Gregor has compiled a biographical essay about Big Head:
Big Head
(1838 – 1897)
Pahtanka or Nasula-tankaBig Head (
Pahtanka or
Nasula-tanka, which means Big Head or Big Brain), son of a Yanktonais Chief with the same name and his wife Turns Back (ca. 1814 - ?), was born about 1838. The Yanktonais lived in the Dakota Territory east of the Missouri River and north to Apple Creek Valley, which they considered their homeland.
The 1858 treaty with the Yanktons (they had agreed to a massive land cession of 11 million acres, nearly 23 percent of the present state of South Dakota) infuriated the Lakotas and Yanktonais. This land cession directly affected the Yanktonais, whose primary bison hunting grounds were east of the Missouri River. At Fort Pierre, Lakotas demanded that the federal government revoke the 1858 treaty and stop the Yankton treaty payments. Further up the river, Upper Yanktonai chief Big Head (father), who had a reserved attitude toward the whites, refused the treaty and to accept treaty annuities. He – accompanied by eighty warriors – sharply informed Indian Agent Alexander H. Redfield that the Yanktons had no authority to cede these lands, for they belonged to all Sioux.
In 1863, the older Big Head and the Yanktonais were involved in the punishment campaign following the Minnesota Uprising. On 3 September 1864, they were engaged in the Battle of Whitestone Hill, where General Alfred Sully surrounded a Sioux hunting encampment, containing some 500 lodges, mainly Yanktonais under the leaders Two Bears, Little Soldier, and Big Head and Hunkpapa under their leader Black Moon. Some Santee were also present. Sully attacked the Sioux and massacred mostly women and children because the men were out hunting. Then Sully rounded up the friendly bands of Little Soldier and Big Head, about 30 men and 90 women and children in all, who were taken as prisoners of war to Crow Creek Agency, where many died from starvation.
Some Winter Counts for the years 1863/64 – e.g., the count of No Two Horns (Hunkpapa) at the Buechel Museum – report the death of a Dakota called Big Head, who was taken prisoner by soldiers. This must have been the older Big Head.
After the death of his father, the son took the name Big Head. On October 20 and 28 1865, the U.S. made treaties with Hunkpapa and Yanktonai at Fort Sully. The signers included Two Bears, Big Head, Little Soldier, and Black Catfish. In these treaties, the Indians agreed to cease all hostilities with U.S. citizens and with members of other tribes. They also agreed to withdraw from overland routes through their territory. They accepted annuity payments, and those who took up agriculture would receive implements and seed.
Three years later, in 1868, Big Head was a signatory to the “Fort Laramie Treaty,” which was actually signed at Fort Rice by the Yanktonais. In the following year, the Grand River Agency (moved and renamed Standing Rock in 1874) was established. According to Edward S. Curtis, more or less all Yanktonais lived on reservations by 1869.
The 1874 Census revealed the following populations at Grand River Agency: Upper Yanktonai, 1,406; Lower Yanktonai, 2,607; Hunkpapa, 1,556; and Blackfeet, 871. But many Sioux, who were still living in the un-ceded lands as provided in the 1868 Treaty, were uncounted. Big Head and his Cut Head band still roamed the upper Missouri and even the Milk River region in Montana in the 1870s. His band settled – at least for a time – at the Fort Peck/Poplar River Agency.
But already in 1872, Big Head was one of the Yanktonais leaders who travelled to Washington. The Yanktonais head chiefs – Medicine Bear, Black Eye, Two Bears, Big Head, and others – wanted to negotiate the acceptance of their wish to stay in Montana at the new Milk River Agency (later Fort Peck). In the end they failed.
In 1876, there were only a few Yanktonais in the battle of the Little Bighorn. It is known that a small group of Yanktonais from Fort Peck – Thunder Bear, Medicine Cloud, Iron Bear, Long Tree, and some women – joined Sitting Bull’s camp to hunt and trade. At that time, the Yanktonais skirmished a lot with tribes like the Gros Ventre, the Assiniboines, and the Crows.
In the early 1880s, Big Head, who called himself Felix Big Head, moved to Standing Rock, where he had 17 lodges and 168 people under his care in the northern part of the reservation (Standing Rock Ration List for 1885). In 1882, U.S. Senator George F. Edmund initiated a law that declared polygamy a crime. On the Standing Rock Reservation and under the tutelage of Agent McLaughlin, Big Head, who had evolved into one of the main Standing Rock leaders, belonged to the strong supporters of the Edmunds plan.
Taking part in reservation politics, Big Head got his hair cut and, in 1888, he went to Washington, dressed in a suit, as part of the Sioux delegation to negotiate the cession of Sioux lands. On this occasion (and with the support of Agent McLaughlin) the Sioux successfully fought against the selling out of reservation land, but that would change in 1889.
When the new Crook commission convened its hearings at Standing Rock in July 1889, Gall, John Grass, Mad Bear, and Big Head were prepared to speak out against the second Sioux bill as they had in Washington. But Major McLaughlin had switched positions and, in private conversations, he turned over Grass, Mad Bear, and Big Head. Grass, "with the facility of a statesman,” argued convincingly on behalf of the new position. Gall, Mad Bear, and Big Head gave shorter but likewise influential speeches on behalf of the 1889 Sioux bill, which enraged Sitting Bull. These leaders compelled many undecided agency Indians to vote for the new bill. Gall and Mad Bear later regretted their decision.
Big Head / Pahtanka died in 1897. Whether he ever regretted his intercession for the Sioux bill is not known. He was buried in the Cannon Ball area.
Compiled by Gregor
Standing Rock Census 1896: Chief Felix Big Head, Nasula Tanka, born 1838
Parents:
Father: Big Head the older , (? – 1863/64)
Mother: Turns Back (1814 - ?)
Spouse: Owl Big Head, Hinhan, born 1838
Children:
Son: James Big Head, born 1854
Dau: Jane Big Head, born 1854
Son: Chase Big Head, born 1858
Son: George Big Head, born 1877
Sources:www.american-tribes.com/The History of the Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Indian ...
By David Miller, Dennis Smith, Joseph R. McGeshick, James Shanley, Caleb Shields
Handbook of North American Indians: Plains, Teil 1
Von William C. Sturtevant, Raymond J. DeMallie
Thanks again Gregor!!!
