Chief Gall was said to have gained his unusual name when, as a starving orphan, he ate the gall bladder of an animal killed by a neighbour. He was one of Sitting Bull's main lieutenants at the 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn. It was Gall who first rallied the younger warriors in the face of Major Reno's surprise attack against the First Nations village. After Reno's detachment retreated, Gall turned his attention to the main body of the 7th Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer. Some say it was Gall himself who actually killed Custer.

Following the battle, Gall accompanied Sitting Bull in his retreat into Canada, where the two leaders eventually quarrelled. Gall and half of the Hunkpapa band chose to surrender to the U.S. They were held as prisoners of war before settling on the Standing Rock Reservation (located on the border between present-day South Dakota and North Dakota). The once mighty warrior turned his hand to farming until his death in 1894.

When "Buffalo Bill" Cody launched his Wild West Show, he tried to hire Gall as one of the main attractions. "I am not an animal to be exhibited before crowds," was Chief Gall's reply.