8/2/2008:
Chaska was a well-respected Indian scout for the 1863 Sibley military expedition, highly regarded for his daring rescue of the army’s beef contractor during an Indian attack that year.
However, when Chaska died on this day in 1863, he left behind a mystery regarding his full identity. Evidence suggests Chaska may also have been a ranking lieutenant of Little Crow, a leader in the Dakota Conflict of 1862.
According to trial records following the conflict, one defendant named Chaska had escaped execution based on the word of George Spencer, a fur trader who testified that Chaska had risked his own life to rescue Spencer from a Dakota raiding party.
Was Chaska, who saved the life of George Spenser during the Dakota Conflict of 1862, also the Indian scout who rescued the US Army’s beef contractor in 1863? It may never be known.
Sources:
McConkey, Harriet E. Bishop. Dakota War Whoop or, Indian Massacres and War in Minnesota, of 1862-'3. St Paul, MN: Published for author, 1864.
Snortland, J. Signe, ed. A Traveler's Companion to North Dakota State Historic Sites. Bismarck, ND: State Historical Society of North Dakota, 1996.