“About 200 Minneconjou Sioux, of Roman Nose’s band, came in this afternoon and camped on the Platte. Among the chiefs, besides Roman Nose, who had arrived several days before, were Elk-that-whistles-walking, Little Bull, Little Pin, and some others. They called at the house of Colonel Flint, who gave them an order for 2,000 rations.”
— U.S. Government Report, 1870.
 

“Elk-that-whistles-walking” is a transliteration.  Treaty spellings vary across copies; on the Minneconjou signers list the name appears as “Opan e tanne mani” (phonetic). In standardized Lakota: Ųpȟáŋ e Tȟáŋi Máni (“She-Elk-Voice-Walking”).  His name was particularly difficult for English speakers to get right and so there are several English renderings of his name
“Elk that Whistles Walking,” “The Elk that Bellows Walking,” and “She Elk Voice Walking.” "Whistling Elk", "Elk that Holloes Walking", "Elk that Hollars Walking" 
 

Our family knew him as She Elk Voice Walking, consistent with Lakota naming traditions in which sound and gendered medicine have layered meanings.  Also, later, that name was shortened to just Voice, Elk Voice and She Elk Voice.
 

This document is significant because it:
 

1.  It confirms and identifies him as Minneconjou, one of the Seven Council Fires of the Lakota Nation.

2.  Places him at Fort Laramie in September 1870, two years after the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which he signed alongside Lone Horn      and Spotted Elk as headmen for the Minneconjou.

3.  Shows his continued association with other Minneconjou leaders including Roman Nose (Spotted Elk's brother) and Little Bull,  who       appear alongside him in this record.

4.  Corroborates oral histories linking She Elk Voice Walking to peace delegations and continued treaty-related visits.

5.  Corroborates treaty records, reinforcing his role as one of the head signers in 1868.

6.  Aligns with Calvin Spotted Elk’s probate records,  confirming consistency between oral, legal, and even federal records.

In the ongoing dispute among those claiming descent from the people at Wounded Knee, accuracy is not a matter of pride — it is a matter of truth.

Some who claim descent from Spotted Elk have not shown evidence that they are Minneconjou.

They continue calling Spotted Elk “Big Foot / Si Tȟáŋka,” which was not his Lakota name, and continue circulating photos of the Oglála “Big Foot.”  These images have been misattributed for decades as the Minneconjou leader Opan Gleska but they are not the same person.

Our family submitted documentation of this misidentification to the court  sourced directly from the Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library at Yale University,  clearly demonstrating that those widely circulated images are not our grandfather, the Minneconjou Spotted Elk, but rather an Oglála man misidentified in later publications.
 

These distinctions are not trivial. They determine whose ancestors were actually there, whose history is being represented, and whose voices are being erased.
 

Accuracy matters - for families, for history, and for Wounded Knee itself, where even the truth was almost erased.