Little Wolf

Little Wolf is a fairly common name among American Indians. More than one Cheyenne chief bore the name, an early example being a Southern Cheyenne chief who participated in a famous horse-stealing raid (c. 1830) on the Comanches with Yellow Wolf. The later and better known Little Wolf (Cheyenne: O'kohomoxhaahketa, sometimes transcribed 'Ohcumgache' or 'Ohkomhakit', more correctly translated Little Coyote) was a Northern Cheyenne Chief (c. 1820 – 1904). He was known as a great military tactician and led a dramatic escape from confinement in Oklahoma back to the Northern Cheyenne homeland in 1878.

Born in present day Montana, by the mid-1850s, Little Wolf had become a prominent chieftain of the northern Cheyenne, leading a group of warriors called the "Elk Horn Scrapers" during the Northern Plains Wars. He fought in Red Cloud's War, the war for the Bozeman Trail, which lasted from 1866 to 1868. As chief, he signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie. He was chosen one of the "Old Man" chiefs among the Council of Forty-Four, a high honor in traditional Cheyenne culture. He was also chosen as Sweet Medicine Chief, bearer of the spiritual incarnation of Sweet Medicine, a hero of the Cheyennes. Because of this honorary title, he was expected to be above anger, as well as concerned only for his people and not for himself

He was not present at the Battle of Little Bighorn, but played a part before and after the battle. Some scouts from his camp apparently found some food left behind by Custer's attack force, and were observed by U.S. military scouts. This fact was reported to Custer, who incorrectly assumed he had been discovered by the main camp of Sioux and Cheyenne on the Little Bighorn, and urgently pressed on with his attack, trying to prevent the escape of the hostile Indians. After the battle, Little Wolf arrived and was detained and almost killed by the angry Sioux, who suspected he was scouting for the whites. Only his fierce denial of complicity in the attack and the support of his fellow Northern Cheyenne present during the fighting saved him from harm.

Following the defeat of Morning Star (Dull Knife) by Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie in November 1876, Little Wolf was forced onto a reservation in Oklahoma's Indian Territory. Around 1878, he and Dull Knife led almost 300 Cheyenne from their reservation near Fort Reno, Oklahoma, through Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakota Territory into the Montana Territory, their ancestral home. During the journey, they eluded the U.S. cavalry, which was trying to capture them. The two groups split up after reaching Nebraska, and while Dull Knife's party was eventually forced to surrender near Fort Robinson, Little Wolf's group eventually made their way to Montana where there were eventually allowed to remain.

Little Wolf would later become a scout for the U.S. Army under Gen. Nelson A. Miles. He was involved in a dispute regarding one of his daughters, which resulted in the death of Starving Elk. Allegedly, Little Wolf was intoxicated when he shot and killed him at the trading post of Eugene Lamphere on December 12, 1880. Little Wolf went into voluntary exile as a result of this disgrace.

In his later years, he lived on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation, where he died in 1904. George Bird Grinnell, a close friend and ethnographer who documented Little Wolf's life, called him, "the greatest Indian I have ever known."

Timeline

1820 (circa) Birth
1856 Involved in the affair of the 'stolen' horse at the Platte Bridge
1866 Takes part in the Fetterman Fight
1868 Signs a treaty with the U.S. Government at Fort Laramie
1868 Burns Fort Phil Kearny
1873 Visits Washington D.C.
1876 Takes part in the so-called Dull Knife Fight
1877 Ordered to go south to confinement in Oklahoma
1878 Leads dramatic escape from reservation and returns to Montana
1879 Scouts for the U.S. military
1880 Kills Starving Elk; removed as Chief; goes into voluntary exile
1904 Death

References

Britannica Student Encyclopedia

External links

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