Chief Iron Tail

Chief Iron Tail, born Sinté Máza, of the Oglala Lakota Nation, was a rare 19th-century Indian celebrity with an international following and a profile permanently etched on an American coin. His mother’s choice for his name in 1842 was intended to announce someone new and novel: “Iron Tail.” When her son was born, she witnessed a herd of buffalo stand their tails like metal shafts as they fled Lakota hunters. Western history is rife with inaccuracies, and Chief Iron Tail is no e