ampsons--father and son, and his bones
were duly "done up" for the Historical Society of Minnesota. See
_Heard's Hist. Sioux War_, and _Neill's Hist. Minnesota_, Third Edition.

[Illustration: LITTLE CROW. _From an original photograph in the author's
possession_]

Little Crow's sixteen-year-old son, _Wa-wi-na-pe_--(One who appears
--like the spirit of his forefather) was with him at the time he was
killed; but escaped, and after much hardship and suffering, was at last
captured at _Mini Wakan_ (Devil's Lake, in North Dakota). From him
personally I obtained much information in regard to Little Crow's
participation in the "Sioux War," and minutely the speech that Little
Crow made to his braves when he finally consented to lead them on the
war-path against the whites. A literal translation of that speech will
be found further on in this note.

I knew _Ta-o-ya-te-du-ta_, and from his own lips, in 1859-60 and 61,
obtained much interesting information in regard to the history,
tradition, customs, superstitions and habits of the Dakotas, of whom he
was the recognized Head-Chief. He was a remarkable Indian--a philosopher
and a brave and generous man. "Untutored savage" that he was, he was a
prince among his own people, and the peer in natural ability of the
ablest white men in the Northwest in his time. He had largely adopted
the dress and habits of civilized man, and he urged his people to
abandon their savage ways, build houses, cultivate fields, and learn to
live like the white people. He clearly forsaw the ultimate extinction of
his people as a distinct race. He well knew and realized the numbers and
power of the whites then rapidly taking possession of the
hunting-grounds of the Dakotas, and the folly of armed opposition on the
part of his people. He said to me once: "No more Dakotas by and by;
Indians all white men. No more buffaloes by and by; all cows, all oxen."
But his braves were restless. They smarted under years of wrong and
robbery, to which, indeed, the most stinging insults were often added by
the traders and officials among them. If the true, unvarnished history
of the cause and inception of the "Sioux Outbreak" in Minnesota is ever
written and published, it will bring the blush of shame to the cheeks of
every honest man who reads it.

Against his judgment and repeated protests, Little Crow was at last,
after the depredations had begun, forced into the war on the whites by
his hot-headed and uncontrollable