Hereditary chief of the Sioux Indians, born near St. Paul, MN. After 1851, when the Sioux, by treaty, ceded their lands beyond the Mississippi River to the government, they were removed to reservations in northern Minnesota. Here, in 1862, the Indians suddenly rose in a body, and along the frontier line of more than two hundred miles in extent, slew men, women and children to the number of one thousand. Little Crow was the acknowledged leader and instigator of this horror. On September 23, 1862, the United States forces under General Henry H. Sibley met the Indians and defeated them, took 2,000 prisoners and released 120 white female prisoners. About forty Indians were hanged, and the others removed to the Missouri River. Little Crow and several hundred of his followers fled with their families and took refuge among other neighboring bands, where for a time they dwelt in concealment. In 1863 the chief was discovered while on a raiding expedition, and shot. His scalp is in the collections of the Minnesota Historical Society. His death occurred near Hutchinson, MN, in 1863.
