Elk Boy (Oyuhpe)

[ephriam]

Huron Elk Boy Unpan Hoksila (c1849-1927) was initially known as Forked Foot but received his father's name, Elk Boy, after his death. He was with the northern bands during the Great Sioux War of 1876-77 and may have been a veteran of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In his interview, he states that he only fought "once against the whites." While his name cannot be found in the Crazy Horse Surrender Ledger, he probably did come in to the Red Cloud Agency in the spring of 1877 with other members of his band. Elk Boy enlisted in Lieut. Clark's Indian scouts, serving from July to December 1877 and he was then part of the "break aways" that slipped away from the agencies during the winter of 1877-78 to join Sitting Bull in Canada. He married White Bear (also known as Weasel Bear) about 1878, probably while he was in Canada.

Elk Boy surrendered with the other Oglala about 1880 and was transferred to the Standing Rock Agency in 1881 where he is recorded in both the Big Road Roster and in the Sitting Bull Surrender Census (Family 498, page 133). In 1882, he was transferred with the other Oglala to the Pine Ridge Reservation where he lived the remainder of his life as part of the Oyuhpe community. He received an allotment of land in 1913 a few miles northeast of Manderson. Huron Elk Boy died Feb. 16, 1927 and was buried at St. Agnes Catholic Cemetery in Manderson with a government headstone recognizing his service as an Indian scout.

He was also among those interviewed by Edmond S. Meany for the Edward Curtis volume:

Wounded Knee
Manderson, SD 21 July 1907
John Monroe, Interpreter

Elk Boy
Um-pah-Ok-shila
Ogalala
59 years old

14 years old when he went on the first war party. It was against the Crows. White Swan, the great chief, was leader of the party.

At the age of 20 he took the pipe and led his first war party. It was against the Crows. They met 30 Crows about half way and killed them all. Twelve Sioux were killed. They scalped all the Crows.

He was in eleven battles against the Crows, Shoshones, Pawnees Assinniboines, Rees and Poncas and once against the whites.

He counted first coup on two Crows in the battle when 30 Crows were killed. They had them on a rocky hill and the Sioux surrounded them and began to shoot with bows and guns. One brave Crow came out to face the enemy and Elk Boy rushed at him, shot him down and before the Crow was dead he struck him with his gun and killed him. Then he cut off his whole scalp covering his hands with blood. Another brave Crow rode out and was shot by the Sioux when Elk Boy again rushed in and scalped him cutting the ears off with the scalp.

He thinks Crazy Horse was the greatest leader of the Sioux. He never knew a white man to charge into a camp like General Custer and therefore he was the greatest leader of the white men.

Elk Boy was his father's name which was given to him when his father died. His own name before that was Forked Foot.


Portrait of Huron Elk Boy (c1849-1927) by Edward Curtis. Courtesy Library of Congress.

[gregor]

Hi ephriam,

I'm a little puzzled about the name HURON Elk Boy. Could it be that HURON is a read or tranlate error? Unpan - to my knowledge - is a FEMALE Elk. Could it be that the man's name was FEMALE ELK BOY? Just an idea.
Greetings from Germany!
Gregor

[ephriam]

Hi Gregor:

During the 1890s, there was pressure from the Office of Indian Affairs to alter the names of Lakota individuals to be more in line with the western custom of a personal first name followed by a family surname. For many Lakota, the English translation of their original Lakota names became the surname, to which were added an English first name. So He Dog's brother, for example, Tatanka Ptecela became Short Bull which then became Grant Short Bull. In this case, Elk Boy became the surname of the family and the first name "Huron" was added by the mid-1890s.

ephriam

[gregor]

Aah, it's a first name. I thought the name had something to do with the Hurons. OK.
And thanks for your interesting and useful informations over the last days!

Toksha ake

Gregor