Born in 1831 in modern day South Dakota, Sitting Bull was of the Hunkpapa, Sioux Indian tribe. He was named "Sitting Bull" after his father when he attained adult status, and his father took the new name "Jumping Bull."
Young Sitting Bull became an accomplished and brave warrior and at 14 after showing heroism in battle against the "Crows" earned a white eagle feather, a symbol of victory, and a personalized shield.
Married Man & Holy Man:
Sitting Bull married approximately in 1851 but his wife died during childbirth and his infant son also died at a young age. He adopted several children and later remarried.
In his early twenties he became a Sioux holy man and participated in religious rituals and helping to perpetuate the Sioux beliefs. He studied healing and became a member of the "Buffalo Society" and the "Heyoka" religious groups with-in the Sioux society.
Sitting Bull "The Warrior"
Friction began developing in the late 1850's between the Nations of the Sioux tribes and the United States Government. White settlers and traders were becoming aggressive and trespassing on lands considered sacred by the Sioux.
Treaties that were signed were being flagrantly ignored and pitched battles started erupting by 1862 in the Dakota Territory. Several native tribes united and joined to battle U.S. forces. The hostilities continued through the rest of 1863 and into 1864.
The disputes continued and Sitting Bull resumed his raids and hit-and-run attacks on U.S. forts in Missouri and on emigrant parties who continued to violate treaties and encroach upon native Sioux lands.
The Black Hills Gold Rush:
The fighting sustained throughout the 1870’s with Sitting Bulls disruption of survey parties, emigrants wagon trains, and his fierce resistance of the expansion of the Northern Pacific Railway.
But the single incident that doomed the Sioux’s dreams of ridding their lands of the “White Eyes” was the discovery of gold in the “Black Hills.” Custer’s expedition of 1874 triggered the “Black Hills Gold Rush” and increased the tension tenfold.
With the creation of the “Great Sioux Reservation” in 1868 many of the tribes and chiefs had resigned themselves to live on the reservations under control of the U.S, but Sitting Bull would not surrender.
Battle of Little Bighorn:
Most tribal Chiefs had given up the fight against the whites who swarmed their ancestral lands lusting for land and gold, but Sitting Bull was gathering forces and offering sanctuary to misplaced warriors from other tribes who still had a taste for resistance.
On June 25th 1876 General George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Calvary brashly launched an attack upon the Sioux. Custer had no idea that Sitting Bull had gathered thousands of warriors under his banner and was completely outnumber and outgunned.
Custer’s forces were destroyed by the counter-attacking Native American warriors but the victory was a hollow one because the public outrage at Custer’s slaughter prompted the U.S. military to focus on the Sioux problem and dispatch thousands of soldiers to the area to crush the resistance.
The U.S. troops forced the surrender of most of the Sioux Nation, but Sitting Bull retreated to Canada where his band of tribesman stayed for nearly five years until the cold and near starvation forced his surrender in 1881.
Buffalo Bill’s Wild West:
Sitting Bull was kept as a prisoner of war and transferred back and forth between several places over the next couple of years. In 1885 he was allowed to briefly join “Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show’ for four months as a special attraction.
He had become something of a celebrity and made money by selling photo’s of himself and signing autographs. For the next five years he lived peacefully on the “Standing Rock Agency Reservation” in South Dakota where he was confined.
But, on December 15th 1890 a U.S. Indian Agent named James McLaughlin ordered Lt Bullhead to arrest Sitting Bull on the suspicion that he intended to flee the reservation and stir up trouble.
The arrest went badly and a shootout ensued between the police who had came to make the arrest and armed supporters of Sitting Bull. When the smoke cleared, Chief Sitting Bull, Lt. Bullhead, along with seven other police officers and seven of Sitting Bull’s defenders were killed. Thus ended the saga of one of America’s greatest Native American figures.
Read about another Native American rebel GERONIMO <<<<<<
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