Gall (Native American leader)

He spent four years in exile in Canada with Sitting Bull's people, after the wars ended and surrendered in 1881 to live on the Standing Rock Reservation.

Born in present-day South Dakota around 1840, and orphaned, Gall was said to receive his name after eating the gallbladder of an animal killed by a neighbour, without flinching at the vile taste of the bile.

Major Marcus Reno's initial attack on the southeast end of the Native American village killed Gall's two wives and several children.

During the opening phase of the battle, the Lakota and Cheyenne repulsed Reno's three companies of cavalry from the south-eastern end of their large village.

After locating the main element of Custer's five companies, Gall correctly determined that they probably intended to force a river crossing and an entrance into the northern end of the village.

Soon the Native Americans finished off Custer and his men in the remaining companies C, E, and F. The last approximately 28 survivors made a dash south for the river.

The Sioux and Cheyenne picked these up and fired the weapons to drive off the soldiers' horses, thus depriving them of a key tactical mobility advantage.

Gall came to disagree with Sitting Bull and brought his band back to the United States surrendering at Fort Buford, Dakota Territory on January 3, 1881.

[2] On May 26, 1881, he and his followers were loaded onto steamers (along with Crow King, Black Moon, Low Dog and Fools Heart) and shipped downriver to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation.

Gall, Photographed by David Francis Barry at Fort Buford , North Dakota, 1881.
Gall, circa 1880s