Compiled and written by David R. Schleper, 2020
Ṡakpedaŋ, also known as Little Six, was born in the village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe in what is now known as eastern Shakopee in 1811.
The village of Tínṫa Otuŋwe (Ṡakpe’s Village) was located north of the river until 1839 and then was on the south side of the river in various places near what is now Memorial Park. Tínṫa Otuŋwe was the largest Dakota village in mid-nineteenth century.
When his father, Ṡakpe II, died in 1857, Ṡakpedaŋ became the leader of the Dakota in Tínṫa Otuŋwe.
After the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, Ṡakpedaŋ, along with Wakaŋ Ożaŋżaŋ or Medicine Bottle, another Mdewakaŋtuŋwaŋ Dakota leader, helped hundreds of Dakota women, children, and elderly people escape to Canada.
Ṡakpedaŋ and Wakaŋ Ożaŋżaŋ and the Dakota people found shelter and protection under the British flag across the Canadian border and pitched their camp on the site of the old Selkirk settlement, about 25 miles up the Assiniboine River from Fort Garry.
John Hamilton Mackenzie was secretly in cahoots with a U.S. Army major across the border in what would become Pembina, North Dakota. Mackenzie plied both Indian leaders with alcohol laced with drugs.
Ṡakpedaŋ, age 53, was dosed with chloroform and rendered unconscious. Wakaŋ Ożaŋżaŋ, in his mid-30s, struggled longer but several men subdued him. Both Dakota men were tied to dogsleds and taken to Pembina, then Fort Abercrombie, en route to Fort Snelling.
Trials were held and both were convicted despite sketchy evidence. According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press on November 10, 1865, “It would have been more creditable if some tangible evidence of their guilt had been obtained.”
It is said that as they climbed the scaffold, a steam train whistle blew in the distance, prompting Ṡakpedaŋ to say: “As the white man comes in, the Indian goes out.”
Ṡakpedaŋ (Little Six) and Wakaŋ Ożaŋżaŋ (Medicine Bottle) were hanged on November 11, 1865. While Ṡakpedaŋ’s neck snapped immediately, Wakaŋ Ożaŋżaŋ dangled for ten minutes before dying.
Ṡakpedaŋ’s body was preserved in a wooden whiskey barrel and sent to a Philadelphia medical school where Professor Pancoast used it in anatomy lessons. According to Sheldon Wolfchild, Wakaŋ Ożaŋżaŋ’s descendant, “We feel the same way about our ancestors, they are missing in action, and their bodies are in universities, museums and private homes,” he said, “waiting for proper burials so they can continue their journey to the spirit world.”
For more information about Ṡakpedaŋ, 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
St. Paul Pioneer Press, 10 Nov. 1865.