Followers believed he possessed supernatural power and the ability to foretell the future through dreams—an advantage that led him to many victories over tribal enemies.
[2] In August 1805, 26-year-old Lieutenant Zebulon Pike led the first United States expedition through the upper Mississippi region and met with seven Mdewakanton Dakota leaders.
[2] Tatanka Mani is believed to have led a unit of Dakota soldiers to Mackinac Island in Michigan, helping to gain a bloodless victory over the Americans there.
[2] At war's end, the victorious United States invited chiefs Red Wing II, Bad Hail, Penichon, White Dog and others to a meeting in St. Louis.
On July 19, 1815, he "touched a pen" to the treaty as "Tatangamanee, Walking Buffalo," a representative of the "Sioux (Dakota) of the Lakes," together with Iron Cloud and Marching Wind, also from the Red Wing band.
[4][2] During the war, Tatanka Mani had moved his village south, to the foot of He Mni Caŋ in present-day downtown Red Wing, Minnesota.