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Tatanka Iyotake or Sitting Bull as he was later called. Was born in 1831. During his childhood his nickname was Huntesi which mean slow. He got this nickname because he always took his time and never hurried. At the age of ten he killed his first buffalo. Than at the age of four-teen he joined his first war party against the Crow. During this battle he counted coup for the first time against the enemy without their knowing. He soon became known for his fearlessness in battle. His father gave him the name Sitting Bull meaning one who sits on his haunches. Sitting Bull soon became the leader of the "Strong Heart warriors Society." Sitting Bull also successfully increased the Sioux's hunting grounds. In 1867 Sitting Bull became the 1st Principal Chief of the Teton Sioux nation. He was thirty-six. |
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| Battle of Little Bighorn | |
| Before Little Bighorn Sitting Bull had a vision. In that vision he saw hundreds of soldiers falling from the sky like grasshoppers. They were falling on their camp. At the battle of the Rosebud. The Oglala tribe led by Crazy Horse joined up with Sitting Bull to make Crook retreat. To celebrate the tribes moved their camp to the Valley of the Little Bighorn. There they were joined by 3,000 more Indians who had also left their reservation to join Sitting Bull. On June 25th Sitting Bull vision proved to be true. General George Armstrong Custer thinking he was attacking a small encampment led the 7th Calvary into a straight on charge right to the center of the three mile long camp. Custer found out too late that there were thousands upon thousands of Indians camped along the Little Bighorn. The Indian warriors came after Custer and his men like maddened hornets. Custer trying to retreat was stuck on a nearby ridge. Surrounded by Indians Custer was killed along with 264 of his men the Indians lost no more than sixty warriors. The Battle of the Little Bighorn came to be known as Custer's Last Stand. | |
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Sitting Bull's Surrender |
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| Sitting Bull gave his son Crow Foot his Winchester to surrender at Fort Buford. Sitting Bull quoted "I wish it be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle." Sitting Bull was imprisoned for two years. Then he was moved to the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota. In 1885 officials allowed him to join, "Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show", he toured through most of Europe but got tired of seeing the white man so he went back to the reservation. | |
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The Death of Sitting Bull |
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| Soon after Sitting Bull returned from the wild west show, he had a vision. Much like the one he had seen before Little Bighorn. Only instead of seeing falling soldiers, he saw himself sitting beside a Meadow lark on a hillock. The bird told him, "your own people, the Lakotas, will kill you." This vision also proved to be true. Tatanka Iyotake died at the age of about fifty-nine. He was killed by reservation police trying to apprehend him. | |
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"If the great spirit desired me to be a
white man, he would have made me one in the first
place."
- Sitting Bull |
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"Now that we are poor, we are free. No
white man controls our footsteps. If we must die we die defending our
rights."
- Sitting Bull
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