A Solemn Promise Made On The Little Powder

By Shane Dunning

http://www.redshalereflections.com

Where it happened was (reportedly) at the mouth of the Little Powder River just Northeast of Broadus. Why it happened is disputed. When it happened was late February of 1866. The teenage daughter of Spotted Tail (the powerful Chief of the Sicangu Dakota), Mnne-Aukwin, was dead. Her death was not sudden, as she knew she was dying. Before she passed, she made a particular demand of her powerful father: to be buried among the whites in the cemetery at Fort Laramie.

Spotted Tail (Sinte Gleska) had been camped on the Big Powder when he (along with several other chiefs) received a summons from Colonel Henry E. Maynadier, commander of Fort Laramie, to meet with Peace Commissioners later that year. The result was a rendezvous of several lodges at the mouth of the Little Powder. As historian George Kinsbury detailed:

As Spotted Tail afterward narrated this scene, she said: "Remember the dying words of [Mnne-Aukwin]; go to the pale faces, shake hands with them strong; promise me this, and also promise to me as a pledge that you will do this, that you will bury me in the cemetery among the pale faces at Fort Laramie."

After she passed, it took Spotted Tail at least fifteen days to travel to the fort. The Brulé Sioux Chief knew Maynadier personally and sent a message asking the commander's consent to bury his daughter at the fort. Mnne-Aukwin's body was transported in a travois between two of her favorite white ponies. The commander saw an opportunity to advance the imminent work of the peace commission. When informed that Spotted Tail's party had reached the Platte, Maynadier stated in his subsequent report:

I then informed him that the Great Father offered peace to the Indians, and desired them to have it for their own benefit and welfare. That, in two or three months, commissioners would come to treat with them and settle everything on a permanent basis of peace and friendship. I sympathized deeply in his affliction, and felt honored by his confidence in committing to my care the remains of a child whom I knew he loved much. The Great Spirit had taken her, and he never did anything except for some good purpose. Everything should be prepared to have her funeral at sunset, and as the sun went down it might remind him of the darkness left in his lodge when his beloved daughter was taken away; but as the sun would surely rise again, so she would rise, and someday we would all meet in the land of the Great Spirit.

According to Maynadier, Spotted Tail "exhibited deep emotions during my remarks, and tears fell from his eyes, a rare occurrence in an Indian, and for some time could not speak." The Brulé chief (who could speak English) replied:

Have I been asleep during the last four years of hardship and trial and dreaming that all is well again, or is this real? Yes, I see that it is; the beautiful day, the sky blue, without a cloud, the wind calm and still to suit the errand I come on and remind me that you have offered me peace. We think we have been wronged and are entitled for compensation for the damage and distress caused by making so many roads through our country, and driving off and destroying the buffalo and game. My heart is very sad, and I cannot talk on business; I will wait and see the counsellors the Great Father will send.

The "wrongs" Spotted Tail referred to were waves of emigrants passing through Sioux Territory, solemnized in the First Fort Laramie Treaty in 1851. Many of these travelers were seeking gold and silver in Montana. The Sacangu, led by Spotted Tail, and the Ogallala, led by Red Cloud, occupied the southernmost Sioux territory. As such, they had more contact with these emigrants, and several clashes had already occurred. Spotted Tail was known to be a great warrior, having counted coup twenty-eight times. He had participated in the Grattan Massacre in 1854 and surrendered to General William Harney after the Battle of Ash Hollow (in present day SW Nebraska). Spending a year imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, he projected a more conciliatory stance towards the American Government upon his release. However, the Sand Creek Massacre of the Cheyenne in 1864 caused Spotted Tail to ally his Sacangu (also known as Brulé) with Red Cloud's more aggressive Ogallala.

The funeral took place in the fort's cemetery as scheduled. Mnne-Aukwin was covered with a buffalo robe and was placed in a coffin atop four large, seven-foot poles. The fort's chaplain reported that:

The Colonel then deposited a beautiful pair of gauntlets to keep her hands warm during her journey, as he said...A beautiful red blanket nailed to the posts to prevent the wind from removing it, and it was raised to the scaffold. The heads and tails of her two white ponies, which had been killed immediately after [her burial], were nailed to the posts.

The peace commission mentioned by Maynadier eventually resulted in the second Fort Laramie Treaty in 1868. Red Cloud famously signed the treaty, only to discover that army units had been deployed to establish forts along the new Bozeman Trail. For his part, Spotted Tail separated from Red Cloud and advocated peaceful negotiations with the American Government, a significant breach in Native unity.

Spotted Tail, for his part, had fulfilled the last wishes of his beloved daughter. Even at the time, the incident was considered extraordinary. The tale of her death on the Powder River and her burial quickly became romanticized. Conflicting accounts of what caused her death existed within only a few years. Some said she had died of consumption (tuberculosis) and the harsh winter conditions. Others claimed that Mnne-Aukwin was in love with an officer at Fort Laramie, and Spotted Tail's refusal to let her marry caused her to die of a broken heart or even suicide. Several Fort Laramie soldiers knew her, as Spotted Tail often visited the stronghold when traveling to his preferred hunting grounds in southwest Nebraska. Also romanticized was her supposed love of white men and her belief that fighting the palefaces was futile, a paternalistic trope later advanced by agenda-driven whites. The deceased daughter's name has seen several iterations, including "Falling Leaf" and "Ah-ho-appa."

Spotted Tail had several wives and many children. In 1876, he relocated Mnne-Aukwin's body to the Rosebud Agency in Dakota Territory. Throughout the Great Sioux War, Spotted Tail promoted peace and education for his people. In 1881, he was shot in the back and killed by another Sicangu with disputed motives.

In the end, it was the humanity of the incident that has survived the test of time. A father's love for his daughter, a colleague's sympathy for a grieving friend, and a girl's fascination with the exotic outshadowed the politics and the paternalism. Peace was given a chance, and although it did not materialize that spring, the moment was still remarkable.