Siŋté Glešká (pronounced gleh-shka, Spotted Tail) (1823[1] - 1881) was a Brulé Lakota tribal chief. Although a great warrior in his youth, and having taken part in the Grattan massacre, he declined to participate in Red Cloud's War[2], having become convinced of the pointlessness of opposing the white incursions into his homeland; he became a statesman, speaking for peace and defending the rights of his tribe. In his writings about Wyoming pioneer John Hunton's diaries, historian L. G. (Pat) Flannery noted that Spotted Tail ". . . was of unusual intellect with deep and abiding understanding of human rights and dignity, who realized the futility of war as an instrument of justice."
He made several trips to Washington, D.C to represent his people, and was noted for his interest in bringing education to the Sioux.[3]
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His Life
Spotted Tail was born about 1823 in the White River country west of the Missouri River. Over the previous 40 years the Lakota or Teton Sioux had moved from present day Minnesota and eastern South Dakota to areas west of the Missouri, and reformed into several sub-tribes or bands including the Saone, Brulé and Oglala. During this time they acquired horses, and rich buffalo hunting grounds. Spotted Tail's father, Cunka or Tangle Hair, was from the Saone band, and his mother, Walks-with-the-Pipe, was a Brulé. He was given the birth name of Jumping Buffalo.[4]
He took his warrior name, Spotted Tail, after receiving a gift of a raccoon tail from a white trapper, and sometimes wore a raccoon tail in his war head-dress. Two of his sisters, Iron Between Horns and Kills Enemy, were married to the elder Crazy Horse, and he may have been the uncle of the famous warrior Crazy Horse which would make him a relative of the famous Touch the Clouds as well.[5]
In 1871, he visited Washington D.C., to meet Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ely S. Parker and President Ulysses Grant; there he met with rival Red Cloud and agreed to work together.
In 1881, following the Black Hills War, Spotted Tail was killed by Crow Dog for reasons that may be disputed. According to historian Dee Brown:
- "White officials ... dismissed the killing as the culmination of a quarrel over a woman, but Spotted Tail's friends said that it was the result of a plot to break the power of the chiefs...".[2]
According to Luther Standing Bear in his memior My People the Sioux Spotted Tail was killed by Crow Dog after taking the wife of a crippled man. Spotted Tail had gone to the Carlisle Indian school and removed his three children and granddaughter despite Captain Pratt's objection. Spotted Tail had been given gifts from the Carlisle school and considered his ability to receive gifts from the government and take back his children as a sign of his power. He exploited this and sold land not belonging to him. This angered many of the Sioux chiefs and Chief Standing Bear the first cautioned the other sioux leaders against hasty action. Spotted Tail's continual flaunting of his believed power was brought to a head when he stole the wife of a crippled man. When told by a council of chiefs to give the man his wife back, Spotted Tail refused saying he will do as he pleases and the US Government is behind him. At this point several men decided that Spotted Tail would be killed but before they could act Spotted Tail was ambushed and assassinated by Crow Dog in 1881.
He is buried in Rosebud, South Dakota.[6]
A tribal university (Sinte Gleska University) on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota was named for him in 1971. [7]
Prelude to the Great Sioux War of 1876-77
In 1874, George Armstrong Custer led a reconnaissance mission into Sioux territory that reported gold in the Black Hills, an area held sacred by the local Indians. Formerly, the Army tried to keep miners out but did not succeed; the threat of violence grew. In May 1875, delegations headed by Spotted Tail, Red Cloud, and Lone Horn traveled to Washington, D.C. in a last-ditch attempt to persuade President Grant to honor existing treaties and stem the flow of miners into their territories. The Indians met with Grant, Secretary of the Interior Delano, and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Smith, who informed them that Congress wanted to resolve the matter by giving the tribes $25,000 for their land and resettling them into Indian Territory. The Indians rejected such a treaty, with Spotted Tail’s reply to the proposition being as follows:
- “My father, I have considered all the Great Father told me, and have come here to give you an answer . . . When I was here before, the President gave me my country, and I put my stake down in a good place, and there I want to stay . . . I respect the Treaty (doubtless referring to the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie) but the white men who come in our country do not. You speak of another country, but it is not my country; it does not concern me, and I want nothing to do with it. I was not born there . . . If it is such a good country, you ought to send the white men now in our country there and let us alone . . .”
Although these chieftains were unsuccessful in finding a peaceful solution, Spotted Tail and Red Cloud did not take part in the Great Sioux War of 1876-1877 led by Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.
Fallen Leaf
Eugene Ware, a Fort Laramie army officer, wrote that Spotted Tail’s daughter, Ah-ho-appa (Fallen Leaf), “. . . was one of those individuals found in all lands, at all places, and among all people; she was misplaced.” She apparently was not in harmony with her own race, preferring instead to emulate white people. There was also speculation that she was secretly in love with one of the officers at the fort.
When she was dying in 1866, Fallen Leaf made her father promise that she would be buried on a hillside overlooking Fort Laramie. The entire garrison at the post helped Spotted Tail to honor her request by arranging for a funeral full of pomp and ceremony, which included a Christian service and an Indian burial. Many years later, her remains were taken by Spotted Tail to the Rosebud Indian Agency in South Dakota and interred under an appropriate monument.
See also
- Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich of Russia
- Paha Sapa (The Black Hills)
- Crazy Horse
Notes
- ^ Hyde 2006, p. 3
- ^ a b *Brown, Dee (1970). Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee. Bantam Books. ISBN 0-5531-1979-6.
- ^ "St. Francis Indian School, School History". http://www.sfisk12.org/index.php?pageid=history. Retrieved November 21, 2008.
- ^ Hyde 2006, pp. 3-22
- ^ Hyde 2006, pp. 14-15
- ^ "Find A Grave: Spotted Tail". http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7878706. Retrieved December 8, 2006.
- ^ History of Sinte Gleska Sinte Gleska University
References
- Hyde, George E. (1974), Spotted Tail's Folk: A History of the Brulé Sioux, University of Oklahoma Press, pp. 361, ISBN 0806113804, http://books.google.com/books?id=ZbkNJpW-BAwC&rview=1
- Griske, Michael (2005). The Diaries of John Hunton. Heritage Books. pp. 66–69, 91-96. ISBN 0-7884-3804-2.
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