Big Eagle

Big Eagle
Big Eagle
Chief Big Eagle (1864)
Born1827
Eagan, Michigan Territory
Died5 January 1906
Granite Falls, Minnesota
Other namesWaŋbdí Táŋka
Jerome Big Eagle
Wambditanka
Wamditanka
OccupationNative American leader
SpouseEmma Big Eagle

Big Eagle (Dakota: Waŋbdí Táŋka, c.1827–1906) was the chief of a band of Mdewakanton Dakota in Minnesota. He played an important role as a military leader in the Dakota War of 1862. Big Eagle surrendered soon after the Battle of Wood Lake and was sentenced to death and imprisoned, but was pardoned by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Big Eagle's narrative, "A Sioux Story of the War" was first published in 1894, and is one of the most widely cited first-person accounts of the 1862 war in Minnesota from a Dakota point of view.

Chief Big Eagle is featured in the "Two Men, One War" marker and the "Battle of Birch Coulee – Big Eagle" marker erected by the Minnesota Historical Society at the Birch Coulee Battlefield;[1][2] he is also quoted in many of the other markers posted along the self-guided trail.[3][4]

  1. ^ "Two Men, One War". HMdb.org, The Historical Marker Database. June 16, 2016. Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2021-05-20.
  2. ^ "The Battle of Birch Coulee: Big Eagle". HMdb.org, The Historical Marker Database. Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  3. ^ "Battle Tactics". HMdb.org, The Historical Marker Database. June 16, 2016. Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2021-05-24.
  4. ^ "Dakota Positions". HMdb.org, The Historical Marker Database. June 16, 2016. Archived from the original on 2020-10-19. Retrieved 2021-05-24.