So said George Bird Grinnell in his book 'The Fighting Cheyennes'. Little Wolf was born around 1820 and had a reputation for generosity from a young age. The story is told that one day when food was scarce and he was really hungry his mother gave him a precious scrap of meat which was stolen by a starving dog. When his mother tried to punish the dog he implored her not to, saying "he is obviously hungrier than I am".
On another occasion while still a young man he was caught out in a blizzard for several days and insisted on giving his blanket to a shivering old man. Later in life he was honoured by being elected as an Old Man Chief among the Council of Forty Four.
He led a band of warriors called the Elk Horn Scrapers during the Northern Plains Wars and signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie which required the U.S. army to vacate forts along the Bozeman Trail.
In 1876 following the defeat of Dull Knife the Cheyenne were forced onto a reservation in Oklahoma where malaria and starvation reduced the population by fifty per cent. In 1878 he and Dull Knife led 300 Cheyenne, many women and children, through Kansas, Nebraska and Dakota back to their Montana homelands, fighting off up to 13000 troops in various skirmishes along the way. Dull Knife surrendered but Little Wolf and those others who reached Montana were allowed to remain there until they were relocated to the Lame Deer reservation.
While apparently intoxicated in 1880 Little Wolf killed Starving Elk, after which he went into voluntary exile from his tribe.
Little Wolf died in 1904 and is buried next to Dull Knife at Lame Deer Cemetery. His gravestone bears the words "a commander of men, a great general".
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