Reminiscences of Little Crow

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"The estimate of Little Crow written by Dr. Asa Daniels...closed his tribute to Little Crow with...had their treatment been just, humane and generous, the Outbreak of 1862 would never have occurred." -Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Sept. 2, 1946
"Dr. Asa W. Daniels...was a government surgeon at the Redwood agency...when Little Crow's Sioux took to the warpath, Dr. Daniels volunteered for service and accompanied Judge Flandrau's expedition for the relief of New Ulm." -The Minneapolis Journal, Nov. 12, 1905
"Dr. Asa Daniels wrote in 1908...that other states had fought Indians but didn't display the scalp of a fallen foe." -Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Aug. 17, 2012

What events led to Sioux Chief Little Crow deciding to lead his band on the warpath against defenseless Minnesota pioneers in 1862, events that would eventually become known as the Sioux Massacre of 1862?

The author was appointed physician to the Medawakantonwan and Wiahpekuta bands of Dakota (Sioux) Indians in July, 1854, located on their reservation, on the south bank of the Minnesota river. His personal recollections of Little Crow provide great insight to the life of this famous leader of the Dakota.

Little Crow (1810 – 1863) was a Mdewakanton Dakota chief who led a faction of the Dakota in a five-week war against the United States in 1862. Little Crow is notable for his role in the negotiation of the Treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota of 1851, in which he agreed to the movement of his band of the Dakota to a reservation near the Minnesota River in exchange for goods and certain other rights.

In 1908, Dr. Asa Wilder Daniels (1829-1923) published a 25-page article titled "Reminiscences of Little Crow" in the Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Volume 12.

In introducing his article he writes, "Little has been written concerning Little Crow, the renowned chief of the Dakotas or Sioux, other than as a leader in the barbarous massacre of 1862. A more intimate knowledge of the man before that event may serve to give us a more intelligent understanding of his true character, and perhaps may modify somewhat existing impressions."

Little Crow tried to get along with the customs of the United States. He visited President James Buchanan in Washington, D.C., replaced his native clothing with trousers and jackets with brass buttons, joined the Episcopal Church, and took up farming. However, by 1862,