Presenters: Features

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HISTORY/TRIBAL
Sponsored by Black Hills Power

First Scholarly Look at Sioux Leader Gall

Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse and Red Cloud remain well-known more than 125 years after battles with the U.S. government made them famous. Gall was a widely-known contemporary, “one of the best known American Indian leaders in the country” at the time of his death in 1894, according to author and retired history professor Rob e r t Larson. Today his name is familiar to high-plains Indian scholars, but unknown to the general public. Gall: Lakota Warrior Chief helps reclaim the leader’s place in history.

Gall had other names, but the one that stuck came after he ate the gall bladder of a bison. Gall liked the name The-Man-That-Goes-in-the-Middle. U.S. soldiers called him “Fighting Cock of the Sioux.”

He was the first major Hunkpapa chief to ratify the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. Gall, along with Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, tried to prevent the government’s annexation of the Black Hills. Gall acted as Sitting Bull’s right hand man in battle.

Larson examines Gall’s independent streak and contrasting aspects of his character. He had a fiery temper. At times he adopted controversial positions, such as in later years when he traded with white traders or rival tribes.
On June 24, 1876, two of Gall’s wives and three of his children were killed when Major Marcus Reno attacked an Indian encampment. Learning of these deaths spurred Gall in a quest for revenge. Although Gall’s whereabouts during parts of the Battle of Little Big Horn are disputed, he seized his opportunity to avenge the deaths of his family members during the horseback charge across Custer Hill.

The Indian victory at Little Big Horn was followed by months of fighting as the government relentlessly pursued the Indians. The next spring Sitting Bull and Gall headed for exile in Canada.

When Sitting Bull, Gall and their followers returned to the U.S. years later, the two parted ways in their approaches to dealing with the government. Gall chose to work with Indian agent James McLaughlin. Larson delves into Gall’s last yea r s on Standing Rock Reservation to provide a full picture of the Lakota chief.

Track Preview

In addition to his presentation on Gall, Larson will join Elizabeth Cook-Lynn and James Donovan for a session entitled, “Revisiting Wounded Knee.”
Scholar John Miller delves into the complicated, collaborative relationship between mother and daughter in Laura Ingalls Wilder and Rose Wilder Lane:

Authorship, Place, Time, and Culture. Miller addresses questions surrounding the pair in essays entitled Authorship: Who Wrote the Books? and “They Should Know When They’re Licked”: American Indians in Wilder’s Fiction.
Other presenters in the History and Tribal Writing Track include Kevin Adams, whose specialties include the American West; James Donovan, an expert on George Armstrong Custer; and Sean Flynn, DSU Professor and author of three books about the military.

Dakota Connections

The 44th annual conference of the Western Literature Association will be in Spearfish Sept. 30 to Oct. 3. The conference’s close proximity and an overlap of interests presents excellent opportunities for sharing resources. Kent Meyers, Pete Dexter, Linda Hasselstrom, Elizabeth Cook Lynn and Dan O’Brien are among those scheduled to appear at both events. This year’s theme is High Plains Drifting.

For more information, visit http://www.usu.edu/westlit/conference2009.htm

A number of South Dakota historians have recently published books about famous South Dakotan s . They include Wild Bill Hickok & Calamity Jane: Deadwood Legends, by James McLaird; Seth Bullock: Black Hills Lawman, by David Wolff; and Outlaw Tales of South Dakota, by T. D. Griffith. The three authors will join forces in a Saturday morning session.

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