Dakota

The Clark Map, showing the location of the Indian Village during the Battle of the Little Bighorn including the Dakota bands locations

Library of Congress

Although not usually mentioned at the battle, there were several Santee, Yanktons and Yanktonnais Dakota Sioux who were at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The Yanktonnais, alone, contributed nearly 15 lodges of their own. The venerable Chief Inkpaduta, the Santee Chief who was a good friend of Sitting Bull's, was nearing 80 years of age but had participated in numerous engagements against whites, including the 1862 Santee uprising in Minnesota and the battle of Killdeer Mountain in 1864 which had caused Inkpaduta to move his band west where they grouped together with the Lakota.

Although not actively engaging in the fight, Inkpaduta, along with other Dakota, including his grandchildren, ushered women and children across the Little Bighorn during Reno's attack and also directed warriors where to launch their assaults. Many Dakota warriors participated in the fighting, a way for them to gain a measure of satisfaction after their removal from their Minnesota homeland.

Inkpaduta and many of the Dakota followed Sitting Bull's band to Canada in 1877. Inkpaduta died there in 1881.