Father of Chief Shakopee II, he was the first known Chief of a band of Dakota that had their village where the city of Shakopee, Minnesota is now located. His name, commonly pronounced "Shakpay," meant "Little Six". He received this name when his wife, White Buffalo Woman, gave birth to sextuplet boys. He met Major Stephen Harriman Long at the mouth of the Minnesota River in 1817. Major Long came to distribute the presents which Lieutenant Zebulon Pike had contracted to send them 12 years earlier with the Pike's Purchase. When European settlers began coming to the area, he treated their children kindly and often gave them presents of bows and arrows, moccasins, or maple sugar. He was said to be "a tall, handsome Sioux with the limbs of a Grecian runner and the keen-cut tense features of a metal face." One day in June, 1827, Dakota and Chippewa were camped in a field outside Fort Snelling in Minnesota. The Dakota and Chippewa were enemies, but earlier that day, Indian Agent Major Taliaferro had arranged a treaty between the two tribes. The chiefs had smoked the peace pipe together. Later that evening, the tribes went back to their own tents and the military officers at Fort Snelling believed that everything was fine between the two tribes. Suddenly the crack of rifle fire was heard. The Dakota had waited until the Chippewas had gone back to their tents and were off guard. Five Dakota men slipped over to the Chippewa chief's tent and fired six shots into the tent. The chief and a young Chippewa girl were mortally wounded, and three others apparently were wounded. To prevent more killing, Colonel Snelling hurried to bring the Chippewa inside the walls of the fort. Indian Agent Taliaferro persuaded the Dakota to give up the men who had done the shooting. The Dakota lived by the principle of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a life for a life. For the five wounded Chippewa, the Dakota handed over five Dakota. Among them was Chief Shakopee, the friend of the children. The US government was in a very bad position. If it court martialed and executed the Dakota men, the life of every white man among the Dakota would be in danger for the next 10 years. If they pardoned the guilty, it would be regarded as a sign of weakness by the Dakota and an act of enmity by the Chippewa. Colonel Snelling and Major Taliaferro discussed the predicament with the Chippewa chiefs, who solved the difficulty: Turn the guilty over to the Chippewa and let them be punished according to their own laws and customs. The punishment was to run the gauntlet. The Dakota encampment was far across the field; halfway across stood the Chippewa avengers armed with their rifles. The Indian women and children stood behind the warriors of their tribes. Outside the open gate were the troops, standing in rank; the officers, and shackled Dakota prisoners. The Chippewa carried their chief out on a litter to witness the punishment of his murderers. A warrior stepped forward and at a wave of the hand from Colonel Snelling, he bounded out like a deer to run the race of his life across the open field to his people. The crack of the Chippewa's rifles rang out and the runner fell dead. The smoke had barely cleared before the second runner took off, and the third and fourth. None of them made it across the field; the field was surrounded by armed Chippewa on all sides. Finally, Chief Shakopee, the last runner, stepped into place. "He darted out from the blue-coated ranks of the soldiers almost before the children knew. The rifles cracked. The smoke cleared. A roar of delight from the Sioux [Dakota]--Shakopee was still running; and the fort children began to clap their hands; for the Chippewas had fired off all their rifles and had to pause to reload. He was not ten paces from the goal when the rifles again cracked. The children hid their faces. His body had jerked into the air." When the dust cleared, he was lying on the ground where he had fallen. The fort children, who had been watching with their parents, wept, for their friend was dead. That night, the bodies of the Dakota men were dropped from the bluff into the river.