Spotted Tail was a Sicangu Lakota chief in the 1800s (the Rosebud Indian Reservation, the reservation that Mary grew up in, is a Sicangu Lakota reservation). After being imprisoned in the eastern U.S., Spotted Tail returned to his people with the knowledge that white people had far more resources than the Lakota. He believed that “it was useless […] to try to resist the wasičuns [white people],” so he avoided war and tried to cooperate with the U.S. government in order to protect his people. Although this kept them from getting killed in battle, the government nonetheless forced his people onto under-resourced reservations and made them culturally assimilate. The implication is that trying to cooperate with oppressors does not lead to meaningful change and can, as in Spotted Tail’s case, cause more persecution.
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Spotted Tail Character Timeline in Lakota Woman
The timeline below shows where the character Spotted Tail appears in Lakota Woman. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: A Woman from He-Dog
...Rosebud Indian Reservation did not participate in many battles because their chief at the time, Spotted Tail , decided that fighting and resisting the wasičuns, or “white people,” was a doomed effort....
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Chapter 12: Sioux and Elephants Never Forget
The most famous story about the first Crow Dog is his murder of Spotted Tail , a chief of the Brule tribe. Although the first Crow Dog and Spotted Tail...
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On August 4, 1881, the first Crow Dog and Spotted Tail got into a gun fight. Spotted Tail had initiated the fight, but Crow Dog won...
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...made for him. As Mary explains, he was willing and ready to die for killing Spotted Tail . But when Crow Dog arrived in Deadwood for his execution, his lawyer cheerfully informed...
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...his tribe, meaning he had to eat, drink, and smoke alone. Crow Dog gave the Spotted Tail family money and resources, but while this payment helped establish peace between the tribes, the...
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Chapter 14: Cante Ishta—The Eye of the Heart
...that the Crow Dogs still feel weighted by the first Crow Dog chief’s killing of Spotted Tail , even though the event happened about a hundred years ago. At last, in 1989,...
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