Sitting
Bull was a Lakota medicine man and
war chief. He was born sometime around
1831 near Grand River , South Dakota
. He was given the name Tatanka-Iyotanka,
which is translated to a bull sitting
on its haunches. From an early age,
Sitting Bull was a fearsome warrior.
According to legend, he participated
in his first battle at the age of
14, when he joined a party that raided
a Crow village. In 1864, Sitting
Bull participated in the Battle of
Killdeer Mountain, a battle which
crushed much of the Lakota resistance
to U.S. military forces in the upper
Great Plains . Despite the setback,
Sitting Bull refused to surrender
and live on a reservation and led
a successful attack against the newly
built Fort Rice in North Dakota in
1865. Sitting Bull’s bravery
and refusal to surrender to the Government
earned him the title of head chief
of the Lakota Nation in 1868.
In
the 1870’s, Sitting Bull began
an effort to unite the various nations
of the Great Plains against the rising
tide of White settlement in the region.
Sitting Bull first tried a peaceful
approach to dealing with the White
settlers, but the settlers increasingly
tricked the Lakota people into making
bad land and food deals. After gold
was discovered in the Black Hills
, a Lakota holy place, Sitting Bull
refused to move to reservations designated
by the U.S. Government. Instead,
he led a group of warriors to take
up arms against the settlers and
miners.
In
June of 1876, 3,000 Indian warriors
under the command of Sitting Bull
repelled an attack by the 7th Cavalry
under the command of George Custer
at Little Big Horn River, Montana.
Sitting Bull’s warriors then
launched a brutal counterattack on
the cavalry that resulted in the
deaths of virtually every American
soldier in the cavalry. The event
came to be known as Custer’s
Last Stand and is probably the most
famous battle that took place between
the U.S. Government and Native Americans.
After the battle, U.S. forces accumulated
in the region and forced many in
the Lakota tribe to relocate to reservations.
Sitting Bull, however, refused and
led a group of Lakota Indians into
Saskatchewan , Canada . He refused
to return to the United States ,
even though he was issued a pardon.
He was eventually forced to surrender,
however, in 1881 because of cold
and hunger. He was imprisoned for
a short time before being sent to
a reservation to live.
In
1885, Sitting Bull was permitted
to leave the reservation to join
a traveling show called “Buffalo
Bill’s Wild West Show.” The
show would tour the country and Sitting
Bull would ride around the arena
shouting curse words at the audience
in his native language. Sitting Bull
left the show after a couple of months
and began earning an income from
selling his autographed picture.
By 1890, Sitting Bull returned to
his Indian roots and joined the “Ghost
Dancers,” a large Indian movement
involving a “Ghost Dance,” which
the participants believed would make
them impervious to bullets. The movement
quickly gained strength and the U.S.
Government began to fear a large
rebellion. In an attempt to stop
the dancing, the Government tried
to arrest Sitting Bull, who they
thought was encouraging the practice.
When his Sioux brethren tried to
interfere in the arrest, gunshots
were fired, one of which killed Sitting
Bull and another one hit his son,
Crow Foot.
Today,
Sitting Bull is remembered as one
of the greatest figures in Lakota
history. He is supposedly buried
at Fort Yates , North Dakota , but
some in the Lakota tribe claim his
remains have been transported to
a holy site in South Dakota .
