“Spotted Tail”

(Sinte Galeska 1833-1882)

A Great Brule Sioux leader, with a picturesque name, he participated in the killing of Lt. Gratten on the Overland Trail near Ft. Laramie in 1854, which precipitated 22 years of Indian hostility. A signer of the Treaty of 1868, that created the Great Sioux Reservation, he, with Swift Bear took the Brules to Whetstone Agency – 20 miles above Ft. Randall.

Disgusted with the whiskey peddlers on the Missouri, he beat Big Mouth, a belligerent drinker, to the draw and then demanded they move his Agency away from the Missouri, which was done in 1871 to the White River, near the Nebraska line and then in 1874 south to Beaver Creek. It was there he declared: ‘I hear you have come to move us (to Indian Territory). Tell your people that the Great White Father has promised we should never be moved. We have been moved five times. I think you had better put the Indians on wheels and then you can run us about wherever you wish.' The Brules were moved to Ponca Creek in 1877 and back to a permanent place at Rosebud in 1878.

Always with an eye to feminine beauty, he fooled around once too often and was killed by Crow Dog, erstwhile a policeman, but a jealous husband near the Agency in 1882. Crow Dog, tried for murder, plead punishment by his Tribal Court and the plea was allowed under the double jeopardy clause. He was buried at Rosebud 17 miles Southwest.

Todd County, a few miles east of Mission on Hwy 18