Sitting Bull

Born in the Grand River Valley in what is now South Dakota, Sitting Bull, or Tatanka Yotanka, won early recognition from his tribe as a warrior and man of vision. After hearing from defeated Indians who had been driven west what life on a reservation was like, he resolved in July 1864 to keep his people away from the white man's world and never sign a treaty that would force them onto a reservation. With other Sioux leaders he soon led his followers to the valleys of the Powder and Yellowstone Rivers, where buffalo and other game were abundant. While Red Cloud of the Oglala sub-tribe was then the leader of the Tetons, Sitting Bull's influence as a holy man grew. Beginning in the summer of 1865, columns of U.S. soldiers repeatedly invaded the Powder River country. After Red Cloud signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 and agreed to live on a reservation, his influence declined. Sitting Bull's disdain for treaties and reservation life drew a large following from the Sioux as well as the Cheyenne and Arapaho. In 1873 he and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer skirmished briefly while Custer guarded surveyors for the Northern Pacific Railroad in Montana Territory. Three years later they met again on the Little Bighorn in the battle that made both men famous. Although Sitting Bull survived, a vengeful army forced him to flee to Canada. In 1881 he returned to the United States, surrendered, and was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Randall in South Dakota Territory. After two years he was allowed to live on Standing Rock Reservation, where he continued using his influence to keep Sioux lands from being taken by the government. In 1885 he traveled for a season with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In 1890 the rise of the Ghost Dance brought him into disfavor with government officials because he made no effort to stop the dancing at Standing Rock, and when Indian police came to arrest him on December 15, 1890, he was killed in a melee outside his cabin.

Michigan · United States