Welcome Native Spirit, 1942 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80302 (2024)

19/04/2024

“This is my great-grandma, Christina Levant Platt at age 100, weeding her garden. She was born into slavery. Her “owner” was a wife that taught my great grandma to read and write secretly, which was illegal and quite dangerous at that time for both of them. She learned to read the Bible.
She had 11 children, she lost two, one son was one of the first black attorneys in US. She sent the 4 boys to college in Boston. Exceptional in those days.
She passed 5yrs before I was born but I love her as if I knew her. Family tells me she would say “ I put prayers on my children’s children’s heads”.
This apparently worked💜
Around April 12, 1861, Christina was at the 1st battle of the CIVIL WAR, in Fort Sumter at Charleston Bay, South Carolina, working in the cotton fields.
She said “the sky was black as night” from cannonball fire. She saw a man decapitated by a cannonball.
She was the water girl for the other slaves as a young girl and “ the lookout” for the slaves in the fields for the approaching overseer on horseback as they secretly knelt and prayed for their freedom.
She would watch for the switching tail of the approaching horse and would alert the slaves to rise up and return to picking cotton before he saw them.
She eventually married a Native American from the Santee Tribe. John C, Platt.
After freedom, Christina insisted upon taking her children north as she knew they would not get a good education in the south, and that’s all she cared about. She died at age 101 in 1944, where she and her husband had built a home in Medfield, Massachusetts, the first black family to move there.
With great respect, I honor my great grandmother.
So much more I could say about this miraculous woman. She gave me much strength in my hard times.
Whenever I thought I was having a hard day, I would think of her and shrug it off.
Thank you for reading one story of millions. 💜”
-Brenda Russell❤🧡❤

19/04/2024

"I am an old woman now. The buffaloes and black-tail deer are gone, and our Indian ways are almost gone. Sometimes I find it hard to believe that I ever lived them.
My little son grew up in the white man's school. He can read books, and he owns cattle and has a farm. He is a leader among our Hidatsa people, helping teach them to follow the white man's road.
He is kind to me. We no longer live in an earth lodge, but in a house with chimneys, and my son's wife cooks by a stove.
But for me, I cannot forget our old ways.
Often in summer I rise at daybreak and steal out to the corn fields, and as I hoe the corn I sing to it, as we did when I was young. No one cares for our corn songs now.
Sometimes in the evening I sit, looking out on the big Missouri. The sun sets, and dusk steals over the water. In the shadows I see again to see our Indian village, with smoke curling upward from the earth lodges, and in the river's roar I hear the yells of the warriors, and the laughter of little children of old.
It is but an old woman's dream. Then I see but shadows and hear only the roar of the river, and tears come into my eyes. Our Indian life, I know, is gone forever."
Waheenee - Hidatsa (North Dakota)

16/04/2024

Within the Comanche family, precious children were handled in a kind way. By example and by voice, the child was learning valuable lessons in life. With girls, they lovingly followed their mothers throughout the village. A girl echoed the daily tasks of her mother in the camp. As soon as the young girl was able to sit on a horse, she would soon become a very good rider.
One of many shared games young girls and boys played together was called "Grizzly Bear". In the game, a mound was shaped from sand. The mound was called "sugar". Around the mound of sand, a child was pulled by his heels to create a circle about the "sugar". Beyond the created circle, the children formed a line, held firmly to each other's waists, and faced the mound of sand. A child who played a "grizzly" was perched inside the circle. The leader of the formed line of children was the "mother" who protected the young children from the "grizzly". As the "grizzly" reached out from the circle to grab a child, the 'mother" would move the line back and forth. If one was grabbed by the "grizzly", the captured child would be tickled by the "grizzly" in the circle. If that happened, the other children would bolt from their line to take some "sugar" from the "grizzly" without getting caught. The game continued until all the young ones were caught by the "grizzly" or the "sugar" was completely taken by the children.

A most charming picture of Cynthia Ann Parker III, grand-daughter of Baldwin Parker Sr., son of noted Comanche Chief Quanah Parker. The creator of the photograph was not known. Courtesy of the OHS Photograph Collection, Oklahoma Historical Society, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

16/04/2024

David William Bald Eagle (April 8, 1919 – July 22, 2016), also known as Chief David Beautiful Bald Eagle, was a Lakota actor, soldier, stuntman, and musician.
Dave Bald Eagle was born in a tipi on the west banks of Cherry Creek, on the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe Reservation in South Dakota.
Bald Eagle first enlisted in the Fourth Cavalry of the United States Army and served out his enlistment. During World War II, he re-enlisted in the 82nd Airborne Division ("All American Division") where he fought in the Battle of Anzio, being awarded a Silver Star, and in the D-Day invasion of Normandy at which time he received a Purple Heart Medal when he was wounded.
After the Second World War, Bald Eagle worked in a number of occupations including drummer, race car driver, semi-pro baseball player, and rodeo performer before beginning a career in Hollywood films. He was the grandson of famous Lakota warrior White Bull!

15/04/2024

In their world, the Comanches were very sociable and capable of fine humor. They were also inclined to be good-natured in their lives but the Comanches were especially generous.
The Texas state legislator and Indian agent Robert Simpson Neighbors had been seen as a principled and honorable protector of native rights given by treaty. In the 1840's, he visited with Comanches in their homelands and spent time to understand them. In 1847, he became a special Indian agent with a federal appointment and participated in several councils with Comanches. Neighbors observed that Comanches had a high-spirited way about them and seemed to approach life with passion. In 1853, the Indian agent Robert Neighbors also penned the following about the generosity of the Comanche people:
"From the liberality with which they dispose of their effects" on ceremonial occasions, "it would induce the belief that they acquire property merely for the purpose of giving it to others."

Unique hand colored cabinet photograph. It is entitled "Two Comanche Women, Fort Sill, Oklahoma Territory, circa 1890. By George A. Addison, Fort Sill photographer

15/04/2024

A LAUGH FOR TODAY❤
When NASA was preparing for the Apollo moon landings of the late 60s and early 70s, they did some astronaut training along a Navajo Indian reservation in the SW. One day, a Navajo elder and his grandson were herding animals and came across the space crew. The old man, who only spoke Navajo, asked a question, which the grandson translated: "What are the guys in the big suits doing?" A member of the crew said they were practicing for their trip to the moon." Then, recognizing a promotional opportunity for the spin-doctors, added, "We will be leaving behind a special record with greetings in many languages and such. Would the old man be interested in giving us a greeting to include?"
Upon translation, the old man got really excited and was thrilled at the idea of sending a message to the moon with the astronauts. The NASA folks produced a tape recorder and the old man recorded his message at which the grandson fought back the urge to laugh... but he refused to translate.
After Apollo 11 had successfully landed on the moon and brought its astronauts homes, a new group were training in the desert when one of the NASA officials recognized the Navajo elder and his grandson and went to tell them that the old man's message was indeed on the moon which was met with laughter.
Finally, the NASA rep caught on that not everything was as simple as he had originally thought and asked for a translation. With a chuckle the youngster replied: "Beware of white man; they come to steal your land..!

15/04/2024

Of the mounted Comanches on the Southern Great Plains, they were seen as the most accomplished horsemen by the noted American artist George Catlin. When he traveled with the U. S. First Dragoon Expedition in 1834, Catlin had done sketches of Comanche warriors, village life, and the capturing of wild horses by Comanches with their long ropes.
Moreover, George Catlin had written about the dress of the Comanche women in the following manner:

"gown or slip, that reaches from the chin quite down to the ankles, made of deer or elk skins; often garnished very prettily, and ornamented with long fringes of elks' teeth, which are fastened on them in rows, and are more highly valued than any other ornament they can put upon them."

An interesting picture entitled "Comanche Indian Woman", circa 1920. The wonderful photograph charmingly shows the gracious woman on horseback. Courtesy of the Denver Public Library Special Collections, Denver Public Library, Denver, Colorado

14/04/2024

The Comanche were a branch of the Shoshoni. They left the Rocky Mountains early in the 18th century, migrating to the Plains to become the most famous of the Texas Plains tribes. They made life extremely hazardous for the caravans attempting to cross the Santa Fe Trail. Their warlike culture was feared throughout the Southwest

14/04/2024

Wes Studi's has had one long enjoyable acting career. He was raised in Nofire Hollow Oklahoma, speaking Cherokee only until he started school. At 17 he joined the National Guard and later went to Vietnam. After his discharge, Studi became politically active in American Indian affairs. He participated in Wounded Knee at Pine Ridge Reservation in 1973. Wes is known for his roles as a fierce Native American warrior, such as the Pawnee warrior in Dances with Wolves. In the Last of the Mohicans he plays the Huron named Magua, which was his first major part. Soon after he got the lead role in Geronimo: An American Legend. He was in Skinwalkers, The Lone Ranger, and The Horse Whisperer. He played the Indian out in the desert in The Doors movie, and he was also in Avatar. Studi also plays bass and he and his wife are in a band called Firecat of Discord. Wes Studi also serves as honorary chair of the national endowment campaign, of the Indigenous Language Institute that's working to save Native Languages. He and his family live in Santa Fe New Mexico, and Wes has been in several other movies, TV shows and movies, and mini series. He also received an Academy Honorary Award, becoming the first Native American and the second North American Indigenous person to be honored by the Academy, the first was Buffy Sainte-Marie ❤

14/04/2024

Sac and Fox boys. 1898. Photo by F.A. Rinehart.
***
LOS ANGELES — Saginaw Grant, a prolific Native American character actor and hereditary chief of the Sac & Fox Nation of Oklahoma, has died. He was 85.
Grant died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes on Wednesday at a private care facility in Hollywood, California, said Lani Carmichael, Grant's publicist and longtime friend.
"He loved both Oklahoma and L.A.," Carmichael said. "He made his home here as an actor, but he never forgot his roots in Oklahoma. He remained a fan of the Sooner Nation."
Born July 20, 1936, in Pawnee, Oklahoma, Grant was a U.S. Marine Corps veteran.
He began acting in the late 1980s and played character roles in dozens of movies and television shows over the last three decades, including "The Lone Ranger," "The World's Fastest Indian" and "Breaking Bad," according to Grant's IMDB filmography.
Grant was active for years in the powwow circuit in California and traveled around the globe to speak to people about Native American culture, Carmichael said.
"His motto in life was always respect one another and don't talk about one another in a negative way," she said.
Grant was also active in the Native American veterans community and participated for years in the National Gathering of American Indian Veterans, said Joseph Podlasek, the event's organizer.
"He thought it was important for Native people to get recognized as veterans," Podlasek said. "He was kind and gentle, and very humble."
A memorial for Grant will be held in the Los Angeles area, but details haven't been finalized, Carmichael said.

13/04/2024

Traditionally, the people now known as Cherokee refer to themselves as Aniyunwiya (ah nee yun wee yah), a name usually translated as "the Real People," sometimes "the Original People."
▪The Cherokee never had princesses. This is a concept based on European folktales and has no reality in Cherokee history and culture. In fact, Cherokee women were very powerful. They owned all the houses and fields, and they could marry and divorce as they pleased. Kinship was determined through the mother's line.
Clan mothers administered justice in many matters. Beloved women were very special women chosen for their outstanding qualities. As in other aspects of Cherokee culture, there was a balance of power between men and women. Although they had different roles, they both were valued.
▪The Cherokee never lived in tipis. Only the nomadic Plains tribes did. The Cherokee were southeastern woodland natives, and in the winter they lived in houses made of woven saplings, plastered with mud and roofed with poplar bark. In the summer they lived in open-air dwellings roofed with bark.
▪The Cherokee have never worn feathered headdresses except to please tourists. These long headdresses were worn by Plains Natives and were made popular through Wild West shows and Hollywood movies. Cherokee men traditionally wore a feather or two tied at the crown of the head. In the early 18th century, Cherokee men wore cotton trade shirts, loincloths, leggings, front-seam moccasins, finger-woven or beaded belts, multiple pierced earrings around the rim of the ear, and a blanket over one shoulder. At that time, Cherokee women wore mantles of leather or feathers, skirts of leather or woven mulberry bark, front-seam moccasins, and earrings pierced through the earlobe only. By the end of the 18th century, Cherokee men were dressing much like their white neighbors. Men were wearing shirts, pants, and trade coats, with a distinctly Cherokee turban. Women were wearing calico skirts, blouses, and shawls. Today Cherokee people dress like other Americans, except for special occasions, when the men wear ribbon shirts with jeans and moccasins, and the women wear tear dresses with corn beads, woven belts, and moccasins.
▪The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI) are descended from Cherokee people who had taken land under the Treaty of 1819 and were allowed to remain in North Carolina; from those who hid in the woods and mountains until the U.S. Army left; and from those who turned around and walked back from Oklahoma. By 1850 they numbered almost a thousand. Today the Eastern Band includes about 11,000 members, while the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma claims more than 100,000 members, making the Cherokee the largest tribe in the United States.
▪Cherokee arts and crafts are still practiced: basket-weaving, pottery, carving, finger-weaving, and beadwork.
▪The Cherokee language is spoken as a first language by fewer than a thousand people and has declined rapidly because of the policies of federally operated schools. However, since the tribe has begun operation of their own schools, Cherokee language is being systematically taught in the schools.
▪Traditional Cherokee medicine, religion, and dance are practiced privately.
▪There have never been Cherokee shamans. Shamanism is a foreign concept to North America. The Cherokee have medicine men and women.
▪"aho" is not a Cherokee word and Cherokee speakers never use it. Most are actually offended by the misuse of this word. It's not some kind of universal Native word used by all tribes, as many believe. Each individual tribe have their own languages. We can respect these languages by using them correctly or not at all.
▪In order to belong to one of the seven Cherokee clans, your mother had to have been/be Cherokee and her clan is passed on to you. If the maternal line has been broken by a non Cherokee or someone had all sons, you have no clan, which is the case with many today.
▪There is only one Cherokee tribe that consist of three bands. The Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, United Keetoowah Band of Oklahoma and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of North Carolina. All others who claim a different band than one of the three above are not considered Cherokee and are a direct threat to Cherokee tribal sovereignty. In fact, to be Cherokee, one must be registered with the tribe, as Cherokee is a citizenship granted through documentation. One can have Native DNA but is not considered Cherokee until they are a registered tribal citizen.
Via N. Bear!

13/04/2024

Tsianina Redfeather. Creek/Cherokee singer and performer. ca. 1920. Source - Denver Public Library.
Tsianina Redfeather Blackstone (December 13, 1882 – January 10, 1985) was a Muscogee singer, performer, and Native American activist, born in Eufaula, Oklahoma, then within the Muscogee Nation. She was born to Cherokee and Creek parents and stood out from her 9 siblings musically. From 1908 she toured regularly with Charles Wakefield Cadman, a composer and pianist who gave lectures about Native American music that were accompanied by his compositions and her singing. He composed classically based works associated with the Indianist movement. They toured in the United States and Europe.
She collaborated with him and Nelle Richmond Eberhart on the libretto of the opera Shanewis (or "The Robin Woman," 1918), which was based on her semi-autobiographical stories and contemporary issues for Native Americans. It premiered at the Metropolitan Opera. Redfeather sang the title role when the opera was on tour, making her debut when the work was performed in Denver in 1924, and also performing in it in Los Angeles in 1926.
After her performing career, she worked as an activist on Indian education, co-founding the American Indian Education Foundation. She also supported Native American archeology and ethnology, serving on the Board of Managers for the School of American Research founded in Santa Fe by Alice Cunningham Fletcher

13/04/2024

𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝘄𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗼𝗿𝘀
In the movies, male Native American warriors rode off to battle while their female counterparts remained behind to cook, sew, and take care of the camp. In real life, this wasn’t always the case. Many warrior Native American women fought alongside men. The most famous of these was probably Buffalo Calf Road Woman, a member of the Northern Cheyenne tribe who fought in the Battle of the Rosebud and the Battle of Little Bighorn. In fact, according to the elders of the Northern Cheyenne tribe, it was she who dealt Custer his final deadly blow. Buffalo Calf Road Woman is just one of many incredible women you didn’t read about in history class.

12/04/2024

Mary "Te Ata" Thompson Fisher
1895 - 1995
Te Ata Thompson Fisher, whose name means “Bearer of the Morning,” was born Dec. 3, 1895, near Emet, Oklahoma. A citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, Te Ata was an accomplished actor and teller of Native American stories.

She received her early education in Tishomingo, and eventually went to the Oklahoma College for Women. While there, it was evident Te Ata had a natural talent for drama.

Her career as an actor and storyteller spanned more than 60 years. She worked as a storyteller to finance her acting career. She would tell Chickasaw legends, myths and chants, including performing rituals in native regalia.

Te Ata attended the Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for one year. From there, she moved to New York City, where she met and married Clyde Fisher. During the 1930s she performed at summer camps in New York and New England.

In the prime of her career, she performed in England and Scandinavia, at the White House for President Franklin Roosevelt, for the King and Queen of Great Britain, and on stages across the United States.

Although Te Ata worked as an actor and drama instructor, she is best known for her artistic interpretations of Indian folklore, and for her children's book she co-authored on the subject.

Her world-renown talent has won her several honors including induction into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame in 1957, being named The Ladies’ Home Journal Woman of the Year in 1976, being named Oklahoma's Official State Treasure in 1987, and having a lake near Bear Mountain in New York named in her honor.

She is also the subject of a video, God's Drum, the proceeds of which have supported the Te Ata Scholarship Fund for Indian students at her alma mater, the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha, Oklahoma.

Te Ata died Oct. 26, 1995, in Oklahoma City, though her legacy and influence on the Native American storytelling traditions continues to this day

12/04/2024

Herman Lehmann (1859-1932) was a German immigrant who was captured, along with his younger brother Willie, by a band of Apache raiders in 1870 near Loyal Valley in southeastern Mason County, Texas. While his brother escaped captivity and returned home after 9 days, Herman was adopted by his Apache captor, Carnoviste. There he underwent tribal initiation and warrior training which would use him later in life when he joined war parties against the Texas Rangers, Comanches and Mexicans. After his adoptive father was killed, Herman killed an Apache medicine man and had to spend a year alone on the plains. At the expiration of his solitude he joined the Comanches, who called him Montechena and with whom he fought the Tonkawas and U.S. cavalry regiments. After the cessation of hostilities between the Comanches and the U.S, Herman settled down at the Fort Sill reservation where he was adopted by Quanah Parker. However, he was required to return to his family in 1878 after 8 years with the Natives, as he was a white captive. Back home Herman could not adapt to his old life, as he wouldn't eat pork or sleep in a bed, wore body paint, leggings and feathers and attempted to kill the neighbor's pigs and calves. After some time he relearned German, learned English and did numerous odd jobs. He married twice and had 5 children. Herman always stayed in touch with his Native brothers and was a local celebrity in his town for his skills in riding, roping and archery. Herman is pictured on the left and his adoptive father Quanah on the right.

12/04/2024

Mrs. Taha George, the wife of Chief George Slahholt, on the Burrard Reserve in Vancouver, British Columbia - Tsleil-Waututh - 1957
{Note: Chief George Slahholt and Mrs. Taha George were the parents of Chief Dan George (b.1899 - d.1981).

11/04/2024

Sacheen Littlefeather who refused to accept an Oscar On Marlon Brando behalf in 1973 has finally received and apology from The Academy.
When she stepped on stage at the Oscar’s this is what she said.
“Hello. My name is Sacheen Littlefeather. I'm Apache and I am president of the National Native American Affirmative Image Committee. I'm representing Marlon Brando this evening and he has asked me to tell you in a very long speech, which I cannot share with you presently because of time but I will be glad to share with the press afterwards, that he very regretfully cannot accept this very generous award. And the reasons for this being are the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry – excuse me – and on television in movie reruns, and also with recent happenings at Wounded Knee. I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening and that we will in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity. Thank you on behalf of Marlon Brando.”
Despite the boos and jeers coming from the audience, she maintained her composure. John Wayne attempted to physically attack her as she exited the platform and had to be restrained by security. By claiming that he was giving the medal on behalf of "all the cowboys shot in all the John Ford Westerns," Clint Eastwood made fun of her. Littlefeather was thereafter put on a Hollywood blacklist and never again engaged in the film business.
On September 17, 2022, Littlefeather will return to the Academy once again as a guest of honor.

11/04/2024

𝐉𝐚𝐲 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐬 (born Harold Jay Smith; May 26, 1912 – March 5, 1980) was an Indigenous Canadian actor and athlete. He was well known for his role as Tonto, the Native American companion of the Lone Ranger in the American Western television series The Lone Ranger.
Jay Silverheels was born on Canada's Six Nation's Reserve and was one of 10 children. He was a star lacrosse player and a boxer before he entered films as a stuntman in 1938. He worked in a number of films through the 1940s before gaining notice as the Osceola brother in a Humphrey Bogart film Key Largo (1948). Most of Silverheels' roles consisted of bit parts as an Indian character. In 1949, he worked in the movie The Cowboy and the Indians (1949) with another "B movie" actor Clayton Moore. Later that year, Silverheels was hired to play the faithful Indian companion, Tonto, in the TV series The Lone Ranger (1949) series, which brought him the fame that his motion picture career never did.
Silverheels recreated the role of Tonto in two big-screen color movies with Moore,The Lone Ranger (1956) and The Lone Ranger and the Lost City of Gold (1958). After the TV series ended in 1957, Silverheels could not escape the typecasting of Tonto. He would continue to appear in an occasional film and television show but became a spokesperson to improve the portrayal of Indians in the media.
Familiar Canadian Indian actor who shot to fame as Tonto, the faithful Indian companion of the masked man on the US television series The Lone Ranger (1949). A member of the Mohawk tribe of Canada's Six Nations Reserve, Silverheels excelled at wrestling, horse racing, football, boxing, and hockey, and became a renowned lacrosse player.
With the help of actor Joe E. Brown,Silverheels obtained work as a stuntman and extra in Hollywood films. Following military service in World War II, Silverheels returned to film and landed small, often stereotypical roles as Indian warriors in Westerns. John Huston cast him as one of the fugitive Osceola brothers in Key Largo (1948), and Silverheels followed with the two roles that would define his career, Tonto and the Apache leader Geronimo, whom he would play several times beginning with the Western classic Broken Arrow (1950). Silverheels' enormous fame as Tonto overshadowed everything else, although it did not prevent him from playing other prominent roles. Even after completing The Lone Ranger (1949)series, Silverheels continued to reprise Tonto for commercials, comic guest spots, and spoofs.
Silverheels became an outspoken activist for Indian rights and a respected teacher within the Indian acting community. He appeared on talk and variety shows performing his own poetry. In later years, he began a second career as a harness racer. His health failed in the 1970s, and he died of a stroke in 1980, a beloved figure to the Baby Boom generation America. His son, Jay Silverheels Jr. has acted in television as well.

11/04/2024

Chief Big Eagle 🦅 (1827-1906)
Mdewakanton Dakota Chief; during the US-Dakota War of 1862, he commanded a Mdewakanton Dakota band of two hundred warriors at Crow Creek in McLeod County, Minn. His Dakota name was "Wamdetonka," which literally means Great War Eagle, but he was commonly called Big Eagle. He was born in his Black Dog's village a few miles above Mendota on the south bank of the Minnesota River in 1827. When he was a young man, he often went on war parties against the Ojibwe and other enemies of the Dakota. He wore three eagle's feathers to show his coups. When his father Chief Grey Iron died, he succeeded him as sub-chief of the Mdewakanton band.
In 1851, by the terms of the treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota, The Dakota sold all of their land in Minnesota except a strip ten miles wide near the Minnesota River. In 1857, Big Eagle succeeded his father, Grey Iron, as Chief. In 1858, the remaining land was sold through the influence of Little Crow. That same year, Big Eagle went with some other chiefs to Washington D. C. to negotiate grievances with federal officials. Negotiations were unsuccessful. In 1894, he was interviewed about the Dakota War and its causes. He spoke about how the Indians wanted to live as they did before the treaty of Traverse des Sioux – to go where they pleased and when they pleased; hunt game wherever they could find it, sell their furs to the traders and live as they could. He also spoke of the corruption among the Indian agents and traders, with no legal recourse for the Dakota, and the way they were treated by many of the whites: "They always seemed to say by their manner when they saw an Indian, 'I am much better than you,' and the Indians did not like this. There was excuse for this, but the Dakotas did not believe there were better men in the world than they..."
In 1862, Big Eagle's village was on Crow Creek, Minn. His band numbered about 200 people, including 40 warriors. As the summer of 1862 advanced, conflict boiled among the Dakota who wanted to live like the white man and the majority who didn't. The Civil War was in full force and many Minnesota men had left their homes to fight in a war that the North was said to be losing. Some longtime Indian agents who were trusted by the Dakota were replaced with men who did not respect the Indians and their culture. Most of the Dakota believed it was a good time to go to war with the whites and take back their lands. Though he took part in the war, he said he was against it. He knew there was no good cause for it, as he had been to Washington and knew the power of the whites and believed they would ultimately conquer the Dakota people.
When war was declared, Chief Little Crow told some of Big Eagle's band that if he refused to lead them, they were to shoot him as a traitor who would not stand up for his nation and then select another leader in his place. When the war broke out on Aug. 17, 1862, he first saved the lives of some friends - George H. Spencer and a half-breed family - and then led his men in the second battles at Fort Ridgely and New Ulm on August 22 and 23. Some 800 Dakota were at the battle of Fort Ridgely, but could not defeat the soldiers due to their defense with artillery. They retreated and a few days later, he and his band trailed some soldiers to their encampment at Birch Coulee, near Morton in Renville County. About 200 of the Dakota surrounded the camp and attacked it at daylight. After two days of battle, General Sibley arrived with reinforcements and the Dakota eventually retreated. He and his band participated in a last attempt to defeat the whites at the battle of Wood Lake on September 23. However, they were once again defeated when their hiding place for ambush was discovered prematurely by some soldiers who went foraging for food
Soon after the battle, Big Eagle and other Dakotas who had taken part in the war surrendered to General Sibley with the understanding they would be given leniency. However, he was one of about 400 Dakota men who were tried by a Military Commission for alleged war crimes or atrocities committed during the war. After a kangaroo court trial, Big Eagle was sentenced to ten years in prison for taking part in the war. At his trial, a great number of witnesses were interviewed, but none could say that he had murdered any one or had done anything to deserve death. Therefore, he was saved from death by hanging. He was released after serving three years of his sentence in the prison at Davenport and the penitentiary at Rock Island. He believed his imprisonment for that long of a time was unjust because he had surrendered in good faith. He had not murdered any whites and if he killed or wounded a man, it had been in a fair, open fight.
The translators who interviewed him in 1894 described him as being very frank and unreserved, candid, possessing more than ordinary intelligence, and deliberate in striving to speak the truth. When speaking of his imprisonment, he said that all feeling on his part about it had long since passed away. He had been known as Jerome Big Eagle, but his true Christian name was "Elijah." For years, he had been a Christian and he hoped to die one. "My white neighbors and friends know my character as a citizen and a man. I am at peace with every one, whites and Indians. I am getting to be an old man, but I am still able to work. I am poor, but I manage to get along." He lived his final years in peace at Granite Falls, Minn.

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