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
The police entered upon their mission in the night and arrived at
daylight. “Many of the houses were deserted, the Indians having been
engaged in dancing the greater part of the previous night. The entrance
of the policemen awakened the camp, but they saw no one, as Bull Head
wheeled his men between the Sitting Bull houses and ordered them to
dismount. Ten policemen, headed by Bull Head and Shave Head, entered one
of the houses, eight policemen the other. In the house entered by Bull
Head’s party they found the old medicine man, his two wives, and Crow
Foot his son, a youth of seventeen years.
“The women were very much frightened and began to cry. Sitting Bull sat
up and asked what was the matter.
“‘You are under arrest and must go to the agency,’ said Bull Head.
“‘Very well,’ said Sitting Bull, ‘I will go with you.’ And he told one
of his wives to go to the other house and bring him his best clothes. He
showed no concern at his arrest, but evidently wanted to make a good
impression and dressed himself with some care. He had also asked that
his best horse, a gray one, be saddled, and an Indian policeman had the
animal at the door by the time Sitting Bull was dressed and ready to
leave.
“There had been no trouble in the house, and the police, when they
walked out, were surprised at the extent of the demonstration. They came
out of the building in a little knot, Bull Head on one side of Sitting
Bull, Shave Head on the other, and Red Tomahawk directly behind. They
had been twenty minutes or more in Sitting Bull’s house, and it was in
the gray of the morning when they came out. They stepped out into a mass
of greatly excited Ghost dancers, nearly all armed and crowding about
the main body of the police, who had held the way clear at the door. As
Sitting Bull stepped out with his captors he walked directly toward the
horse, with the evident intention of mounting and accompanying the
police. He was some distance from the door when his son, Crow Foot,
seeing that the old man intended to make no resistance, began to revile
him:—
“‘You call yourself a brave man and you have declared that you would
never surrender to a blue-coat, and now you give yourself up to Indians
in blue uniforms,’ the young man shouted.
“The taunt hit Sitting Bull hard. He looked into the mass of dark,
excited faces, and commenced to talk volubly and shrilly, and there was
a menacing movement in the crowd.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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