Thaóyate Dúta

Little Crow III (Dakota: Thaóyate Dúta; 1810 – July 3, 1863) was a Wahpekute Dakota chief who led a faction of the Dakota in a five-week war against the United States in 1862.

In 1846, after surviving a violent leadership contest with his half-brothers, Taoyateduta became chief of his band and assumed the name Little Crow. Faced with anger and mistrust at home, Little Crow lost an election for tribal spokesman in 1862, after which he tried to change his traditionalist ways. In 1971, the society finally returned Little Crow's remains to the Wakeman family for proper burial at the First Presbyterian Church and Cemetery. or "Charging Hawk," while others have explained that the men were known to carry the skin or wings of a crow on their backs or dangling from their belts as a totem. There is considerable speculation about his year of birth. While his gravestone lists his birth year as 1818, historian Gary Clayton Anderson concludes that it seems most likely that he was born in 1810, based on mission school records and the fact that Taoyateduta served as a warrior in the Dakota Sioux contingent enlisted by the United States in the Black Hawk War of 1832.

Early years in Kaposia Taoyateduta was born at the Wahpekute Dakota village of Kaposia, also known as Little Crow's village. Over the years, Kaposia most likely had many locations on the east side of the Mississippi River, but is thought to have been in the area between Wakan Tipi and the Pigs Eye wetlands, just below present-day Indian Mounds Park, around the time of Taoyateduta's birth.

Following the 1837 land cession treaty signed between the Mdewakanton Dakota, Wahpekute Dakota and the United States, the Kaposia band, the only Wahpekute band located in the ceded area, moved across the river from the wetlands to what is now South St. Paul.

Lac qui Parle years Lac qui Parle view from Fort RenvilleOnce Taoyateduta was married, he was said to have abandoned his "bad habits." Other complaints against Taoyateduta were that he was "lazy," The old chief, together with one of his wives and two or three grandsons, had set out with an ox-drawn cart to gather some newly ripened corn in his field on the hill behind Kaposia village. As the cart went up the hill, the loaded gun started to slide toward the back of the cart, which was open. Big Thunder caught the gun by the muzzle and was drawing it toward him when it went off. He was taken back to Kaposia to see the medicine man. Surgeon George F. Turner also came from Fort Snelling to examine him, but there was nothing either the medicine man or the surgeon could do to save him. Big Thunder died three days later. However, historian Return Ira Holcombe, who compiled eyewitness testimony from at least nine other sources including members of Little Crow's family, wrote that Sibley's claim conflicted with all other accounts of Big Thunder's death, which stated that Taoyateduta was more than 200 miles away at the time of his father's death; that he did not learn of his father's death until at least two weeks later; and that he did not return to Kaposia from Lac qui Parle until months afterwards. Very little of this money had been spent, and soon there were disputes over how exactly the educational fund should be allocated. As word spread that schools would be built, the traders encouraged the Dakota to oppose them, hoping that if enough people complained, the government would have no choice but to distribute the funds to individuals rather than investing in schools, which would in turn benefit the traders.

Little Crow was present at Traverse des Sioux and signed the Mendota treaty, by which the bands agreed to move to land set aside along the Minnesota River to the west of their traditional territory. The treaty as ratified by the United States Senate removed Article 3 of the treaty, which had set aside this land. 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, his band was starving. Crops had failed on their small reservation, game was overhunted, and Congress failed to pay the annuities mandated by treaty. Payments were delayed because of the outbreak of the American Civil War. There were rumors that the 'Great Council' of Congress had expended all their gold fighting the Civil War and did not have the money. As the tribe grew hungry and as food languished in traders' warehouses at the Sioux agencies, Little Crow's ability to restrain his people deteriorated.

Dakota War of 1862

On August 4, 1862, a crowd of Dakota broke into the food warehouse at the Upper Sioux Agency. Lieutenant Timothy J. Sheehan, realizing that peace would not be restored until there was a distribution of food, called for reinforcements from Captain John S. Marsh back at Fort Ridgely. Fearing punishment, the hunters fled back to Rice Creek Village, where they told their story to Cut Nose, Little Six (Shakopee III) and Red Middle Voice, who were supportive of going to war to drive the settlers out of the region.

In the end, Little Crow's forces suffered a rout at the Battle of Wood Lake on September 23, 1862, after which Little Crow and many of his warriors fled west, taking three white boys with them as captives. One of the boys, George Washington Ingalls, age 9 (cousin to author Laura Ingalls) had witnessed the killing and scalping of his father Jedidiah and the capture of his three sisters at the start of the conflict. By late spring 1863, Little Crow and his followers were camped near the Canada–US border. They ransomed the boys in early June 1863, in exchange for blankets and horses.

Death

Deciding that the tribe must adopt a mobile existence, having been deprived of its territory in the War, Little Crow led a raiding party to steal horses from his former land in Minnesota. His people did not want to do this. On the evening of July 3, 1863, while he and his son Wowinape were picking raspberries, they were spotted by Nathan Lamson and his son Chauncey. The four engaged in a brief firefight. Little Crow wounded the elder Lamson, but was mortally shot by both Lamson and his son. The chief told his own son to flee.

The Lamsons separated, and each traveled the nearly 12 miles to Hutchinson, Minnesota to raise the alarm. The next day, a search party returned and found the body of an unidentified Dakota man. The body wore a coat they recognized as belonging to white settler James McGannon, who had been killed two days before. They scalped the Dakota man, and later brought the body back to Hutchinson. They then dragged his body along the town's Main Street. Firecrackers were placed in his ears and nose and lit. The body was ultimately tossed into a pit at a slaughterhouse. It was later decapitated. His son Chauncey Lamson received a $75 bounty for the scalp, although he had taken it the same day that the Adjutant General's bounty on Dakota warriors was declared on July 4, 1863.

The Minnesota Historical Society acquired Little Crow's scalp in 1868, and his skull in 1896. Other bones were collected at other times. These human trophies were displayed publicly for decades. In 1971, the Society returned Little Crow's remains to his grandson Jesse Wakeman (son of Wowinape) for burial. A small stone memorial tablet was installed at the roadside of the field where Little Crow was killed.

Legacy

In 1937, the city of Hutchinson erected a large bronze statue of Little Crow in a spot overlooking the Crow River near the Main Street bridge access to the downtown business district. It was created by local artist Les Kouba, who later became known for his wildlife art. In 1971 Jesse Wakeman arranged to have the remains of his grandfather Little Crow reinterred at the First Presbyterian Church and Cemetery in Flandreau, South Dakota. The church and cemetery were listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 2017. In 1982, sculptor Robert Johnson and Kouba created an updated statue of Little Crow for the city of Hutchinson, as the older one was weather beaten. It was removed in 2007 and held at the McLeod County Historical Society in order to allow construction of a new Main Street bridge across the river. Eheim Park was redesigned here, and the statue was planned to be reinstalled in a lower position in 2009, so that viewers could appreciate the symbols on the cape. The statue again overlooks the Crow River. A mask commemorating Little Crow was installed near the waterfall in Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis, however the foundry says there is no correlation between Little Crow and the site.

In popular culture Chief Little Crow appears as one of major supporting characters in the final volume of Złoto Gór Czarnych (Gold of the Black Hills), a trilogy of novels told from the perspective of the Santee Dakota tribe, by Polish author Alfred Szklarski and his wife Krystyna Szklarska.