rare good judgment." Fight for chieftainship Death of Big Thunder Back in Kaposia, Taoyateduta's father, Big Thunder (Wakinyantanka), was mortally wounded in October 1845 after accidentally discharging a gun. The old chief, together with one of his wives and two or three grandsons, had set out with an ox-drawn cart to gather some newly ripened corn in his field on the hill behind Kaposia village. As the cart went up the hill, the loaded gun started to slide toward the back of the cart, which was open. Big Thunder caught the gun by the muzzle and was drawing it toward him when it went off. He was taken back to Kaposia to see the medicine man. Surgeon George F. Turner also came from Fort Snelling to examine him, but there was nothing either the medicine man or the surgeon could do to save him. Big Thunder died three days later. Before he died, Wakinyantanka named one of Taoyateduta's younger half-brothers as his successor, saying that he was not pleased with Taoyateduta, even though he was next in line to be named chief. He also gave his medals – including a presidential medal that had been given to his own father, Cetanwakanmani, after he visited Washington, D.C. in 1824 – to the younger brother as a symbol that he was now the chosen leader of the band. (Twenty-seven years later, Henry Hastings Sibley claimed that he had witnessed Big Thunder speaking to Taoyateduta at his deathbed, not his younger brother. However, historian Return Ira Holcombe, who compiled eyewitness testimony from at least nine other sources including members of Little Crow's family, wrote that Sibley's claim conflicted with all other accounts of Big Thunder's death, which stated that Taoyateduta was more than 200 miles away at the time of his father's death; that he did not learn of his father's death until at least two weeks later; and that he did not return to Kaposia from Lac qui Parle until months afterwards. Gary Clayton Anderson suggests that it could have been a case of mistaken identity and that back in 1845, Sibley was perhaps unable to tell Taoyateduta apart from his brother.) Return to Kaposia After learning of his father's death, Taoyateduta spent the fall and winter carefully planning his return to Kaposia. Taoyateduta believed he was entitled to claim the role of chief, but had learned that two of his half-brothers