Though the ordeal left him dependent on a wheelchair for the rest of his life, he went on to serve as an educator, civic leader, advocate for Native Americans, and historian.
Most were freed during the surrender at Camp Release, Brown included, and he joined the Minnesota militia as a scout while Western Dakota continued to resist U.S. expansion.
[2] Among a semi-military scouting unit composed of white frontiersmen, mixed-bloods, and allied Eastern Dakotas, Brown helped locate hostile encampments, rode patrols, provided escorts, and served as an interpreter and courier.
Brown immediately dispatched a warning to Lieutenant Colonel C. P. Adams, in command of the area's largest U.S. force at nearby Fort Abercrombie.
He then set off himself to alert a scout encampment deep in "unfriendly" territory on the Elm River near present-day Ordway, South Dakota.
[2] Brown left Fort Wadsworth just as night was falling and rode the 55 miles (89 km) across the dark, nearly featureless prairie in just five hours, navigating by the North Star.
Brown immediately realized that the false alarm he'd sent to Fort Abercrombie could mistakenly lead U.S. soldiers into provoking an actual war.
He woke up in mid-afternoon and stumbled a quarter mile to the next scout's cabin, where he was able to get word to his commanding officer Lieutenant James F. Cochrane, who dispatched a courier to Fort Abercrombie to cancel the alert.
Brown Senior had the scout headquarters building moved there, where father and son used it as a private residence, trading post, and stagecoach inn.
He worked to provide educational and religious services to Native Americans as a teacher and lay preacher at an Episcopal mission, superintendent of the Sisseton Manual Labor Boarding School, and editor of a publication called Daylight.
[2] Sam Brown earned regional fame for his 1866 ride, enhanced by his civic achievements and relation to a major figure in Minnesota history.