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History of Sinte Gleska (Spotted Tail) 1823-1881

Sinte Gleska (Spotted Tail) was born near the Makizita Wakpa (White River) in west central South Dakota in the Winter of 1823-1824, The Year When They Camped Near A Cornfield because of the severe Winter (Big Missouri River Wintercount). His father was called Tangle Hair and his mother was known as Cannupa Yuha Mani Win (Walks With Pipe Woman). He came from the Sihasapa Lakota Division and he belonged to the southern bands of the powerful Sicangu Nation (Burnt Thigh).

As a boy, Sinte Gleska was called Tatanka Napsica (Jumping Buffalo), and when he achieved warrior status, he was named Sinte Gleska. This name had been given to him because he often wore a raccoon tail. obtained as a gift from a trapper, when dressed for war or ceremonial.

Sinte Gleska rose to prominence at about the age of thirty when he was installed as an Ogle Tanka Un (Shirt Wearer), or a war leader. His credentials for achieving this honor were impressive. His shirt was said to have been adorned with over a hundred locks of hair, each representing coups, scalps taken and horses captured. As a war leader of the Southern Sicangu, Sinte Gleska was actively involved in earlier struggles with the Wasicu (white man) over their aggression and encroachments on Sicangu Territory. During his tenure as shirt wearer, Sinte Gleska, in 1855, helped bring about the end of the brief, but costly, Overland Trail War by surrendering himself along with four others to be imprisoned at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This occured when the U.S. Military held seventy Sicangu's captive (mostly women and children taken at the Blue Water fight of 1855) as bargaining chips to compel the speedy surrender of the leaders and participants involved in the slaying of Grattan's command and raids on the Overland Trail. Sinte Gleska was one of the leaders.

Sinte Gleska's surrender and ordeal of imprisonment led the people to view this as an unselfish sacrifice for the good of the tribe, and they continued to follow him as war leader. Furthermore, eleven years after his release from confinement at Ft. Leavenworth, the Southern Sicangu remembered and elevated Sinte Gleska, now an experienced leader, to Wicasa Itancan (civil leader), the highest leadership ranking found among the Sicangu.

The impact of Sinte Gleska's leadership during the 1860's on the southern band of the Sicangu was immediate and effective. With the full support of the tribal council, he united these fragmented bands into one cohesive unit and steered their course towards a limited degree of tolerating and accepting the presence of the Wasicu and the acculturation policies. At the close of the 1870's Sinte Gleska extended his influence over the northern Sicangu bands when their leader finally pressured by the U.S. government to reside on the Great Sioux Reservation, Sinte Gleska was the overall leader.

The closing years of Sinte Gleska's life are considered the most significant in the terms of contributions made to the Sicangu Lakota, and quite possibly Native Americans in general. It was during these years that he began to look at long-range goals and the struggles that the Sicangu people were to endure. As one of the important Lakota leaders, Sinte Gleska viewed people from the highest position and perspective. Viewing people from his level and dealing with the U.S. government at its highest level, the Sicangu Itancan (leader) caught a brief glimpse of the future of the Sicangu.

What he foresaw in the twentieth century, due to the deteriorating condition of the Lakota and the extremely aggressive policies of the U.S. government, was shocking. Based on this observation and reaction, Sinte Gleska revealed that unless the Lakota were able to cope with this situation, they would not survive as a people. This need for survival prompted him to stress and advocate the idea of accepting the minimal, but basic, aspects of the Wasicu tool of education for survival in the white dominated world. He optimistically envisioned that a certain portion of the Lakota population would master the Wasicu basic skills of learning, and eventually these people would supplant the untrustworthy Wasicu working as clerks, translators, and other agency officials. This would then ensure the survival of the Lakota.

Sinte Gleska faced difficult obstacles in carrying out his idea of survival in the White dominated world. One obstacle was to sell and implement this radical idea to people divided by an atmosphere of suspicion, fear, and jealousy. He quickly overcame this by sending his reluctant grandchildren to Carlisle, in Pennsylvania, the first all-indian boarding school sanctioned by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Other Lakota headmen followed his example by sending their children and grandchildren to Carlisle. Later on, he withdrew his grandchildren because this system had no intention of stressing basic education that would satisfy the needs expressed by Sinte Gleska. Although this was a major setback for Sinte Gleska, he nevertheless raised one of the first and significant issues of bilingual and bicultural education. It was this concern that set the stage for the founding of Sinte Gleska University 100 years later.

On August 5, 1881, while Sinte Gleska was returning home from an important council meeting that voted to send him to Washington, D.C. to represent the Sicangu for an unprecedented third time, Crow Dog shot and killed the Sicangu leader. The motives behind the assassination and death of Sinte Gleska are complex, controversial, and so sensitive that, for the time being, no complete pictured of what occurred can be drawn.

Today, Sinte Gleska lies buried on the crest of the nearest northern hill overlooking the Rosebud Agency, where the hub of activity between U.S. government and the Sicangu people is enacted on a daily basis, Here, too, stands Sinte Gleska University which embraces the lofty vision Sinte Gleska had for the people: that is to take up and master the skills of the White Man-hecel oyate kin nipi kte(so that the people may live.)

-Victor Douville

SGU Lakota Studies Department