Two Surprise Attacks in one Night

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The Red Lake Ojibwe get revenge twice against the Dakota

​As part  of a Pillager War party that was routed at Battle Lake, an old Red Lake warrior named Uk-ke-waus was killed along with his sons during the fight.  Word reached the villagers at Red Lake of the news of their death.  In response to the news, a war party was of about 130 warriors was raised.  

It was the middle of the winter, and the warriors all donned their snowshoes and marched for days towards where they knew they would find the Dakotas.  While this war party left Red Lake on snowshoes, the ground was covered with deep snow. However, as they marched directly westward, and having reached the prairies, they found bare ground, left their snow shoes, and walked whole days through immense herds of buftalo.

The troop marched to the southern base of O-ge-mah-mi-jew, or Chiefs Mountain (near present day Sisseton, SD), where they made a night attack on a large camp of Dakota, consisting of over fifty lodges. Several volleys were fired into the defenseless, sleeping lodges, and many of the Dakota were killed and wounded in the wake of this surprise attack.  Eventually, the Dakota warriors were able to rally and shoot back at the Ojibwe, who retreated.

In the aftermath of the battle, a young PIllager chief who had accompanied the war party, and two Red Lakers, stayed hidden to spy on the Dakota.  They silently remained for some hours in the vicinity of the camp.  Here they vividly heard the plaintive wailing of those who had lost relatives in the late attack. There was deep mourning in the camp of the Dakota that bloody night!  

After a while, these three Ojibwe stealthily approaching the lodges in the darkness, only to once more discharge their guns at the weeping and sorrowful enemies.  After this second surprise attack, they left and turned homeward, running all night to rejoin their fellows in their trek back to Red Lake.

Adapted from. Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society, Volume 5 (1885)