06/10/2026
Toka Kte - Oglaga Sioux
By Ed Salazar
Among the Oglala Lakota, a man’s name was a living record of his deeds. His name, Toka Kte, was not given at birth but earned — a recognition from his community that could only be conferred by others, marking him as a man who had met the highest standard of warrior courage and sacrifice.
He carried that name to Omaha in 1898 as a delegate to the U.S. Indian Congress, one of over 500 Native leaders gathered from more than 35 tribes — the largest such assembly at the turn of the century — just eight years after the Wounded Knee Massacre. Beyond the photograph that preserves his face, no further personal records of his life survive. He is known to us by his name alone, and his name was enough.