Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2024
Mary Crooks, Mahkahta-Heiya-Wiŋ, meaning “Woman Who Goes on the Earth,” was born in Thaóyate Dúta (Little Crow) village of Kapożia (within the present city limits of South St. Paul) May 13, 1836. Her father was Waukon Wah-Kano-Zhah-Zhah or Medicine Bottle (1831-1865), and her mother was a Winnebago woman.
Near the time of the Treaty of 1837, the Kapożia village was moved from the east to the west side of the river. In 1853 the people of Kapożia were again required to move because of the Treaty of Mendota, which opened the land west of the Mississippi to white settlers. As a result, the Mdewakanton migrated to a Minnesota River reservation over the next two years. Mahkahta-Heiya-Wiŋ Mary Crabby Crooks and the rest of the Kapożia band moved to the reservation on the upper Minnesota River, established for them by the 1851 treaties of Mendota and Traverse Des Sioux.
Mahkahta-Heiya-Wiŋ married John Crooks, or Tukon-Wa-Cha-sta, meaning “Sacred Stone Man.” She and her husband converted to Christianity and lived near the Lower Sioux Agency.
In a book written by Urania S. White called Captivity Among The Sioux August 18 to September 26, 1862 told the story of the woman who was captured on Aug. 18, 1862 and held until she was freed on Sept. 26, 1862 at Camp Release, Minnesota.
Nathan and Urania Frazer White and their children, Eugene, Julia, Millard, and Frank came to the Beaver Creek area of Renville County on June 28, 1862, just three months before the U.S.-Dakota War began. The Whites’ cabin was set in a location at the base of the bluff over Beaver Creek, about two miles from the junction of the creek and the Minnesota River.
On Aug. 18, 1862, Nathan was on his way to a political meeting that day in Owatonna. Their neighbors, 27 men, women and children, gathered at the home of Jonathan Earle nearby. They hitched their wagons to horses and headed for safety at Fort Ridgely. Soon, the Dakota rose up from the tall grasses, surrounded the settler-colonists and took all their belongings leaving them with only one wagon. The fleeing party had gone only a short distance when the Dakota opened fire on the men pulling the wagon. Eugene was killed, and Urania, Julia and Frank were taken hostage.
Mahkahta-Heiya-Wiŋ helped Urania and her infant son, Frank, to her tipi, and she and her husband protected them and five other captives from harm until they were turned over to Sibley’s army at Camp Release.
Following the U.S.-Dakota War, Mahkahta-Heiya-Wiŋ and her family were in the Dakota camp at Fort Snelling. On the journey to Ft. Snelling in the fall of 1862, their caravan was attacked by white settlers at New Ulm, and one of Mahkahta-Heiya-Wiŋ’s sons was killed. In the spring of 1863, the camp was relocated to the Crow Creek reservation in Dakota Territory. By 1866-67, due to the unsuitable conditions at Crow Creek, the Dakotas were removed to the Santee reservation in northeastern Nebraska.
The Crooks family and others eventually left Santee and returned to settle near their old homes on the upper Minnesota River. Mahkahta-Heiya-Wiŋ died at the Dakota settlement near Morton, Minnesota on May 5, 1899, and she was buried in Redwood Falls at St. Cornelia’s Episcopal Church Cemetery.
Tukon Wa-Cha-Sta Sacred Stoneman John Crooks died Dec. 27, 1899 and was buried near his wife.