The American Indian in the United States, Period 1850-1914: ... The Present Condition of the American Indian; His Political History and Other Topics; A Plea for JusticeMoorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
History
The American Indian in the United States, Period 1850-1914: ... The Present Condition of the American Indian; His Political History and Other Topics; A Plea for Justice
Moorehead, Warren K. (Warren King)
Indians of North America; Indians of North America -- Government relations -- 1869-1934
At the age of fourteen he accompanied his father on the warpath against
the Crows, and counted his first coup on the enemy. His name (after
boyhood) was Four Horn, but when he became a medicine man in 1857, his
name was changed to Sitting Bull.
The Handbook presents a brief sketch, part of which I quote.
“He rapidly acquired influence in his own band, being especially
skillful in the character of peacemaker. He took an active part in the
Plains wars of the ’60’s, and first became widely known to the whites in
1866, when he led a memorable raid against Ft. Buford. Sitting Bull was
on the warpath with his band of followers from various tribes almost
continuously from 1869 to 1876, either raiding the frontier posts or
making war on the Crows or the Shoshoni, especially the former. His
autographic pictorial record in the Army Medical Museum at Washington
refers chiefly to contests with the Crows and to horse-stealing. His
refusal to go upon a reservation in 1876 led General Sheridan to begin
against him and his followers the campaign which resulted in the
surprise and annihilation of Custer’s troops on Little Big Horn River,
Montana, in June. During this battle, in which 2,500 to 3,000 Indian
warriors were engaged, Sitting Bull was in the hills ‘making medicine,’
and his accurate foretelling of the battle enabled him ‘to come out of
the affair with higher honor than he possessed when he went into it’
(McLaughlin). After this fight the hostiles separated into two parties.
Sitting Bull, in command of the western party, was attacked by General
Miles and routed; a large number of his followers surrendered, but the
remainder of the band, including Sitting Bull himself, escaped to
Canada, where they remained until 1881, when he surrendered at Ft.
Buford under promise of amnesty and was confined at Ft. Randall until
1883. Although he had surrendered and gone upon a reservation, Sitting
Bull continued unreconciled. It was through his influence that the Sioux
refused to sell their lands in 1888; and it was at his camp at Standing
Rock agency and at his invitation that Kicking Bear organized the Ghost
dance on the reservation. The demand for his arrest was followed by an
attempt on the part of some of his people to rescue him, during which he
was shot and killed. (_See page 124_). Although a chief by inheritance,
it was rather Sitting Bull’s success as an organizer and his later
reputation as a sacred dreamer that brought him into prominence.
According to McLaughlin, “his accuracy of judgment, knowledge of men, a
student-like disposition to observe natural phenomena, and a deep
insight into affairs among Indians and such white people as he came into
contact with, made his stock in trade, and he made ‘good medicine’. He
stood well among his own people and was respected for his generosity,
quiet disposition, and steadfast adherence to Indian ideals. He had two
wives at the time of his death (one of whom was known as Pretty Plume),
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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