Sitting Bull, a Sioux Chief Legend

Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man, a member of the Sioux tribe, also known as Slon-he or “Slow”. He was son of Four Horn, was born in a tipi located near the Grand River near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Dakota Territory, in March, 1834.

Sitting Bull

As a tribal chief, Sitting Bull led his tribe against the white man, resistance to United States government policies; he refused to be moved to Indian Territory. Sitting Bull’s leadership as a war chief, could unite the tribes of the Lakota in a struggle for survival in the northern plains which make Sitting Bull as one of the Famous Indian Warriors.

Jumping Badger

Jumping Badger was the name given at birth to Sitting Bull. In accordance with the Lakota tradition, he was given one of his father’s name, Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka, translated as “Sitting Bull”, because of his leadership in the battle between the Lakota and Crow people. In his childhood, Sitting Bull was dubbed with the name Hunkesi, which means, “Slow,” because he was never in a hurry and do everything carefully.

Sitting Bull and Family

At the age of 10, Jumping Badger completed his first hunt and had killed a buffalo. He gave the meat to the elders who are unable to hunt. At the age of 14, Jumping Badger was given a coup stick from his father. With this coup stick, Jumping Badger can beat his first Crow warrior. Pride of the father about the victory of his son is celebrated by giving the name Sitting Bull (=Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka), which is also a change of status to a warrior.

Sitting Bull in Red Cloud’s War

Sitting Bull led numerous war parties against Fort Berthold, Fort Stevenson, and Fort Buford and their environs from 1865 through 1868. Although Red Cloud was a leader of the Oglala Sioux, his leadership and attacks against forts in the Powder River Country of Montana were supported by Sitting Bull’s guerrilla attacks on emigrant parties and smaller forts throughout the upper Missouri River region.

By early 1868, the U.S. government desired a peaceful settlement to Red Cloud’s War. It agreed to Red Cloud’s demands that Forts Phil Kearny and C.F. Smith be abandoned. Chief Gall of the Hunkpapas (among other representatives of the Hunkpapas, Blackfeet, and Yankton Sioux) signed a form of the Treaty of Fort Laramie on July 2, 1868 at Fort Rice (near Bismarck, North Dakota). Sitting Bull did not agree to the treaty.

He continued his hit-and-run attacks on forts in the upper Missouri area throughout the late 1860s and early 1870s. The events of 1867–1868 mark a historically debated period of Sitting Bull’s life. According to historian Stanley Vestal, who conducted interviews with surviving Hunkpapa in 1930, Sitting Bull was made “Supreme Chief of the whole Sioux Nation” at this time. Later historians and ethnologists have refuted this concept of authority, as the Lakota society was decentralised. Lakota bands and their chiefs made individual decisions.

Chief Sitting Bull and The Great Sioux War

In June 1876 Sitting Bull subjected himself to a sun dance. This ritual included fasting and self-torture. During the sun dance Sitting Bull saw a vision of a large number of white soldiers falling from the sky upside down. As a result of this vision he predicted that his people were about to enjoy a great victory.

Sitting Bull’s band of Hunkpapas continued to attack migrating parties and forts in the late 1860s. When in 1871 the Northern Pacific Railway conducted a survey for a route across the northern plains directly through Hunkpapa lands, it encountered stiff Sioux resistance. The same railway people returned the following year accompanied by federal troops. The survey party was again attacked by Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapa and was forced to turn back. In 1873, the military accompaniment for the surveyors was considerably larger, but Sitting Bull’s forces resisted this survey “most vigorously.”

Chief Sitting Bull

The Panic of 1873 forced the Northern Pacific Railway’s backers (such as Jay Cooke) into bankruptcy. This financial condition halted construction of the railroad through Sioux territory. At the same time, other men became interested in the possibility of gold mining in the Black Hills. In 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a military expedition from Fort Abraham Lincoln, near Bismarck, to explore the Black Hills for gold and to determine a suitable location for a military fort in the Hills. Custer’s announcement of gold in the Black Hills triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush. Tensions increased between the Sioux and European Americans’ seeking to move into the Black Hills.Although Sitting Bull did not attack Custer’s expedition in 1874, the US government was increasingly pressured to open the Black Hills to mining and settlement. It was alarmed at reports of Sioux depredations (encouraged by Sitting Bull). In November 1875, the government ordered all Sioux bands outside the Great Sioux Reservation to move onto the reservation, knowing full well that not all would comply. As of February 1, 1876, the Interior Department certified as “hostile” those bands who continued to live off the reservation. This certification allowed the military to pursue Sitting Bull and Lakota bands.

Chief Sitting Bull in Battle of the Little Big Horn

Although Sitting Bull was the principal chief among the Lakota Sioux, he did not personally participate in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. On June 25, 1876, Lt. Colonel George A. Custer and the soldiers under his command first rushed the encampment along the Little Big Horn River, as if in fulfillment of Sitting Bull’s vision. They then made a stand on a nearby ridge, where by the end of the day, Custer and his column of more than 200 soldiers were dead. That military defeat brought thousands more cavalrymen to the area, and over the next year, they ruthlessly persecuted the Lakota — who had split up following the Custer fight — forcing chief after chief to surrender.

Sioux Chief

As the battles continued, many of Sitting Bull’s followers surrendered. However, the old chief defiantly would not capitulate. In May 1877, he led his band across the border into Canada, beyond the reach of the U.S. Army. When General Terry traveled north to offer him a pardon in exchange for settling on a reservation, Sitting Bull angrily sent him away.

Four years later, however, finding it impossible to feed his people in a world where the buffalo was almost extinct, Sitting Bull finally came south to surrender. On July 19, 1881, he had his young son, Crow Foot, hand over his rifle to the commanding officer of Fort Buford in Montana, explaining that in this way he hoped to teach the boy that he had become a friend of the whites.

End of a Sioux Chief Legend

Sitting Bull was offered an amnesty by the American authorities and in 1881 he agreed to return to Fort Randall, South Dakota, but continued to reject the proposal to sell Sioux lands to the United States government.

In June 1885, Sitting Bull agreed to appear with the Wild West Show run by Buffalo Bill Cody. He was paid $50 a week and also received money for selling signed photographs of himself.

Sitting Bull

In 1888 Sitting Bull rejected a new offer to sell Sioux land. The American government became increasingly frustrated by Sitting Bull’s refusal to negotiate a deal and orders were given for his arrest. On 15th December, 1890, Sitting Bull was killed while being arrested. His son Crow Foot and other followers also lost their lives during this operation.

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