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 last moment of Sitting Bull’s life showed him in a better light, so
far as physical courage goes, than all the rest of it. He looked about
him and saw his faithful adherents—about 160 crazed Ghost dancers—who
would have gone through fire at his bidding; to submit to arrest meant
the end of his power and his probable imprisonment; he had sure news
from Pine Ridge that he, only, was needed to head the hostiles there in
a war of extermination against the white settlers. He made up his mind
to take his chance, and screamed out an order to his people to attack
the police.
“Instantly Catch-the-Bear and Strikes-the-Kettle, who were in the front
rank of the crowd, fired at point-blank range, Catch-the-Bear mortally
wounding First Lieutenant Bull Head, and Strikes-the-Kettle shooting
First Sergeant Shave Head in the abdomen. Lieutenant Bull Head was a few
yards to the left and front of Sitting Bull when hit, and immediately
wheeling, he shot Sitting Bull through the body, and at the same instant
Second Sergeant Red Tomahawk, who with revolver in hand was rearguard,
shot him in the right cheek, killing him instantly; the lieutenant, the
first sergeant, and Sitting Bull falling together.
“Sitting Bull’s medicine had not saved him, and the shot that killed him
put a stop forever to the domination of the ancient regime among the
Sioux of the Standing Rock reservation.
“The tale of the bloody fight that ensued has been told, and the world
knows how those thirty-nine Indian policemen, with four of their
relatives who volunteered to accompany them,—a total of forty-three in
all—fought off 160 Ghost dancers, eight of whom were killed and five
wounded; how Second Sergeant Red Tomahawk, after the two higher ranking
police officers had been mortally wounded, took command and drove the
Indians to the timber; how Hawk Man No. 1 ran through a hail of bullets
to get the news to the cavalry detachment, and how six faithful friends
of the Whites, policemen of the Standing Rock reservation, laid down
their lives in doing their duty that morning. Two days later, on
December 17, 1890, we buried Shave Head and four other Indian policemen
with military honors in the cemetery at Standing Rock, and, while
Captain Miner’s entire company of the Twenty-Second U. S. Infantry fired
three volleys over the graves of these red heroes, and a great concourse
of the Sioux of the reservation stood in the chill bright sunlight of a
fair winter’s day, mourning aloud for their dead, I quietly left the
enclosure and joined a little burial-party in the military cemetery at
Fort Yates, situated about five hundred yards south of the agency
cemetery. Four military prisoners dug the grave, and in the presence of
A. R. Chapin, Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A., H. M. Deeble, Acting
Assistant Surgeon, U. S. A., Lieutenant P. G. Wood, U. S. A., Post
Quartermaster, now Brigadier General, retired, and myself, the body of
Sitting Bull, wrapped in canvas and placed in a coffin, was lowered into
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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