Ishtakhaba (Dakota: Ištáȟba), aka Chief Sleepy Eye, was a Native American chief of the Sisseton Sioux tribe. He was chief from 1822-25 (year uncertain) until his death in 1860. According to Upham: "'Sleepy Eyes died in Roberts County, South Dakota, but many years after his death his remains were disinterred and removed to Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, where they were buried under a monument erected by the citizens.'"^[1] The monument, close to the railway station, bears this inscription beneath the portrait of the chief in bas-relief sculpture: 'Ish-tak-ha-ba, Sleepy Eye, Always a Friend of the Whites. Died 1860.'"^[2]

Ishtabkhaba tried to promote peace with whites in and around the state of Minnesota. He was a signer of at least four treaties with the United States government, and met with President James Monroe in Washington, D.C. in 1824.

[edit] References

• "Famous Native Minnesotans" from Minnesota State University Mankato website, accessed February 2, 2006

1. ^ Hodge, Handbook of American Indians, Part II, 1910
2. ^ Upham, Warren (2001). Minnesota Place Names, A Geographical Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. Saint Paul, Minnesota: Minnesota Historical Society. p. 75. ISBN 0-87351-396-7. 

[edit] External links

• Ishtakhaba at Find a Grave

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