Red Tomahawk's Legacy

[Wakalapi]

May 6th, 2010

Update: The youtube video was deleted by the author.

[wolfgang911]

another nice vid from the custerwest brigade at FAL reviving history the dark side
some minor parts missing from the RT legacy who laid under the bridge of soldier creek among
sorry I know this board does not like arguments but this is so distorted I explode. finish off 1 of the greatest men among the lakota, butcher his son and you end up a hero on youtube.
could they just let it rest indeed.

[Dietmar]

Sorry, this board does not like arguments from you.

Any serious discussion is welcome though.

[ladonna]

Red Tomahawks were very good family here on Standing Rock and the descendant still work for the tribe. The difference is the tribes as Red Tomahawk was Yanktonais.
People have for a long time made Sitting Bull a hero but he was just a man.

[Dietmar]

I excluded wolfgang911 from these boards mainly because of the manner he made his provoking accusations here and in other threads, not because he generally said something controversial.

Ladonna, you are right about Sitting Bull being a man, but heros are always made by people who admire a person for what he is or what he does. For many people Sitting Bull, like Crazy Horse, was (and still is) a hero.
What we should try to avoid is to make people who acted otherwise or held other views out as evil villains. Or at least someone who is from Europe should be more careful and sensitive in his judgement of these matters and leave that to those involved.

I think we all agree the killing of Sitting Bull was a tragedy that shouldn´t have happened.
Those were hard times for everyone… and as Ladonna said it once, there were no winners.

It is stated in the video that even Marcellus Red Tomahawk changed his views later in his life and never said a bad word about Sitting Bull, like his Family today.

So that makes me believe there´ll be some accommodation (if this is the right word) possible between those families who are involved in the killing and Sitting Bull´s direct descendants.

Regards

Dietmar

[ladonna]

Thank you for your kind words
today many of us who are descendant on both side of the disagreement of long ago have found peace. Here is a story on Red Tomahawk and I have family who Red Tomahawks today.

The man behind the Highway Patrol logo
Story Discussion By CURT ERIKSMOEN | Posted: Sunday, October 25, 2009 2:00 am | (

The American Indian symbol of the North Dakota Highway Department is the profile of an actual Lakota Indian.

Marcellus Red Tomahawk was a warrior who actively fought against the whites during the early years of Dakota Territory. He later settled on the Standing Rock Reservation, becoming a member of the Bureau of Indian Affairs police force.

He was part of several peace negotiations, served as a Lakota goodwill ambassador and met with U.S. presidents. Red Tomahawk is most remembered as the man who shot and killed Sitting Bull.

Tacanke Luta (Tacanipiluta), Red Tomahawk, was born in the late fall of 1849 in Montana Territory. His father, Sintemaza, Peter Iron Tail, was from the Yantonai tribe, and his mother, Wamlisapa, Black Eagle, was a member of the Hunkpapa tribe. Red Tomahawk was the name of his paternal grandfather.

While Red Tomahawk was growing up, the whites began to make inroads into Montana and Dakota Territory, land he considered given to the Lakota by the Great Spirit. By 1862, he started going out with Lakota warriors to harass these intruders in the hope that it would discourage others from following them.

When military forts were built in Indian territory to protect the whites, Red Tomahawk and the other warriors began to harass the soldiers. At Fort Rice, in northern Dakota Territory, he was active in driving off the soldiers' cattle and horses and making surprise attacks on the fort.

By the mid-1870s, Red Tomahawk realized that the soldiers could not be defeated, and he joined other Lakotas as they settled on the Standing Rock Reservation south of Bismarck. When Sitting Bull convinced many Indians to leave the reservation and join him to flee west into Montana, Red Tomahawk remained at Standing Rock.

After the defeat of Custer at the Little Big Horn and the discovery of gold in southern Dakota, the U.S. government drew up the Black Hills Treaty in 1877, which took that sacred land away from the Lakota. Red Tomahawk argued that this was in violation of the Treaty of Fort Laramie, which had been signed nine years earlier.

In the later 1870s, Red Tomahawk converted to Catholicism, got married and took on the Christian name Marcellus. One of the policies of the reservation was that the Indians would have their own police unit. On July 1, 1881, Red Tomahawk and his good friend, Shave Head, enlisted as privates with the BIA Indian Police under the direction of newly installed agent James McLaughlin.

Due to their bravery, intelligence and trustworthiness, the two men quickly rose in rank. Through the Allotment Act of 1887, Red Tomahawk was given a parcel of land north of Cannon Ball on the reservation.

In 1889, Sitting Bull rejoined his followers at Standing Rock and almost immediately began to agitate his warriors through the religious ceremony known as the Ghost Dance.

Realizing the dangerous situation at Standing Rock, Gen. Nelson A. Miles ordered William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody to the reservation to arrest Sitting Bull on Nov. 28, 1890. Cody and Sitting Bull were friends and Miles reasoned that the arrest could be made with little commotion.

McLaughlin refused to allow Cody to make the arrest because he had complete confidence his Indian police would be able to make the arrest with far less turmoil.

Late in the evening of Dec. 14, 1890, McLaughlin was informed that "Sitting Bull was preparing to leave the reservation." This was something McLaughlin believed he could not allow. He sent Red Tomahawk, "whom I was certain could be trusted," with instructions about the arrest of Sitting Bull. What stuck in his mind was the last instruction: "You must not let him escape under any circumstances."

When they got to the house where Sitting Bull was staying, a Ghost Dance ceremony was in progress. Lt. Bull Head, Shave Head and Red Tomahawk entered the home and told Sitting Bull he was under arrest. Sitting Bull appeared to be complying, but said he wanted to get dressed in his proper attire.

This delay in time allowed many of his supporters to gather outside the house. As the police and Sitting Bull exited the house, hostile words were exchanged and shots rang out that mortally wounded Bull Head, Shave Head and other police officers.

When Sitting Bull broke loose and started to run away, Red Tomahawk shot him twice, killing Sitting Bull. Red Tomahawk then took charge and gathered his men back inside the house, where they held off the hostiles until the military arrived.

After that incident, Red Tomahawk was given a commission and placed in charge of the Indian police. He resigned from the police in 1895 to become the head farmer of the agency demonstration farm at Cannon Ball.

Because of his decisive action involving Sitting Bull, Red Tomahawk received national recognition. In 1902, he met with President Theodore Roosevelt in Mandan, and soon other dignitaries who visited North Dakota requested an opportunity to meet with him.

In 1923, North Dakota became one of the first states to work out a uniform system for numbering and marking state highways. To commemorate this achievement, the state Highway Department wanted an attractive-looking emblem to put on the highway signs.

W. G. Black, the department's chief engineer, decided to put the silhouette of a distinguished-looking Indian on all of the state highway signs, and it was agreed that the person who best exemplified that look was Red Tomahawk.

Red Tomahawk died at his home in Cannon Ball on Aug. 7, 1931.

In 1951, Red Tomahawk's profile became the official symbol of the North Dakota State Highway Patrol and was emblazoned on the sides of all patrol cars and uniform shoulder patches.

(Written by Curt Eriksmoen and edited by Jan Eriksmoen. Reach the Eriksmoens at [e-mail].)

[Dietmar]

Thanks for the article Ladonna. Although it contains some useful information about Red Tomahawk, I think Mr. Eriksmoen should have been more careful to describe the situation at Standing Rock during the Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull´s role in it, for example. There´s plenty of questionable argumentation from the military point of view in his article, if you follow authors like Jeffrey Ostler.

[Wakalapi]

Dry article in all aspects in my personal opinion.
Tribal police officer kills tribal chief. This is the only time in the history of SR that this has ever happen.
Tribal police officer kills tribal member. Upon a brief investigation, i would have to speculate that this has happen less than ten times.
Tribal member kills tribal member. Upon a brief investigation, i would have to speculate that this has happened several times and needs to be halted.