Big Eagle

Big Eagle was the chief of a band of Mdewakanton Dakota in Minnesota. He played an important role as a military leader in the Dakota War of 1862. Big Eagle surrendered soon after the Battle of Wood Lake and was sentenced to death and imprisoned, but was pardoned by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Big Eagle's narrative, "A Sioux Story of the War" was first published in 1894, and is one of the most widely cited first-person accounts of the 1862 war in Minnesota from a Dakota point of view.
Chief Big Eagle is featured in the "Two Men, One War" marker and the "Battle of Birch Coulee – Big Eagle" marker erected by the Minnesota Historical Society at the Birch Coulee Battlefield; he is also quoted in many of the other markers posted along the self-guided trail.

Life before the war

Big Eagle was born in 1827 at Black Dog's village near Mendota, in present-day Eagan, Minnesota. He was a cousin of Little Crow's half-brother, White Spider.
He succeeded his father, Máza Ȟóta as chief of his band in 1857, and adopted the name of his grandfather, Waŋbdí Táŋka. Due to the modest size of his band, he was considered a "sub-chief" but "may be termed one of the Sioux generals, since he had a band or division of his own."
As a young man, he often went on war parties against the Ojibwe and other enemies of the Mdewakanton. The six feathers he wore in his headdress symbolized the six scalps he had taken on the war path.
In 1858, he joined the Mdewakanton farmers at the Redwood Agency, also known as the Lower Sioux Agency, but became increasingly critical of the farming movement in the years leading up to the Dakota War of 1862.

1858 Dakota treaty delegation

Big Eagle went to Washington, D.C., in 1858 as part of the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota treaty delegation led by Little Crow, when he was Little Crow's head warrior. Other Mdewakanton leaders in attendance included major chiefs Little Crow, Wabasha, Shakopee II, Wakute, Mankato, Traveling Hail and Black Dog; other sub-chiefs such as Whale, Tomahawk and Iron Elk; and representatives of Little Crow's soldiers' lodge including Big Eagle's uncle Medicine Bottle I, The Thief, and the sole Wahpekute delegate, Red Legs.
During the lengthy negotiations, the Dakota leaders were pressured to sign a treaty relinquishing half of their holdings – the land north and east of the Minnesota River – to the United States, leaving the Dakota with title to a 10-by-150 mile strip of land. According to Big Eagle:

"In 1858 the ten miles of this strip belonging to the Medawakanton and Wacouta bands and lying north of the river was sold, mainly through the influence of Little Crow. That year, with some other chiefs, I went to Washington on business connected with the treaty. The selling of that strip north of the Minnesota caused great dissatisfaction among the Sioux, and Little Crow was always blamed for the part he took in the sale. It caused us all to move to the south side of the river, where there was but very little game, and many of our people, under the treaty, were induced to give up the old life and go to work like white men, which was very distasteful to many."

The delegation spent over three months in Washington, D.C., providing Big Eagle and the other Dakota leaders with time to sightsee and observe American society.

Contest for chief speaker of tribe

In the spring of 1862, Wambditanka, Little Crow and Traveling Hail were candidates for chief speaker of the Mdewakanton tribe which Traveling Hail won. According to Big Eagle:

"There was a white man’s party and an Indian party. We had politics among us and there was much feeling. A new chief speaker for the tribe was to be elected. There were three candidates, Little Crow, myself and Wa-sui-hi-ya-ye-dan. After an exciting contest, Traveling Hail was elected. Little Crow felt sore over his defeat. Many of our tribe believed him responsible for the sale of the north ten-mile strip, and I think this was why he was defeated. I did not care much about it. Many whites think that Little Crow was the principal chief of the Dakotas at this time, but he was not. Wabasha was the principal chief, and he was of the white man’s party. So was I. So was old Shakopee, whose band was very large. Many think if old Shakopee had lived there would have been no war, for he was for the white men and had great influence. But he died that summer, and was succeeded by his son, whose real name was Ea-to-ka, but when he became chief he took his father’s name, and was afterwards called 'Little Shakopee,' or 'Little Six,' for in the Sioux language 'shakopee' means six. This Shakopee was against the white men. He took part in the outbreak, murdering women and children, but I never saw him in a battle..."

Regarding the election, historian Gary Clayton Anderson writes, "The selection of a speaker, coming at a time of growing unrest, served as a weather vane; it was a test of will between traditional and improvement Indians." At the time, Little Crow was considered a traditionalist and was favored by the young men who wished to continue as hunters, while Traveling Hail was favored by the farmers among the Mdewakanton. The other candidate favored by the farmers was Big Eagle, "a relatively new leader of a moderate political mold who grew up in Black Dog's village."

Dakota War of 1862

At the outbreak of the Dakota War of 1862, Big Eagle's village was at Crow Creek, near Little Crow's village.
Shortly before the war, Big Eagle's uncle, Medicine Bottle, was killed in a tragic accident outside his home. Medicine Bottle I was described by Dr. Asa W. Daniels as "an Indian of much ability, honest, truthful, bore the duties of life faithfully, and always gave good advice and worthy example to others of his people." Following his death, Big Eagle's brother Grizzly Bear took their uncle's name and became known as Medicine Bottle II.
Chief Big Eagle took part in all major battles during the Dakota War of 1862, except for the Battle of Redwood Ferry, where he arrived after the fighting had stopped. He led his band at the second battles of New Ulm and Fort Ridgely, as well as the Battles of Birch Coulee and Wood Lake.

Initial ambivalence

In his narrative, Big Eagle explained that he was initially reluctant to support the war. Having traveled to Washington, D.C. as part of the treaty delegation in 1858, he was aware that the U.S. government could not be defeated easily:

"Though I took part in the war, I was against it. I knew there was no good cause for it, and I had been to Washington and knew the power of the whites and that they would finally conquer us. We might succeed for a time, but we would be overpowered and defeated at last. I said all this and many more things to my people, but many of my own bands were against me, and some of the other chiefs put words in their mouths to say to me. When the outbreak came Little Crow told some of my band that if I refused to lead them to shoot me as a traitor who would not stand up for his nation, and then select another leader in my place."

Even after Little Crow agreed to lead the war and ordered the attack on the Redwood Agency on August 18, 1862, he refused to participate in the killing of settlers:

"Wabasha, Wacouta, myself, and others still talked for peace, but nobody would listen to us, and soon the cry was 'Kill the whites and kill all these cut-hairs who will not join us.' A council was held and war was declared... I did not have a very large bandnot more than thirty or forty fighting men. Most of them were not for the war at first, but nearly all got into it at last. A great many members of the other bands were like my men; they took no part in the first movements, but afterward did. The next morning, when the force started down to attack the agency, I went along. I did not lead my band, and I took no part in the killing. I went to save the lives of two particular friends if I could. I think others went for the same reason, for nearly every Indian had a friend that he did not want killed; of course he did not care about the others' friends. The killing was nearly all done when I got there."

Upon their return, Big Eagle committed to leading his band into the war:

"When I returned to my village that day I found that many of my band had changed their minds about the war and wanted to go into it. All the other villages were the same way. I was still of the belief that it was not best, but I thought I must go with my band and my nation, and I said to my men that I would lead them into the war, and we would all act like brave Dakota and do the best we could. All my men were with me; none had gone off on raids, but we did not have guns for all at first."

Lives saved

In his narrative, Big Eagle stated that he was reluctant to claim credit for saving the lives of settlers during the massacres, because after the war, many Dakota warriors made claims that weren't true: "So many Indians have lied about their saving the lives of white people that I dislike to speak of what I did."
One settler he mentioned by name in his narrative, however, was George H. Spencer, a clerk in the trading store of William Henry Forbes. Spencer's life was spared during the August 18 massacre and he became one of four male prisoners taken captive during the war. After the war, Spencer credited Wakinyatawa for intervening to save his life, but had no recollection of the role that Big Eagle had played:

"But I did save the life of George H. Spencer at the time of the massacre. I know that his friend, Chaska, has always had the credit of that, but Spencer would have been a dead man in spite of Chaska if it had not been for me. I asked Spencer about this once, but he said he was wounded at the time and so excited that he could not remember what I did. Once after that I kept a half-breed family from being murdered; these are all the people whose lives I claim to have saved. I was never present when the white people were willfully murdered. I saw all the dead bodies at the agency."

In 1906, Big Eagle's obituary in the Minneapolis Journal claimed that he had saved the life of the Alvin family during the siege of New Ulm: "An incident that happened during the siege of New Ulm in 1862 shows that he was friendly to the whites. Near New Ulm lived a family by the name of Alvin. Alvin and a young son were in the field stacking grain when Big Eagle came to warn them that if they did not go to New Ulm at once they would be killed. They hastily drove their ox team to the house, loaded on the family and a few articles of clothing and started for New Ulm. The hostile Indians attempted to overtake them and chased them all the way to town."