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Chief Little Wound
(1860s-1890s)
Warriors Citation
Little Wound was a political and war leader among the Oglala and had a long record of distrusting whites and asserting Sioux
land claims. On the eve of the Wounded Knee massacre, however, he counseled peace despite his advocacy of the Ghost Dance.
Little Wound came to the attention of the U.S. Army during Red Cloud's War (1866-1868); he was active in several raids and
resisted pressure to settle on a reservation. By 1883, however, Little Wound had surrendered to reservation life. He told
a congressional committee chaired by Senator Henry Dawes that the Sioux were being swindled of their lands. Little Wound became
an Episcopalian in the 1880s before he was converted again, this time to Wovoka's Ghost Dance.
Little Wound described how he went into trance, died, and was born again into a world in which the whites had vanished and
Indians again lived in peace and prosperity. Little Wound and his band resisted pressure, including an elimination of rations,
and continued to dance well into fall 1890, when increasing numbers of U.S. Army troops arrived at Pine Ridge following Little's
abortive arrest on November 12. On November 26, Little Wound surrendered and tried to convince other Sioux to do the same.
Following the massacre of Big Foot's band at Wounded Knee a month later, Little Wound was one of a number of Sioux who made
up a delegation to Washington D.C., in an attempt to address the problems that had provoked the conflict. Several Sioux leaders
told officials at the Interior Department of mistreatment, illegal taking of land, and rotten rations as they posed for their
photographs in suits purchased at Saks'. From: historical accounts & records
LINK TO BRAVEHORSE WARRIORS VOLUME TWO
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