Chief Gall

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Chief Gall Photographed by David F. Barry at Fort Buford, North Dakota, 1881.
Chief Gall Photographed by David F. Barry at Fort Buford, North Dakota, 1881.

Gall (c. 1840 – 1895) (Lakota Pizí,[1] "gall bladder")[2] was a battle leader of the Hunkpapa Lakota and was one of the commanders who took part in the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Born in present day South Dakota around 1840, Gall was recognized as an accomplished warrior during his late teens and became a chief in his twenties[citation needed]. He served under Sitting Bull during the Battle of the Little Bighorn in 1876, and later fled to Canada with him until his surrender. Gall settled down in the Dakotas as a farmer and Judge of the Court of Indian Affairs on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, and became friendly with local settlers in his later years[citation needed]. Eventually he turned against Sitting Bull, who had become involved with the Ghost Dance movement, and whom he called a coward and a fraud[citation needed].

Gall lived on the Standing Rock Agency until his death December 5, 1895.

In the novel Flashman and the Redskins, Gall is described by the eponymous narrator as "...the best soldier who ever wore paint and feathers, damn him."[3] He is given credit for the crucial tactical decision which sealed the fate of Custer's battalion of the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

[edit] References

[edit] Resources

  • Grant, Bruce. The Concise Encyclopedia of the American Indian, 3rd ed., Wings Books: New York, 2000.

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Pronounced as / phi-zí /. See Lakota language.
  2. ^ Buechel, Eugene; Paul Manhart [1970] (2002). Lakota Dictionary: Lakota-English/English-Lakota, New Comprehensive Edition, Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-1305-0. OCLC 49312425. 
  3. ^ MacDonald Fraser, George (1982). Flashman and the Redskins. HarperCollins. ISBN 0-00-721717-X.