Spotted Tail

Spotted Tail (Sioux: Sinte-galeshka; 1823?–81), Brulé Sioux leader. Unlike his nephew Crazy Horse or such contemporaries as Red Cloud and Sitting Bull, Spotted Tail worked hard for peaceful solutions to Sioux conflicts with the settlers and the U.S. government. He had a reputation when a young man as a warrior, but he believed compromise would best serve his people, who he knew could not win against the U.S. government. Spotted Tail kept his people out of the war with the U.S. Army resulting from the 1874 gold rush in the Black Hills, where the Sioux lived. This war included the famous battle of the Little Big Horn. In order to keep peace, Spotted Tail signed treaties with the U.S. government that forced the Sioux onto the Rosebud reservation in South Dakota. Spotted Tail was killed by a Sioux assassin, possibly in an effort to further weaken branches of the Sioux nation.

See also: Sioux.