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Little Crow

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Taoyateduta, known as Little Crow

Taoyateduta (1810?–July 3, 1863) was a chief of the Mdewakanton Sioux tribe. His name means "His Red Nation," but he became known as Little Crow because of his father's name Cetanwakuwa or "Charging Hawk" which was mistranslated to visiting whites.

Early life

Taoyateduta was born at the Indian settlement of Kaposia, near what is modern-day St. Paul, Minnesota. His father died in 1846 after accidentally discharging a gun. Tribal leadership was disputed between Taoyateduta and his brother, finally ending in a scuffle that saw Taoyateduta shot in the wrists, leaving permanent scars that he concealed with long sleeves for the rest of his life.

He took control of the tribe by 1849, the year Minnesota became a United States territory.

In 1851, the United States negotiated the first Treaty of Fort Laramie with the Sioux tribes and others. Taoyateduta agreed to move his people to land put aside along the Minnesota River to the west. However, the treaty ratified by the United States Senate had the paragraph setting aside this land removed. The tribe was forced to negotiate a new treaty, under threat of forcible removal to the Dakotas, this time only granting land on one side of the river.

Taoyateduta tried to get along with the customs of the United States[1]. He visited President James Buchanan in Washington, D.C.; replaced his native clothing with trousers and jackets with brass buttons ; joined the Episcopal Church; and took up farming. However, by 1862 stress built up in his community as cheating by traders came to light and Congress failed to pay the annuities mandated by treaty in exchange for the land. As the tribe grew hungry and impoverished as food languished in the warehouses of the traders, Taoyateduta's ability to restrain his people declined.

Little Crow's War (the Sioux Uprising)

On August 4, 1862, about five hundred Sioux broke into the food warehouses at the Lower Agency; the agent in charge, Thomas Galbraith, ordered defending troops not to shoot and called a conference. At the conference, Little Crow pointed out that they were owed the money to buy the food and warned that "When men are hungry, they help themselves." The trader Andrew Myrick replied, "So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung."

The tribe's need for food, more than insult, led to the Sioux Uprising. Taoyateduta reluctantly agreed to lead the tribes through the conflict, even though he knew they were outnumbered and outgunned. He scored initial victories, but eventually was forced to flee to Canada as his forces weakened.

Deciding that the tribe must adopt a mobile existence, having been robbed of its territory, he returned to steal horses from his former land in Minnesota. He was foraging for berries with his son Wowinapa near Hutchinson, Minnesota, when a farmer shot him. Seriously wounded, Taoyateduta fled and soon died.

Legacy

The farmer, Nathon Lampson or Sampson, received a $500 bounty for killing Taoyateduta.

Taoyateduta's body was badly mutilated. The Minnesota Historical Society received his scalp in 1868, and his skull in 1896. Other bones were collected at other times.

In 1971 his remains were returned to his grandson Jesse Wakeman (son of Wowinapa) for proper burial.

The City of Hutchinson in the 1930s erected a large bronze statue of Taoyateduta (calling him "Little Crow") which stands in a prominent spot overlooking the Little Crow River near the Main Street bridge access to the downtown business district.

References

  1. ^ Brown, Dee (1970) Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, ISBN 0-330-23219-3, chapter 2: "Little Crow's War"
  • Anderson, Gary Clayton (1986) Little Crow, spokesman for the Sioux. Saint Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.
  • Carley, Kenneth (2001) The Dakota War of 1862. Saint Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press.
  • Clodfelter, Micheal (1998) The Dakota War: The United States Army Versus the Sioux, 1862-1865. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland.
  • Nix, Jacob (1994) The Sioux Uprising in Minnesota, 1862: Jacob Nix's Eyewitness History. Gretchen Steinhauser, Don Heinrich Tolzmann & Eberhard Reichmann, trans. Don Heinrich Tolzmann, ed. Indianapolis: Max Kade German-American Center, Indiana University-Purdue University at Indianapolis and Indiana German Heritage Society, Inc.
  • Schultz, Duane (1992) Over the Earth I Come: The Great Sioux Uprising of 1862. New York: St. Martin's Press.
  • Swain, Gwenyth (2004) Little Crow: Leader of the Dakota. Saint Paul, MN, Borealis Books.
  • Tolzmann, Don Heinrich, ed. (2002) German pioneer accounts of the great Sioux Uprising of 1862. Milford, Ohio: Little Miami Pub. Co.
  • "Little Crow". Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Retrieved May 20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= (help); Unknown parameter |accessyear= ignored (|access-date= suggested) (help)
  • Little Crow Trail
  • Minnesota Historical Society History Topics: Dakota War of 1862
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