William Little Wolf

William Little Wolf (April 22, 1899 - September of 1953) was an Ojibwe World War I veteran and truck driver in Minnesota..^[1]

William Little Wolf was born on the White Earth Indian Reservation in 1899 to Bishop and Maggie Little Wolf. In 1909, William was sent to the Wild Rice Boarding School, an American Indian boarding school in Saint Paul, but escaped the school in 1912 and was enrolled at a boarding school ran by nuns with the Order of Saint Benedict. In 1913, he was sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.^[1][2][3][4]

In June of 1917, William fled once again and enlisted in the U.S. Navy under the pseudonym, William Leon Wolfe. William was sent to basic training at the Norfolk Training Station and worked as baker aboard the USS Texas. In early 1918, William was transferred to the USS Utah and worked as part of the fire control team for one of the twelve-inch guns on the ship. He also won the Sixth Division’s lightweight boxing championship. In 1919, he returned to the states and was praised by his native peoples and Joseph K. Dixon.^{[1][5][6][7][8]}

Following the war, William married Margaret Snow with whom he had two children. In 1924, Dixon succeeded in lobbying Congress to pass the Indian Citizenship Act and used examples of patriotism, including that of Little Wolf, to support his campaign. In 1930, Little Wolf was living in Cass Lake working as a truck driver at a lumberyard. In 1940, he worked as a sub-foreman and craftsman and in July of 1940, Little Wolf and John Wilson of Bemidji competed at the Bemidji–Minneapolis Aquatennial Canoe Derby, finishing in fifth place out of thirty-six teams. In September of 1953, William died and was buried at Fort Snelling National Cemetery.^[1][9][10]