Paytah (1877-) was a Wapiti Native American warrior from South Dakota. He served as his close friend Eagle Flies' right-hand man during the Wapiti War of 1899.
Biography[]
Paytah was born in 1877, and he grew up on the Wapiti Indian Reservation in South Dakota and became close friends with Eagle Flies. In 1899, he sided with Eagle Flies when he decided to wage a campaign of resistance against the US Army garrison of Fort Wallace in retaliation for the Army's abuses, becoming his right-hand man. He helped to recover the tribe's confiscated horses from a transport ship on the Mississippi River, took part in the ambush of a US Army column at the Battle of Firwood Rise (during which he was wounded and nearly captured), participated in the major raid on Cornwall Kerosene & Tar, and brought a mortally wounded Eagle Flies back to the reservation to see his father Rains Fall before dying. Paytah would ultimately relocate to Canada with the rest of the tribe.