Valentine McGillycuddy



Dr. Valentine Trant McGillycuddy (1849–1939) was a surgeon and controversial pioneer of the effort to build a sustainable relationship between the United States and the Native American people.

Career
As the surveyor for the Newton-Jenney Party, McGillycuddy was the first known person to climb Harney Peak in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He then served as Contract Surgeon with General George Crook during the Battle of the Rosebud, the Battle of Slim Buttes, and the Horsemeat March.

As Assistant Post Surgeon at Fort Robinson and later as Indian Agent for the Red Cloud Agency, McGillycuddy was known to the Lakota of the modern-day Pine Ridge Indian Reservation as "Friend of Crazy Horse", and was the doctor who treated Crazy Horse at the time of his death.

While he may have been a friend to Crazy Horse, he was not so much loved by some other Lakotas, including Red Cloud, a major Sioux chief. Red Cloud's accusations of mismanagement led to several investigations of Dr. McGillycuddy's administration. Under pressure to arbitrarily fire a loyal clerk, Dr. McGillycuddy eventually resigned his post. Later, in the days leading up to the Wounded Knee Massacre, Red Cloud conceded that McGillycuddy had been a "young man with an old man's head on his shoulders."

Dr. McGillycuddy would later serve as mayor of Rapid City, Dean of the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, delegate to the South Dakota State Constitutional Convention, and as South Dakota's first State Surgeon General. The mansion that he built in 1888 is still standing today in Rapid City.

Death
McGillycuddy died at age 90 in Berkeley, California. His ashes are entombed at the top of Harney Peak behind a plaque that reads "Valentine McGillycuddy, Wasitu Wacan (Lakota: translates as Holy White Man)."

Museum and archival collections

 * Journey Museum, Rapid City, South Dakota
 * State Historical Archives, Pierre, South Dakota
 * University of South Dakota, Vermillion, South Dakota
 * McGillycuddy House, Rapid City, South Dakota
 * South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Rapid City, South Dakota
 * Fort Robinson Historical Museum, Fort Robinson, Nebraska
 * National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Suitland, Maryland