Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainWhere Dakota chief Taoyateduta was shot in 1863 — a roadside marker on County Road 18 outside Hutchinson.
County Road 18, approx. 6 miles north of Hutchinson, Hutchinson, MN 55350
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
No admission fee; roadside marker on public road.
Access
Limited Access
Roadside pull-off on a county road; gravel shoulder; no formal path to marker.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1929 · 1862 US-Dakota War · Dakota Leadership and Resistance · Settler-Indigenous Conflict · Minnesota Historical Marker
Taoyateduta, the Mdewakanton Dakota chief the U.S. government called Little Crow, had led the August 1862 Dakota War — six weeks of fighting across southwestern Minnesota that began after a century of broken treaty obligations reduced the Dakota to near-starvation on a narrow reservation strip. When the war ended badly for the Dakota, Taoyateduta fled to Canada with a remnant band.
By the summer of 1863, he returned south with his teenage son Wowinape, apparently to reconnoiter or gather horses. On July 3, 1863, the two were picking raspberries in a clearing off what is now County Road 18, roughly six miles north of Hutchinson. Settler Nathan Lamson and his son Chauncey spotted them in the brush. They opened fire without knowing who they were shooting. Taoyateduta was hit twice and died at the scene. Wowinape survived and was later captured.
Minnesota was then paying a $25 scalp bounty for Dakota men; the Lamsons additionally claimed a $500 reward later paid by the state. Taoyateduta's remains were taken to Hutchinson, where they were displayed and mutilated before being sent to the Minnesota Historical Society as a museum specimen — a treatment that drew protest from his descendants for more than a century. The remains were finally repatriated to the Crow Creek Sioux Tribe in 1971.
A commemorative granite rock and bronze plaque, erected in 1929 by local civic groups, now stands at the location on County Road 18. The marker acknowledges the death but does not address the post-mortem treatment of the remains. It is a designated Minnesota historical site.
Sources
The site carries no established paranormal tradition. Its gravity is historical: it is the place where one of the leading figures of the 1862 US-Dakota War was killed under circumstances the marker summarizes only briefly. Local accounts concentrate on the historical record rather than any haunting narrative. The 1929 granite rock stands in a rural setting on County Road 18, visited primarily by history travelers and descendants of those on both sides of the 1862 war.
Notable Entities
A 1929 commemorative rock and bronze plaque on County Road 18 marks the site where Dakota chief Taoyateduta (Little Crow) was killed on July 3, 1863. The stop takes roughly 10 minutes and is accessible during daylight along the roadside.
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