Sitting Bull
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Sitting Bull |
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A Hunkpapa Lakota Chief
and holy man, Sitting Bull united the Lakota tribes on their struggle for
survival on the Northern Plains. Born around 1831 on the Grand River
in present-day South Dakota, at a place the Lakota called " Many Caches",
for the number of food storage pits they had dug there. Sitting Bull
was given the name Tatanka-Iyotanka, which describes a buffalo sitting
on its haunches. He would live up to his name all his life.
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As a young man, Sitting Bull became a leader of the Strong heart warrior
society, and a distinguished member of the Silent Eaters, a group who
preserved tribal welfare. He first went to battle at age 14, in a raid
on the Crow, and saw his first encounter with American soldiers in June
1863. The next year, U.S. Troops attacked again, at the battle
of Killdeer Mountain, and in 1865 he led a raid against Fort Rice. In
1868, he became head chief of the Lakota nations. In 1872, during a
battle with soldiers protecting railroad workers on the Yellowstone River,
Sitting Bull led four others out between the lines and smoked a pipe, right
in the middle of the action. |
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Gold was found in the Black Hills of Lakota Territory, an area sacred to
many tribes and placed off-limits to white settlers by the Fort Laramie
treaty of 1868. Breaking the treaty, prospectors hurried to the sacred
hills on a gold rush, provoking the Lakota to defend their land. When
the government failed to purchase Indian Lands on the Black Hills, the Fort
Laramie treaty was set aside, and all Indians not on reservations were
considered hostile. Sitting Bull and his people held ground. |
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When Federal troops moved into
the area, Sitting Bull called Lakota, Cheyenne, and the Arapahos to his camp
on Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory. There he led them in the
Sundance ritual offering prayers to Wakon Tanka.
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| Crazy Horse set out for battle with a band of 500 warriors, and on June 17 he ambushed Crook’s troops and forced them to retreat at the battle of Rosebud Creek. To celebrate, the Lakota moved their camp to the valley of the Little Bighorn where they were met by more than 3,000 Indians who had left reservations to follow Sitting Bull. |