Sitting Bull carried no gun. On July 26, 1863, near the shores of a small lake in present-day Kidder County, North Dakota, the young Hunkpapa warrior rode into battle armed with nothing but a riding whip. While hundreds of Sioux warriors clashed with Brigadier General Henry Hastings Sibley's 2,056-man column, Sitting Bull struck an army muleteer with the whip and seized his mule -- an act of counting coup, the supreme demonstration of bravery in Plains Indian warfare. The skirmish at Dead Buffalo Lake lasted only hours, but it was the middle chapter in a running three-battle pursuit across the Dakota prairie that would scatter thousands of Santee, Yankton, Yanktonai, and Teton Sioux toward the Missouri River and reshape the power dynamics of the northern Great Plains.
The chain of events that led warriors to Dead Buffalo Lake began a year earlier and 300 miles to the east. The Dakota War of 1862 in Minnesota ended with the defeat of Little Crow and the dispersion of the Santee Sioux. Of the survivors, more than 4,000 congregated by the summer of 1863 in a sprawling encampment in what is now Kidder County. They were not alone. Yankton, Yanktonai, and Teton relatives joined the camp, creating a gathering of families, leaders, and warriors that the U.S. Army could not ignore. General John Pope ordered Sibley, freshly appointed brigadier general of volunteers, to march into Dakota Territory and punish the Santee. Sibley departed Fort Ridgely in June with over 3,000 men -- the largest military force yet assembled against Plains Indians. After a month of slow progress through drought and heat, he found the encampment on July 24 and attacked at Big Mound, driving the Sioux westward.
After the defeat at Big Mound, the Sioux families fled west toward the safety of the Missouri River. The warriors fought a rearguard action for roughly 12 miles before pausing at Dead Buffalo Lake, about two miles northwest of present-day Dawson, North Dakota, to make a stand. Not all chose to fight. Standing Buffalo and many of his Santee followers -- reluctant combatants from the start -- split away and fled northwest, eventually reaching Canada. Those who remained were led by Inkpaduta, a Wahpekute leader known for his unyielding resistance to American expansion. Their numbers swelled when roughly 650 Hunkpapa and Blackfoot Teton warriors arrived as reinforcements, bringing the total Sioux fighting force to an estimated 1,600 men. Among those reinforcements was Sitting Bull, not yet the iconic leader he would become, but already earning a reputation for fearlessness.
Sibley arrived at Dead Buffalo Lake around noon on July 26 and made camp near the shore. Mounted Sioux appeared almost immediately on the surrounding hills, encircling the position. Sibley pushed his artillery, two infantry companies, and his pioneers forward 600 yards and opened fire at long range, forcing the warriors back. The Sioux strategy was not a frontal assault but something more cunning: capture the army's horses and mules to immobilize the column. They struck first at Sibley's left flank, but mounted rangers and infantry checked the assault. The warriors melted into the hills. Several muleteers, assuming the fighting was over, led the livestock outside the defensive perimeter to graze -- a mistake the Sioux exploited instantly. Warriors surged from the right flank in a second attempt at the pack train. Two cavalry companies and six infantry companies repulsed them in a brief, close-quarters fight. One soldier died. The army estimated 15 Sioux killed.
It was during that final rush on the right flank that Sitting Bull made his mark. Counting coup -- touching an enemy in battle without killing him -- ranked among the highest honors a Plains warrior could earn. It demanded closing to arm's length with a foe, demonstrating absolute contempt for danger. Sitting Bull did exactly that, striking the muleteer with his whip and riding off with the man's mule. The act was as much statement as tactic. The Sioux could not match Sibley's artillery or his disciplined infantry formations, but individual warriors could still demonstrate that courage and daring had not been extinguished by superior firepower. Having failed to capture the bulk of the pack train, the Sioux withdrew from the field. The engagement was over.
Sibley rested briefly and resumed his pursuit the next morning, determined to catch the Sioux before they crossed the Missouri River. Two days later, on July 28, he engaged them again at the Battle of Stony Lake, the third and final clash of this running campaign. The three battles -- Big Mound, Dead Buffalo Lake, and Stony Lake -- scattered the Sioux coalition and pushed many bands permanently west of the Missouri. Standing Buffalo's followers continued north to Canada. The prairie around Dead Buffalo Lake is quiet now, the small body of water sitting in open grassland with few markers of what happened here. From the air, the terrain tells the story the documents confirm: rolling hills offering cover for mounted warriors, open ground around the lakeshore where an army column would be exposed, and miles of unbroken horizon in every direction -- a landscape where mobility meant survival and a young man with a whip could become a legend.
Located at 46.90N, 99.78W in central North Dakota, approximately 2 miles northwest of Dawson, ND. The battlefield sits in rolling prairie near a small lake in Kidder County. Terrain is open grassland with gentle hills -- the kind of ground that offered mounted warriors concealment while leaving the lake's shore exposed. Nearest airport: Jamestown Regional Airport (KJMS) approximately 30 nm east. Bismarck Airport (KBIS) lies roughly 60 nm west. Best viewed from 3,000-5,000 feet AGL where the lake and surrounding terrain features are visible. The Missouri River corridor, which the Sioux were fleeing toward, is visible to the west on clear days.