He Dog
Encyclopedia
Oglala Lakota
The Oglala Lakota or Oglala Sioux are one of the seven subtribes of the Lakota people; along with the Nakota and Dakota, they make up the Great Sioux Nation. A majority of the Oglala live on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, the eighth-largest Native American reservation in the...
Lakota, He Dog was closely associated with Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse
Crazy Horse was a Native American war leader of the Oglala Lakota. He took up arms against the U.S...
during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77
Great Sioux War of 1876-77
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, against the United States...
.
Biography
Born in the spring of 1840 on the headwaters of the Cheyenne RiverCheyenne River
The Cheyenne River is a tributary of the Missouri River in the U.S. states of Wyoming and South Dakota. It is approximately 295 mi long and drains an area of...
near the Black Hills
Black Hills
The Black Hills are a small, isolated mountain range rising from the Great Plains of North America in western South Dakota and extending into Wyoming, USA. Set off from the main body of the Rocky Mountains, the region is something of a geological anomaly—accurately described as an "island of...
, He Dog was the son of a headman named Black Stone and his wife, Blue Day, a sister of Red Cloud
Red Cloud
Red Cloud , was a war leader and the head Chief of the Oglala Lakota . His reign was from 1868 to 1909...
. His youngest brother was Grant Short Bull
Grant Short Bull
Grant Short Bull . Member of Soreback Band, Oglala Lakota, and participant in the Battle of the Little Bighorn...
. By the 1860s, He Dog and his brothers had formed a small Oglala Lakota band known as the Cankahuhan or Soreback Band which was closely associated with Red Cloud's Bad Face band of Oglala.
He Dog and his relatives participated in the Great Sioux War of 1876-77
Great Sioux War of 1876-77
The Great Sioux War of 1876, also known as the Black Hills War, was a series of battles and negotiations which occurred between 1876 and 1877 involving the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne, against the United States...
. After the treaty commission failed to persuade the Lakota to give up the Black Hills, the President had an ultimatum sent in January 1876 to the northern bands to come in to the agencies or be forced in by the army. He Dog was encamped with the Soreback band on the Tongue River when the message was delivered. He Dog's brother, Short Bull
Short Bull
Short Bull may refer to:* Arnold Short Bull , Sicangu Lakota leader, associated with Ghost Dance* Grant Short Bull , Oglala Lakota leader* A fictional US tank from Panzer Front....
, later recalled that the majority of the northern Oglala resolved to head in to the Red Cloud Agency
Red Cloud Agency
The Red Cloud Agency was an Indian agency for the Oglala Lakota as well as the Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho, from 1871 to 1878. It was located at three different sites in Wyoming Territory , before being moved to South Dakota. It was then renamed the Pine Ridge Reservation.- Red Cloud Agency No...
in the spring, after their last big buffalo hunt. In March 1876, He Dog married a young woman named Rock (Inyan) and with part of the Soreback Band, stopped briefly with the Northern Cheyenne encamped on the Powder River in Wyoming Territory. On the morning of March 17, 1876, a column of troops under Colonel Joseph J. Reynolds
Joseph J. Reynolds
Joseph Jones Reynolds was an American engineer, educator, and military officer who fought in the American Civil War and the postbellum Indian Wars.-Early life and career:Reynolds was born in Flemingsburg, Kentucky...
attacked. "This attack was the turning point of the situation," Short Bull later recalled. "If it had not been for that attack by Crook on Powder River, we would have come in to the agency that spring, and there would have been no Sioux war."
During the summer of 1876, He Dog participated in the Battle of the Rosebud
Battle of the Rosebud
The Battle of the Rosebud occurred June 17, 1876, in the Montana Territory between the United States Army and a force of Lakota Native Americans during the Black Hills War...
and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also known as Custer's Last Stand and, by the Indians involved, as the Battle of the Greasy Grass, was an armed engagement between combined forces of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho people against the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army...
. He also fought at Slim Buttes in September 1876 and Wolf Mountain in January 1877. He finally surrendered at the Red Cloud Agency with Crazy Horse in May 1877. Following the killing of Crazy Horse, He Dog accompanied the Oglala to Washington, D.C. as a delegate to meet the President.
He Dog and other members of the Soreback Band fled the Red Cloud Agency after its removal to the Missouri River during the winter of 1877-78.. Crossing into Canada, they joined Sitting Bull in exile for the next two years. Most of the northern Oglala surrendered at Fort Keogh in 1880 and were then transferred to the Standing Rock Agency in the summer of 1881. He Dog and all the northern Oglala were finally transferred to the Pine Ridge Reservation to join their relatives in the spring of 1882.
He Dog lived the remainder of his life on the Pine Ridge Reservation. He served as a respected Indian judge and later in life, was interviewed by a number of historians, including Walter Mason Camp
Walter Mason Camp
Walter Mason Camp was a respected editor, author, railroad expert and historical researcher.He was born in Camptown, Pennsylvania, and was educated at the Pennsylvania State College. From 1897 until his death, he was the editor of The Railway and Engineering Review a railroad construction and...
, Eleanor Hinman and Mari Sandoz
Mari Sandoz
Mari Susette Sandoz was a novelist, biographer, lecturer, and teacher. She was one of Nebraska's foremost writers, and wrote extensively about pioneer life and the Plains Indians, and has been occasionally referred to as Mari S...
. He died in 1936.
Portraits
- By D. S. Mitchell, 1877.
- By Mathew Brady, Washington, D.C., 1877. Library of Congress
- By Charles M. Bell, Washington, D.C., 1877. Smithsonian Institution and Oglala Lakota College.
- By Charles M. Bell, Washington, D.C., 1877. Smithsonian Institution and Oglala Lakota College.
- By Alexander Gardner, Washington, D.C., 1877. Smithsonian Institution and Oglala Lakota College.
- By L. T. Butterfield, Sioux Fall, SD, 1891. Denver Public Library and Yale University and at New York Public Library.
- Photographer and date unknown, circa. 1928. Oglala Lakota College.
- Photographer and date unknown, circa. 1928. Oglala Lakota College.
- He Dog's house, Pine Ridge Reservation, 1928. Photographer unknown. Oglala Lakota College.
Misidentified Portraits
- By John A. Anderson, circa. 1900. Library of Congress. This portrait is actually of a BruléBruléThe Brulé are one of the seven branches or bands of the Teton Lakota Sioux American Indian nation. They are known as Sičháŋǧu Oyáte , or "Burnt Thighs Nation," and so, were called Brulé by the French...
headman also named He Dog.