting, however, the Mdewakantons and Wahpekutes eventually relinquished their claims to lands in western Wisconsin and transferred these to the United States. The agreement, completed in 1837, produced the first food and cash annuities to support the tribe.
For his part, Little Crow avoided the heady business of treaty negotiation. Unlike his father, a chief named Big Thunder, the young man preferred to roam westward, trading horses, buying liquor, hunting, and gambling. But in 1846, Little Crow's father suffered a fatal accident, and the leadership of the Kaposia band fell to Little Crow's half brother. This rankled Little Crow, who quickly returned to Kaposia. In a scuffle with his half brother, Little Crow wrested the chieftainship from him, receiving severe gunshot wounds in both wrists during the melee. The wounded chief survived, and by 1849, when Minnesota had become a territory, he was the principal leader of the Mdewakanton tribe.
Little Crow's position was first seriously tested when the United States asked the Dakota people to sell their land in Minnesota in 1851. While opposed to the idea before the council opened, Little Crow knew that his father and grandfather had always been friends of the Americans and that this friendship had helped enhance their status. In addition, many of Little Crow's relatives had intermarried with whites, creating kinship ties. Reluctantly, then, but with considerable determination, Little Crow stepped forward at the council and proposed that for the right price, the government could have the land. His efforts unquestionably tipped the balance of support in favor of the treaty and propelled Little Crow into a new role as spokesman for the Dakota people.
Little Crow expected the federal government to meet its obligations. He demanded and was promised a reservation along the upper Minnesota River. Officials also agreed that money would be set aside to pay individual debts to Indian traders and to support the Dakotas with cash and food annuities. All of these promises were broken over the next few years as Little Crow's people were forced to evacuate the eastern part of the state. Unbelievably, even the clause guaranteeing a reservation along the Minnesota River was deleted by the U.S. Senate during the ratification process. While territorial officials in Minnesota first told the Dakota people that they could stay on the lands originally set aside for them for as long as they wished, federal officials soon demanded one-half of this parcel for additional white settlement. The Commissioner of Indian Affairs told Little Crow that if he refused to agree to the treaty, the government would force his people out onto the Dakota plains as they owned nothing in Minnesota. Little Crow reluctantly agreed to the new boundaries.
The federal government did make efforts to "uplift" the Dakotas on the new reservation by teaching them farming and English-language skills. These changes in turn produced resistance as various Indian "farmer" or progressive groups soon formed and clashed with others who joined soldiers' lodges, or male societies. Little Crow maintained his distance from both groups, refusing to don the clothing of the farmer Indian while resisting the admonitions of the most angry members of the Dakota soldiers' lodge. His attempt at mediation, however, resulted in his being rejected as speaker for his people in 1861.
As opposition to government programs grew, the Civil War made it more difficult for agency officials to purchase and supply the needs of the six thousand Dakotas who lived on the upper Minnesota River. Corruption within the Bureau of Indian Affairs added to the problem, since food supplies often went to white laborers or to the cooperative, farmer Indians. On August 17, 1862, a clash occurred in which several white settlers were killed. Late that same evening, warriors from the soldiers' lodge surrounded Little Crow's house and asked him to lead them in all-out war. Most of the respected leaders among the Dakota people had by that time long since joined the progressives or lacked the personal prestige necessary to lead the four Minnesota tribes. Little Crow, miffed by his demotion and angry at the federal government, agreed to join the antifarmer elements. At dawn on August 18, over a hundred Dakota warriors attacked and killed most of the government officials at the Lower Sioux Agency. The fighting became general that afternoon as more and more Indians fanned into the countryside, raiding the settlers who had recently taken up land near the reservation. Within a few days, nearly five hundred whites had perished in what is generally called the Dakota Conflict of 1862.
Little Crow's attempt to lead this rebellion proved disappointing. Although only a handful of troops remained at nearby Fort Ridgely and the German enclave at New Ulm stood largely undefended, the Dakotas were unable to capture either outpost. Minnesota state officials quickly sent a fourteen-hundred-man army into the Minnesota River valley to subdue the Dakotas. Many tribesmen fled. A month later at Wood Lake, Little Crow's forces, badly fractionalized and difficult to control, lost a crucial engagement and promptly retreated west onto the plains. While getting ready to flee, Little Crow did what he could to preserve the one hundred odd captives held by Dakota warriors, many of whom were mixed-blood relatives.
The Dakota leader proceeded into Canada, where he found little sympathy. He eventually returned with his son to the Minnesota frontier. On July 3, 1863, a farmer living near Hutchinson, Minnesota, discovered the pair picking berries. Without ascertaining their identity, he fired on them, mortally wounding Little Crow. The Dakota leader died later that afternoon. His son dressed his body, covered it with a blanket, and left.
Little Crow should be remembered as an intelligent leader of his people who sought accommodation but found betrayal and disappointment. While he is often viewed as the tragic leader of Dakota resistance in Minnesota, in reality he tried most of his life to lead his kinsmen through the difficult transition that accompanied the American settlement of Minnesota—a sensible, though inglorious, role.
Gary Clayton Anderson, Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1986).
Gary Clayton Anderson
University of Oklahoma
