Saga of the Sioux

by Dee Brown

  Galbraith replied that he could not do this until the money arrived. He posted 100 soldiers from the nearby fort to guard the warehouse. It was in the Moon When the Geese Shed Their Feathers (August) that the Santee decided they had waited long enough. On August 4, some 500 armed Santee warriors surrounded the soldiers. Other warriors broke into the warehouse and began carrying out food. The white soldier chief, Timothy Sheehan, sympathized with the Santees. Instead of shooting them, he persuaded Galbraith to issue food to the Indians and await payment from the government. After Galbraith did this, the Santees left peacefully. Little Crow did not leave for his home until the agent promised to issue similar amounts of food to the Santees at the Lower Agency.

  Early on August 15, Little Crow and several hundred hungry Mdewakanton assembled at the Lower Agency. It soon became obvious that Galbraith and the four traders had no intention of issuing food before the arrival of the annuity funds.

  An angry Little Crow arose, faced Galbraith, and spoke. “We have waited a long time. The money is ours, but we cannot get it. We have no food, but here are these stores, filled with food. We ask that you, the agent, make some arrangement by which we can get food from the stores, or else we may take our own way to keep ourselves from starving.”

  Galbraith turned to the traders and asked them what they would do. Trader Andrew Myrick declared, “So far as I am concerned, if they are hungry let them eat grass or their own dung.”

  Myrick’s words angered all the Santees, but to Little Crow they were like hot blasts upon his already seared emotions. For years he had tried to keep the treaties, to follow the advice of the white men, and to help his people learn how to live like white men. Little Crow knew that Myrick’s words would destroy what little respect Little Crow still had among the Santee.

  In the old days he could have regained leadership by going to war, but the treaties pledged him not to engage in hostilities with either the white men or other tribes. Why was it, he wondered, that the Americans talked so much of peace between themselves and the Indians, and between Indians and Indians, and yet they themselves waged such a savage war with the Graycoats (Confederates) that they had no money left to pay their small debts to the Santees? He knew that some of the young men in his band were talking of war against the white men to drive them out of the Minnesota Valley. It was a good time to fight the whites, they said, because so many Bluecoat soldiers were away fighting the Graycoats. Little Crow considered such talk foolish. He had been to the East and seen the power of the Americans.

  On Sunday, August 17, Little Crow attended the Episcopal Church at the Lower Agency and listened to a sermon delivered by the Reverend Samuel D. Hinman. Reverend Hinman had established his church at the agency in 1860 and had learned the Sioux language. His mission in life was to convert all the Sioux to Christianity and make them live like white men. At the conclusion of services, Little Crow shook hands with the other worshippers and returned to his house. It was the last time he attended Reverend Hinman’s church.

  Late that night Little Crow was awakened by the sound of many voices and the noisy entry of several Santee. Chiefs Shakopee, Mankato, Medicine Bottle, and Big Eagle came in, along with four frightened young warriors. The group said they had also summoned Chief Wabasha because they needed to hold an emergency council. As soon as Wabasha arrived, the group began to speak.

  Earlier in the afternoon, four hungry young men from Shakopee’s band had crossed the river that was the border of the reservation to hunt in the Big Woods near Acton Township, which now belonged to white men. Something very bad then happened. Big Eagle explained,

  They came to a settler’s fence, and here they found a hen’s nest with some eggs in it. One of them took the eggs, when another said, “Don’t take them, for they belong to a white man and we may get into trouble.” The other was angry, for he was very hungry and wanted to eat the eggs, and he dashed them to the ground and replied, “You are a coward. You are afraid of the white man. You are afraid to take even an egg from him, though you are half-starved. Yes, you are a coward, and I will tell everybody so.” The other replied, “I am not a coward. I am not afraid of the white man, and to show you that I am not, I will go to the house and shoot him. Are you brave enough to go with me?” The one who had called him coward said, “Yes, I will go with you, and we will see who is the braver of us two.” Their two companions then said, “We will go with you, and we will be brave, too.” They all went to the house of the white man, but he got alarmed and went to another house where there were some other white men and women. The four Indians followed them and killed three men and two women. Then they hitched up a team belonging to another settler and drove to Shakopee’s camp … ​and told what they had done.

  On hearing of the murders of the white people, Little Crow scolded the four young men. Then he asked Shakopee and the others why they had come to him for advice when they had chosen Traveling Hail to be their spokesman. The leaders assured Little Crow that he was still their war chief. No Santee’s life would be safe now after these killings, they said. It was the white man’s way to punish all Indians for the crimes of one or a few. The Santees might as well strike first instead of waiting for the soldiers to come and kill them. It would be better to fight the white men now while they were fighting among themselves far to the south.

  Little Crow rejected their arguments. The white men were too powerful, he said. Yet he admitted the settlers would exact bitter vengeance because women had been killed.

  Then one of the young braves cried out, “Ta-oya-te-duta is a coward!”

  Little Crow replied, “Ta-oya-te-duta is not a coward, and he is not a fool. Braves, you are like little children; you know not what you are doing.”

  Little Crow added, “Kill one—two—ten, and ten times ten will come to kill you. Count your fingers all day long and white men with guns in their hands will come faster than you can count…. ​Yes; they fight among themselves, but if you strike at them they will all turn on you and devour you and your women and little children just as the locusts in their time fall on the trees and devour all the leaves in one day.”

  But because of the 10 years of broken treaties and broken promises, he understood why they wanted to fight. Though he knew it was a war the Santees could not win, Little Crow finally agreed they must fight. He then repeated, “Ta-oya-te-duta is not a coward; he will die with you.” The Santee chiefs promised to gather their warriors for battle. Then they and the four young warriors left.

  Little Crow sent messengers upstream to summon the Wahpetons and Sissetons to join in the war. The women were awakened and began to make bullets while the warriors cleaned their muskets. The war that would be called Little Crow’s War was about to begin.

  One of the chiefs who participated in the war was Big Eagle. Years later, he recalled that Little Crow gave orders to attack the Lower Agency trading post early the next morning and “kill all the traders.” When the force started to attack the agency’s trading post, he said, “I went along. I did not lead my band, and I took no part in the killing. I went to save the lives of two particular friends if I could. I think others went for the same reason, for nearly every Indian had a friend he did not want killed; of course he did not care about anybody else’s friend. The killing was nearly all done when I got there.”

  This map of the south half of Minnesota shows the important landmarks and battles in Little Crow's War.

  One of the dead was Andrew Myrick. Someone had stuffed his mouth with grass. Big Eagle recalled the warriors saying, “Myrick is eating grass himself.”

  The Santees killed 20 men, captured 10 women and children, emptied the warehouses of provisions, and set the other buildings afire. The remaining 47 inhabitants (some of whom were aided in their escapes by friendly Santees), including Reverend Hinman, fled across the river to Fort Ridgely, 13 miles downstream.

  On the way to Fort Ridgely, the survivors met a company of 45 soldiers marching to the aid of the agency. Reverend Hinman warned the so
ldiers to turn back. The soldier chief, John Marsh, refused to heed the warning and marched into an ambush. Only 24 of his men escaped.

  Encouraged by this success, Little Crow decided to attack Fort Ridgely. By this time, Wabasha and his band had arrived, Mankato’s force had also been increased by more warriors, and fresh allies were reported to be on their way.

  During the night, these chiefs and their several hundred warriors moved down the Minnesota Valley. Early on the morning of August 19, they began assembling on the prairie west of the fort.

  When some of the young warriors who had never been in battle before saw the sturdy stone buildings of the fort and the armed Bluecoats waiting there, they had second thoughts. While traveling down from the Lower Agency, they had talked of how easy it would be to raid the nearby village of New Ulm. It was filled with stores to be looted, and no soldiers were there. Why not fight at New Ulm? Little Crow told them the Santees were at war, and to be victorious they must defeat the Bluecoat soldiers. If they could drive the soldiers from the valley, then all the white settlers would go away. The Santees would gain nothing by killing a few white people in a village.

  A map of New Ulm, Minnesota, looking southwest, published in 1870, eight years after the end of Little Crow’s War. In the foreground is the Minnesota River.

  But the young men decided to attack New Ulm anyway. Once they had left, Little Crow’s force was too weak to attack Fort Ridgely. He consulted with the other chiefs, and they decided to delay the assault until the next day.

  That evening the young warriors returned from New Ulm. Their attack had failed. They had frightened the people there, they said, but the town was too strongly defended. Also a bad lightning storm struck in the afternoon. Everyone’s attention was now on the attack of Fort Ridgely. About 400 warriors were assembled for the assault. Lightning Blanket, a participant, later said,

  We started at sunrise and crossed the river at the agency on the ferry, following the road to the top of the hill below Faribault’s Creek, where we stopped for a short rest. There the plans for attacking the fort were given out by Little Crow…. ​

  After reaching the fort, the signal, three volleys, was to be given by Medicine Bottle’s men to draw the attention and fire of the soldiers, so the men on the east [Big Eagle’s] and those on the west and south [Little Crow’s and Shakopee’s] could rush in and take the fort.

  We reached the Three Mile Creek before noon and cooked something to eat. After eating we separated, I going with the footmen to the north, and after leaving Little Crow we paid no attention to the chiefs; everyone did as he pleased. Both parties reached the fort about the same time, as we could see them passing to the west, Little Crow on a black pony. The signal, three shots, was given by our side, Medicine Bottle’s men. After the signal the men on the east, south, and west were slow in coming up. While shooting we ran up to the building near the big stone one. As we were running in we saw the man with the big guns [cannons], whom we all knew, and as we were the only ones in sight he shot into us, as he had gotten ready after hearing the shooting in our direction. Had Little Crow’s men fired after we fired the signal, the soldiers who shot at us would have been killed. Two of our men were killed and three hurt, two dying afterward. We ran back into the creek and did not know whether the other men would come up close or not, but they did and the big guns drove them back from that direction. If we had known that they would come up close, we could have shot at the same time and killed all, as the soldiers were out in the big opening between the buildings. We did not fight like white men with one officer; we all shot as we pleased. The plan of rushing into the buildings was given up, and we shot at the windows, mostly at the big stone building, as we thought many of the whites were in there.

  We could not see them, so were not sure we were killing any. During the shooting we tried to set fire to the buildings with fire arrows, but the buildings would not burn, so we had to get more powder and bullets. The sun was about two hours high when we went around to the west of the fort, and decided to go back to Little Crow’s village and come and keep up the fighting next day.

  That evening in the village, both Little Crow and Big Eagle were in low spirits because they had not been able to take the fort. Big Eagle was against making another attack. The Santees did not have enough warriors, and they would lose too many men if they tried it. Little Crow said he would decide later what to do. Meanwhile everyone should go to work preparing for battle just in case.

  Later in the evening, 400 Wahpeton and Sisseton warriors arrived from the Upper Agency. Little Crow was elated. The united Santee Sioux, 800 strong, were surely enough warriors to take Fort Ridgely. He called a war council and issued orders for the next day’s fighting.

  This time, instead of approaching the fort boldly, the Santee warriors fastened prairie grass and flowers to their headbands as a means of concealment. They then crept up the gullies and crawled through the brush until they were close enough to fire upon the defenders. A shower of blazing arrows set roofs afire; then the Santees rushed the stables. For a few minutes there was hand-to-hand fighting around the stables, but again the Santees had to give way before fierce blasts of the soldiers’ artillery.

  Little Crow was wounded—not seriously, but the loss of blood weakened him. When Little Crow withdrew from the field to regain his strength, Mankato led another assault. But heavy cannon fire cut down the rushing warriors, and the attack failed.

  Late in the afternoon the Santee leaders called off the attack. Lightning Blanket said later, “Some wanted to renew the attack on the fort the next morning and then go to New Ulm; others wanted to attack New Ulm early the next morning and then come back and take the fort. We were afraid the soldiers would get to New Ulm first.”

  The soldiers that Lightning Blanket referred to were 1,400 men of the Sixth Minnesota Regiment approaching from St. Paul. They were led by Eagle Chief Henry H. Sibley, also known to the Indians as Long Trader Sibley because he was a trader before he became an Eagle Chief. (Because a colonel’s insignia was an eagle, Indians called colonels Eagle Chiefs. Generals were called Star Chiefs.)

  The Siege of New Ulm, Minn. is a 1902 lithograph of a scene from the battle. [LOC, USZC4-​2995]

  At midmorning on August 23, the Santees attacked New Ulm—but the townspeople were ready for this. After the attack on August 19, they had built barricades, brought in more weapons, and secured the help of militia from towns down the valley. Because Little Crow was still too weak from his wounds to fight, Mankato was the war leader. His plan was to surround the town and then attack from all directions at once.

  The firing on both sides was sharp and rapid. Early in the afternoon, the Santees set fire to several structures on the windward side of New Ulm, intending to advance under a smoke screen. Sixty warriors charged a barricade, but were driven back by heavy volleys. It was a long and bitter battle, fought in the streets, dwellings, outhouses, and store buildings. When darkness fell, the Santees departed without a victory. But they left behind them the smoldering ruins of 190 buildings and more than 100 casualties among the stubborn defenders of New Ulm.

  An 1862 photograph taken of white refugees from southwestern Minnesota pausing to eat. They are fleeing the Minnesota River region during Little Crow’s War. [LOC, USZ62-29727]

  THREE

  The Santees Lose

  Their Homeland

  We are only little herds of buffalo left scattered; the great herds that once covered the prairies are no more.

  — LITTLE CROW OF THE SANTEE SOUX

  THREE DAYS AFTER THE BATTLE OF NEW ULM, the first group of troops from Sibley’s regiment reached Fort Ridgely. The Santees began withdrawing up the Minnesota Valley. They had taken more than 200 prisoners, mostly white women and children and many half-breeds known to be sympathetic toward the whites. After establishing a temporary village about 40 miles above the Upper Agency, Little Crow began negotiating with other Sioux leaders in the area, hoping to gain their support. He had little success
. One reason was Little Crow’s failure to drive the soldiers from Fort Ridgely. Another reason was the widespread killing of white settlers on the north side of the Minnesota River by marauding bands of undisciplined young warriors.

  Although Little Crow didn’t like those attacks on defenseless settlers, he knew his decision to begin the war had unleashed the raiders. It was too late to turn back. The war would go on as long as he had warriors to fight.

  On the first day of the Drying Grass Moon (September) in 1862, he decided to scout downriver to test the strength of Sibley’s army. The Santees divided into two forces. Little Crow led 110 warriors along the north side of the Minnesota River, while Big Eagle and Mankato searched the south bank with a larger force.

  Little Crow’s Santees secretly observed activity around the forts at Hutchinson and Forest City, but they discovered little because the soldiers remained within stockades. On September 5, runners brought news of a battle a few miles to the southwest. Big Eagle and Mankato had trapped Sibley’s soldiers at Birch Coulee, a place named for the shallow ravine lined with birch trees.

  During the night before the battle at Birch Coulee, Big Eagle and Mankato had quietly surrounded the soldiers’ camp. The fighting began at dawn and lasted throughout the day. At night the Santees retreated and prepared to renew the attack in the morning.

  Big Eagle later remembered that on the morning of the second day

  Just as we were about to charge, word came that a large number of mounted soldiers were coming up from the east toward Fort Ridgely. This stopped the charge and created some excitement. Mankato at once took some men from the coulee and went out to meet them…. ​Mankato flourished his men around so, and all the Indians in the coulee kept up a noise, and at last the whites began to fall back, and they retreated about two miles and began to dig breastworks [a protective barrier]. Mankato followed them and left about thirty men to watch them, and returned to the fight at the coulee with the rest. The Indians were laughing when they came back at the way they had deceived the white men, and we were all glad that the whites had not pushed forward and driven us away…. ​