23 Facts About Gabriel Renville

Gabriel Renville, known as Ti'wakan, was a US-government appointed chief of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Tribe from 1866 until his death in 1892.

Gabriel Renville opposed conflict with the United States during the Dakota War of 1862 and was a driving force within the Dakota Peace Party.

In 1863, Renville volunteered to serve as a Dakota scout serving in US military leader Henry Hastings Sibley's punitive expedition against Dakota escapees, hunting those considered "hostile" including Little Crow.

Gabriel Renville would become chief and superintendent of scouts in 1864.

Victor Gabriel Renville was ambushed and killed by a group of Ojibwes in August 1832 as he returned from leading a group of soldiers on a retaliatory raid.

In 1838, Gabriel Renville settled on Grey Cloud Island in Washington County, Minnesota with his brother-in-law and legal guardian, Joseph R Brown; his half-sister, Susan Frenier Brown; and his stepfather, Akipa.

Gabriel Renville received little formal education beyond classes at the school at Lac qui Parle Mission, where he learned to read and write the Dakota language, and do arithmetic.

When Gabriel was a teenager, Joseph R Brown placed him in boarding school in Chicago, where he lasted for one month.

Gabriel Renville knew the use of it so well and so completely that every word was a sledgehammer, always clear, homely but strong, and to the point.

In 1851, Gabriel Renville was present at the signing of the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux as part of the delegation of Wahpetons.

Gabriel Renville filed for land scrip in 1856, claiming lands south of Fort Ridgely.

Gabriel Renville was a driving force within the Dakota Peace Party that emerged among the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands, which soon attracted the support of disgruntled Mdewakantons.

Gabriel Renville went home to find the horses already hitched to the wagon, and headed towards the agency with his family.

Four miles on, Gabriel Renville was accosted by drunken soldiers who had pillaged the agency, but forced his way through.

Gabriel Renville killed a calf supplied by his cousin John Baptiste Renville and organized a feast.

Gabriel Renville's side decided to form a single camp of families sympathetic toward the European settler-colonists, with a large tent at the center of a circle west of Riggs's Hazelwood Mission buildings.

Gabriel Renville recounted that a group of hostile Mdewakantons then came to attack the peace party, who were ready with guns, but Iron Walker convinced the hostiles to stand down.

Gabriel Renville's followers invaded the opposing camp to rescue the white and "mixed-blood" captives and brought them to safety in their camp, while Gabriel Renville, Solomon Tukanshaciye and others pursued a war party passing westward and compelled them to release additional prisoners.

Gabriel Renville went home to discover that everything he owned had been taken or destroyed by opposing soldiers.

Gabriel Renville moved his camp to Redwood Agency with other "friendlies" camped on the north side of Sibley's command.

John Williamson, son of Thomas Smith Williamson, received permission to enter the compound housing the Dakota and found many members of the former mission community there, including Gabriel Renville, who lay sick in his tent with a serious case of malaria.

Gabriel Renville's people seconded Sibley's appointment a year later by declaring Renville chief-for-life.

Gabriel Renville is buried atop a bluff near Old Agency, South Dakota.