Little Crow's War

• Little Crow's War 1862

  • Little Crow - Warrior leader of a band of the Dakota Sioux
  • Indians were desperately hungry and resorted to eating grass
  • Little Crow initially resisted the war but later led raids on agencies, burned down warehouses, and attacked white settlers
  • 700 soldiers and settlers were killed
  • Plains Indians were angry due to food being withheld from them despite its availability
• Indians were accused of breaking the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty


  Government agents refused to release food stocks
• Dakota Sioux reservation in southern Minnesota
• Little Crow's War took place


  August 1862
• Sioux's crops failed due to disease and annuity not being paid


  Causes of the war
• Little Crow believed the army wouldn't respond to attacks due to the Civil War
• Outcomes of Little Crow's War

  • 400 Sioux sentenced to death, 38 with specific evidence against them were killed
  • Rest of the Sioux had to move to the Crow Creek reservation
  • Around 400 died of hunger in the first winter, some resorted to eating grass
  • Little Crow died in a firefight with settlers
• President Lincoln's concern during the war

  Didn't want to fight a war against the Indians while fighting the Civil War
• Little Crow's War marked a decline in relations between the U.S. government and the Indians
• Little Crow's War was caused by Indian reliance on the U.S. government and the government's refusal to support the Indians