Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020
Ṡakpe (pronounced ‘shock-pay’) is a Dakota word for the number six and is the name of three leaders of the Dakota village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe.
According to one story, Dakota leader Ṡakpe I (1750-June 1827) received this name when his wife, Ptesaŋ Wiŋ (White Buffalo Woman), also known as Pteska Wiŋ, gave birth to sextuplet boys.
Ṡakpe I met Major Stephen Harriman Long at the mouth of the Minnesota River in 1817, when Long came up to distribute the presents for which Lieutenant Zebulon Pike had contracted to send them 12 years earlier when he made the Pike’s Purchase.
In June 1827, the Dakota and Anishinaabe were camping in a field outside of Fort Snelling.
That night, five Dakota Indians slipped in and shot several Anishinaabe, killing two and wounding three.
Lawrence Taliaferro, the Indian Agent, persuaded the Dakota to give up the men who had done the shooting. The Dakota lived by the principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life.
For the five wounded Anishinaabe, the Dakota handed over five Dakota. Among them was leader Ṡakpe.
The punishment was to run the gauntlet. The Dakota encampment was far across the field; halfway across stood the Anishinaabe men, armed with their rifles.
The Indian women and children stood behind the warriors of their tribes.
Outside the open gate were the troops, standing in rank; the officers, and shackled Dakota prisoners.
Charlotte Ouisonsin Van Cleve, who was a child at Fort Snelling, remembered that one who was forced to run the gauntlet was Ṡakpe I. Charlotte readily recognized him from his commanding height and graceful form; he was her friend and Charlotte hoped he would get home. “He darted out from the blue-coated ranks of the soldiers almost before the children knew. The rifles cracked. The smoke cleared.
“A roar of delight from the Sioux (Dakota) – Shakopee was still running; and the fort children began to clap their hands; for the Chippewas (Anishinaabe) had fired off all their rifles and had to pause to reload.
“He was not ten paces from the goal when the rifles again cracked. The children hid their faces. His body had jerked into the air…”
When the dust cleared, he was lying on the ground where he had fallen.
Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark Van Cleve, in her book, “Three Score Years and Ten,” Lifelong Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and Other Parts of the West, noted, “The fort children, who had been watching with their parents, wept, for their friend was dead.
“That night, the bodies of the Dakota men were dropped from the bluff into the river.”
For more information about Ṡakpe I, Tínṫa Otuŋwe, and the Dakota, Hoċokata Ti [ho-cho-kah-tah-tee], the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community’s (SMSC) cultural center and gathering space, is worth visiting. The public exhibit, “Mdewakanton: Dwellers of the Spirit Lake,” enhances the knowledge and understanding of the Mdewakanton Dakota people and their history. Hoċokata Ti is at 2300 Tiwahe Circle, Shakopee, MN 55379. (952) 233-9151.
Bibliography
Van Cleve, Charlotte Ouisconsin Clark. “Three Score Years and Ten,” Lifelong Memories of Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and Other Parts of the West. Kessinger Publishing, 2010.