Big Foot(1824? - December 29, 1890), also known as Si Tȟaŋka or Spotted Elk, was the name of a chief of the Miniconjou Lakota Sioux. He was son of chief Lone Horn, and became a chief upon the death of his father. He was a highly renowned chef, with skills in war and negotiations. He was killed in 1890 in South Dakota, along with almost 300 other members of his tribe, by the United States Army in what came to be known as the Wounded Knee Massacre.
Early life
Si Tȟaŋka was born the son of Lakota Sioux Chief Lone Horn between 1820 and 1825 into the Minneconjou ("Planters by the River") subgroup of the Teton Lakota (Sioux). He had three brothers – Frog, Roman Nose and Touch the Clouds – each of whom were to become leaders of Minneconjou bands. Big Foot became the Chief of his tribe at his father's death at age 85 in 1875.
Skillful diplomat
As Chief, Big Foot (Si Tȟaŋka) was considered a great man of peace and was best known among his people for his political and diplomatic successes. He was skilled at settling quarrels between rival parties, killing bears, and was often in great demand among other Teton bands.
Alliance with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse
During the 1870s, he allied himself with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse (together with Touch the Clouds) against the U.S. Army, but saw no major action during the war in 1876-77. The Miniconjou Lakota suffered during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77, after which they surrendered.
Reservation placement
Following the Sioux Wars, the government placed the Minneconjou on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Big Foot encouraged his people to adapt to life on the reservation by developing sustainable agriculture and building schools for Lakota children. Big Foot was among the first American Indians to raise corn in accordance with government standards. Big Foot also advocated that his people take a peaceful attitude toward white settlers.
Participation in "the Ghost Dance" movement
New religious movement
Due to poor living conditions on the reservations (made worse by fraud and corruption on the part of Indian agents charged, by law, with supplying the tribe with basic necessities), the Lakota were in a state of great despair; by 1889, they began to look to a radical solution to their on-going problems.
The radical solution came in the form of "the Ghost Dance" movement; it was a new religion initiated by a Paiute prophet named Wovoka. Big Foot and the Lakota were among the most enthusiastic believers in the Ghost Dance ceremony when it arrived among them in the spring of 1890.
Although government-imposed reservation rules outlawed the practice of the religion, the movement swept like a wild fire through their camps, causing local Indian agents to react with alarm. Some agents successfully suppressed the dancers; others called for federal troops to restore order.
The invitation of Chief Red Cloud
After Sitting Bull was killed on the Standing Rock reservation in 1890, his followers fled to seek refuge with his half-brother, Chief Big Foot. In December 1890, fearing arrest and government reprisals against his band, Big Foot headed south to the Pine Ridge Reservation at the invitation of Chief Red Cloud. Red Cloud hoped that his fellow chief could help make peace. Hoping to find safety there, having no intention of fighting, and flying a white flag, Big Foot contracted pneumonia on the journey to Pine Ridge.
Death at Wounded Knee
Peaceful surrender
On December 29, the 7th Cavalry intercepted them. Ill with pneumonia, Big Foot surrendered peacefully. The cavalry took him and his band into custody and escorted them to a site near Wounded Knee Creek, where they were to set up camp. The campsite was already established with a store and several log houses.
Wounded Knee massacre
The night before the ‘Wounded Knee Massacre', Colonel James Forsyth had arrived at Wounded Knee Creek, and had ordered his men to place four Hotchkiss cannons in position around the area in which the Indians had been forced to camp. Morning arrived, and on 29 December 1890, what has become known as the ‘Wounded Knee Massacre’ took place. Soldiers, under the command of Colonel Forsyth, entered the camp and demand that the Native Americans gave up their weaponry. In the confrontation that ensued, a firearm was discharged, believed to be by a deaf Indian named Black Coyote. A large gun fight ensued and the end result was the massacre of at least 150 Indian men, women and children, Big Foot being among one of the killed.
More On Wounded Knee
As the leader of the Miniconjou band massacred at Wounded Knee Creek on December 29, 1890, Big Foot haunts the history of the American West, an image of brutal death "drawn," as N. Scott Momaday has written, "in ancient light."
Big Foot and his people lived on the Cheyenne River Reservation in present-day South Dakota and were among the most enthusiastic believers in the Ghost Dance ceremony when it arrived among the Lakota in the spring of 1890. The hunger and misery that had followed the final break-up of their great reservation in 1889 made the Lakota keenly receptive to the Ghost Dance message of messianic renewal, and the movement swept rapidly through their encampments, causing local Indian Agents to react with alarm. Some effectively suppressed the dancers, others called for troops to restore order.
At the Standing Rock reservation, where Sitting Bull was suspected of encouraging the Ghost Dance in order to provoke an uprising, the crisis led to bloodshed when Indian police sent to arrest the aging holy man killed him in a confrontation with his followers. Fearful of reprisals, many from Sitting Bull's band fled south, where they found a haven with Big Foot.
Big Foot decided to lead his people away from the possibility of further violence at neighboring Standing Rock and headed farther south toward the reservation at Pine Ridge, hoping to find safety there. Increasingly ill with pneumonia, he had no intention of fighting and was flying a white flag when soldiers patrolling for roving bands caught up with him on December 28, 1890. That night Big Foot and his people camped near Wounded Knee Creek, surrounded on all sides by soldiers.
The next morning, the soldiers set up several large Hotchkiss guns on a hill overlooking the camp and began confiscating the Indians' weapons. When a gun accidentally went off, they opened fire, and within a few minutes, some 370 Lakota lay dead, many of them cut down by the deadly Hotchkiss guns as they sought shelter against a creek bank. The soldiers even pursued fleeing women and children, shooting some as far as two miles from the site of the original confrontation. One Indian witness remembered:
A mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing... The women as they were fleeing with their babies were killed together... and after most of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys... came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there.
Big Foot himself was among the first killed. His frozen corpse, half raised as though trying to warn his people of their imminent disaster, lay untouched for three days until it was unceremoniously dumped into a mass grave.
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