Big Eagle (Dakota: Waŋbdí Táŋka, c.1827–1906) was the chief of a band of Mdewakanton Dakota in Minnesota. He played an important role as a military leader in the Dakota War of 1862. Big Eagle surrendered soon after the Battle of Wood Lake and was sentenced to death and imprisoned, but was pardoned by President Abraham Lincoln in 1864. Big Eagle's narrative, "A Sioux Story of the War" was first published in 1894, and is one of the most widely cited first-person accounts of the 1862 war in Minnesota from a Dakota point of view. Chief Big Eagle is featured in the "Two Men, One War" marker and the "Battle of Birch Coulee – Big Eagle" marker erected by the Minnesota Historical Society at the Birch Coulee Battlefield; he is also quoted in many of the other markers posted along the self-guided trail. Life before the war Big Eagle was born in 1827 at Black Dog's village near Mendota, in present-day Eagan, Minnesota. He was a cousin of Little Crow's half-brother, White Spider. He succeeded his father, Máza Ȟóta (Grey Iron) as chief of his band in 1857, and adopted the name of his grandfather, Waŋbdí Táŋka (Big Eagle). Due to the modest size of his band, he was considered a "sub-chief" but "may be termed one of the Sioux generals, since he had a band or division of his own." As a young man, he often went on war parties against the Ojibwe and other enemies of the Mdewakanton. The six feathers he wore in his headdress symbolized the six scalps he had taken on the war path. In 1858, he joined the Mdewakanton farmers at the Redwood Agency, also known as the Lower Sioux Agency, but became increasingly critical of the farming movement in the years leading up to the Dakota War of 1862. 1858 Dakota treaty delegation Big Eagle went to Washington, D.C. in 1858 as part of the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute Dakota treaty delegation led by Little Crow, when he was Little Crow's head warrior (akacita). Other Mdewakanton leaders in attendance included major chiefs Little Crow, Wabasha, Shakopee II, Wakute, Mankato, Traveling Hail and Black Dog; other sub-chiefs such as Whale, Tomahawk and Iron Elk; and representatives of Little Crow's soldiers' lodge including Big Eagle's uncle Medicine Bottle I, The Thief, and the sole Wahpekute delegate, Red Legs. During the lengthy negotiations, the Dakota leaders were pressured