Four Mdewakantons, Sungigidan (“Brown Wing”), Kaomdeiyeyedan (“Breaking Up”), Nagiwicakte (“Killing Ghost”), and Pazoiyopa (“Runs Against Something When Crawling”)[5] from Rice Creek Village in the Lower Sioux Agency, returning home from an unsuccessful hunt, had a confrontation with Robinson Jones, a settler, which resulted in the Mdewakantons killing five settlers, including Jones.

[6] Eager to prove themselves following an argument about whether or not they should steal eggs from a white-owned farmstead,[7] the four had called at the house of Acton postmaster and storekeeper Robinson Jones.

[8] The four young Dakotas then returned to the Jones homestead, where they shot and killed 15-year-old Clara Wilson, who had been living with the Joneses.

[8][10] Realizing the gravity of the situation, the four young Dakota men hastened to the home of Little Crow, who convened that night.

On September 3, a 55-man company of the newly-formed 10th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment was routed by a band of Dakota warriors near Acton.