Gall: From Bitter Boyhood Bully to Bilious Battle Leader to Groundbreaking Benefactor

Gall is lesser known than Red Cloud, Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull. Still, he proved himself an effective leader, particularly amongst his own Hunkpapa Sioux subtribe. Gall was born around 1840 along the Moreau River, in what is now South Dakota. He would make war over a great deal of territory across today’s North and South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana and the Canadian province of Alberta.

Bitter Boyhood     

Gall may have been named “Red Walker,” or “The Man Who Goes In The Middle” initially, but he was known among the Sioux as “Pizi,” or “Phizi.” He was orphaned as a child; accounts vary as to whether he earned the name “Gall” before or after that occurred.

One account says Gall’s mother gave him that name when he ate an animal’s gall bladder. Another states that, as a hungry orphan, he readily ate the gall bladder of an animal killed by a neighbor, never flinching at the vile taste. Indian children were known to eagerly request raw liver when buffalo were killed. (Writer S.C. Gwynne describes Comanches on the southern plains squirting bile from gall bladders onto raw liver as a seasoning.)

Renowned leader and medicine man Sitting Bull was roughly nine years older than Gall. At some point he adopted the orphaned Gall as a brother. They were often together, even in later years.

Custer’s favorite scout, Bloody Knife, was a mixed-blood outcast amongst the Hunkpapa Sioux. His father was Hunkpapa and raised his family amongst that tribe. His mother, though, was Arikara. Sioux were long-time enemies of that tribe. After returning to that tribe, Bloody Knife’s mother and brothers were killed in a Sioux attack.

Some sources note specifically that both Sitting Bull and Gall mistreated and bullied or abused Bloody Knife as a boy. In 1862, when Bloody Knife returned to visit his father’s tribe, Gall insulted him, spat on him, stripped him and beat him.

Bilious Battle-axe           

By 1864 Gall was a full-fledged warrior and began to emerge as a leader. He participated in Red Cloud’s War.  Before that he took part in two attacks that may have nearly brought his death. He may have been part of the Sioux attack on the Arikara village in which Bloody Knife’s mother and brothers were killed. He fought against Sully’s soldiers at Killdeer Mountain in 1864.

Shortly after, Gall was blamed for a murder he likely did not commit. Regardless, soldiers came to arrest him at Fort Berthold, a trade fort where he was visiting. He slashed the back of his tepee, attempting to escape, but soldiers had surrounded it. Gall may have been shot. Many sources say he was bayonetted, probably several times.

One account holds that Bloody Knife tried to put a final shot into Gall. Other accounts state that a soldier advanced to bayonet Gall one final time. Regardless, the officer in charge prevented the final blow, believing Gall to be already dead. Gall survived. He managed to crawl, apparently some distance, to the lodge of an old woman who helped heal him. He went on to make war on whites for many more years.

Gall was active in Red Cloud’s war, including the 1866 Fetterman Fight. He was a leader by the time the Fort Laramie Treaty was signed in 1868, but he claimed later he had refused to sign. Like Sitting Bull he saw white man’s ways and influences as detrimental to his tribe and way of life.

Gall is believed to have fought along the Yellowstone River against troops escorting railroad survey parties. He took part in the raid against troops under the drunken Major Eugene Baker in 1872. He is also thought to have been present on August 4^th and 11^th, 1873 when Sioux fought escort troops under Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer. Sitting Bull is thought to have been present there, which might make Gall’s presence more likely.

Loss and Leadership at the Little Bighorn

Gall was with the huge Sioux and Cheyenne encampment that stretched for three miles or more along the Little Bighorn in 1876. His Hunkpapa band’s camp was at the far south end of the village. Custer sent Major Marcus Reno with three cavalry companies to attack from the south. Here again, Gall met with bitterness.

Circumstances are unclear, but two wives and three daughters of Gall were killed at the time of initial attack. They may have been killed by soldiers firing blindly into the camp. However, it seems unlikely that all would be killed in random firing.

Killing women and even children was not necessarily shameful in war amongst most Plains Indian tribes. It is known that Ree and/or Crow scouts killed some females and possibly children along the Little Bighorn, possibly as they were out digging roots in the flood plain. This may have been the fate of Gall’s family.

Either way, Gall suffered the loss of wives and daughters early in the attack. He later said it “made my heart bad.” He fought accordingly.

When Custer’s five companies approached the village farther to the north, Gall led a loose grouping of warriors that way. Crazy Horse is credited with leading warriors up a ravine to encircle Custer from the north and east. Gall is credited with leading fighters up another ravine south and east of Custer’s command. The effect was to nearly surround the troops, leaving no route of escape the overwhelming Sioux and Cheyenne force.

Surrender and Assimilation

In the year following Custer’s disastrous defeat, the U.S. Army kept relentless pressure on the dispersed non-treaty bands. By mid-1877, nearly all the scattered bands had surrendered and resigned themselves to reservation life. Gall and Sitting Bull, though, refused to give in. Both led bands into Canada, where they joined and remained until 1881.

By then buffalo were all but gone from the plains, even in Canada. The tribes suffered want and hunger. On January 3, 1881 Gall led his band of 52 families to Fort Berthold in Dakota Territory. There he surrendered, and his band was sent to the Standing Rock agency. Sitting Bull also surrendered later that same year.

Unlike Sitting Bull, Gall refused to tour with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. However, seeing his former free life was gone for good, he promoted his people’s assimilation of white culture. He became a farmer and an advocate for the reservation’s farming program.

In addition to learning how to farm successfully, Gall took on at least some aspects of white man’s religion. He believed young members of his tribe would benefit from the white man’s style of education as well.

Venerable Benefactor

Whether with good or devious intent, the Dawes Act of 1887 divided reservations. It allotted 160 acres to the head of each family, 80 acres to single males and 40 acres to each orphan. One catch was that after 25 years these personal holdings could eventually be sold. That included selling to whites.

Gall felt his tribe’s children would be better educated at home on their reservation rather than off at distant boarding schools like Carlisle. He donated his land allotment for the building of a local school so his tribe’s children could be educated at home. He was generally described as being generous in his late years.

Gall befriended James McLaughlin,  who described Gall as having “noble presence” and being “esteemed for his candor and sagacity.” Gall became a judge in the local Indian Court.

Gall had at times been spiteful in his youth, then bitter and even bilious in his battles – especially when his wives and daughters were killed at the Little Bighorn. Many described Gall in his later years as being generous – perhaps even venerable.

He had changed from bitter to benefactor.