Valentine McGillycuddy

Born on February 14, 1849, Dr. McGillycuddy came of age during the height of tensions between whites and Native Americans in the west.  As a U.S. cavalry surgeon, he tended the wounded in major battles in the Indian Wars, including bloody encounters in the 1870s with the Oglala Sioux led by Chief Crazy Horse.

Nevertheless, McGillycuddy remained fair-minded towards the Indians.  He later staunchly advocated for better treatment of the defeated Indians, first at the Red Cloud Agency reservation, then at Pine Ridge, the nation's largest reservation, which he was appointed to administer at the young age of 30.  Agent McGillycuddy did all he could to keep the U.S. government's promises to the Native Americans living there, and enforced laws equally for whites and Indians.   Even so, he was dismissed from his position by President Grover Cleveland, and evicted from the reservation with his wife and their pair of pet buffalo.

Valentine spent much of the remainder of his life in Rapid City, South Dakota, where he worked as a banker and served as mayor.  Summoned back to Pine Ridge to try to defuse Indian unrest in 1890, he earned the respect of the antagonistic Chief Red Cloud, who praised him as "a young man with an old man's head on his shoulders."  Sadly, McGillycuddy could not prevent

the ensuing killing of 150 mostly unarmed Indian men, women and children now known as the Massacre at Wounded Knee, though he was among the physicians who treated the survivors.

"Friend of Crazy Horse"
Valentine McGillycuddy may be best known for his brief friendship with Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse.  In his position as surgeon at Camp Robinson, Nebraska, he treated Indians living on the adjacent Red Cloud Agency reservation.  Crazy Horse's wife came under his care for tuberculosis, and McGillycuddy thereby came to know the man better than any other white.

In 1877, Crazy Horse was fatally wounded by a camp guard bayonet during a struggle to keep him on the reservation.  McGillycuddy tended the dying man and his family, ensuring the chief was permitted to die with dignity.  The Sioux thereafter referred to McGillycuddy as "Tasunka Witko Kola" (Crazy Horse's friend).  McGillycuddy later wrote of the life and death of Crazy Horse:

From my observation of his leadership and tactics employed in...battles and from the close association and friendship established between us after his surrender at Ft. Robinson early in May, 1877, I could not but regard him as the greatest leader of his people in modern times. He was but thirty-six.  In him everything was made secondary to patriotism and love of his people...He was held in veneration and admiration by the youngest warriors, who would follow him anywhere.  His death was one of the most pitiable and I may say inexcusable of the many I had to witness in my long career on the old frontier.

Read two fine historical novels about McGillycuddy's experiences during the Indian Wars

1. The Contract Surgeon, by Dan O'Brien, 1999, winner of the 2000 Western Heritage Award for Fiction.  The book draws a vivid portrait of Crazy Horse and gives an interesting, fresh perspective on the Great Sioux war.
2. The Indian Agent, by Dan O'Brien, 2004.  A sequel to The Contract Surgeon, the book describes McGillycuddy's surprise appointment at age 30 to run the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, home of warrior chief Red Cloud.  Despite his many successes, McGillycuddy's efforts to head off tragedy come to naught, as the story climaxes at Wounded Knee.

About Valentine McGillycuddy's Red Raspberry Spread

Some cultures consider the raspberry a love-inducing fruit.  Our fruit spreads are made with a fraction of the sugar of jam, to bring out the full flavor of Willamette Valley berries harvested at peak ripeness.  Our raspberry spread is a great way to get vitamin C and fiber into your diet.  And maybe even a little affection.  Net weight 18 oz.