Sitting Bull (c.

1831-1890) was a Teton Dakota Native American chief who united indian
tribes of the American Great Plains against the white settlers who wanted to take their land.
They wanted to protect the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota, and this was ensured by the
Fort Laramie Treaty. Everything changed, when the settlers discovered gold there -> that is
why the U.S. government ignored the treaty and began to remove native tribes from their land
by force. 

In 1876 the Battle of Little Bighorn took place, where Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led united
tribes to victory against General George Armstrong Custer. Sitting Bull was shot and killed by
Indian police officers on Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 1890, but is remembered for
his courage in defending native lands.

Sitting Bull’s Early Life

The young boy killed his first buffalo at age 10 and by 14, joined his father and uncle on a
raid of a Crow camp. “Jumping Badger”

After the raid, his father renamed him Tatanka Yotanka, or Sitting Bull, for his bravery.

He was initially called “Jumping Badger” by his family, but earned the boyhood nickname
“Slow” for his quiet and deliberate demeanor

Sitting Bull Resists U.S. Government

Sitting Bull first battled the U.S. Army in June of 1863, when they came after the Santee
Sioux (not the Dakota) in retaliation for the Minnesota Uprising, sparked when federal agents
withheld food from the Sioux living on reservations along the Minnesota River. Over 300
Sioux were arrested in the Minnesota Uprising, but President Abraham Lincoln commuted the
sentences of all but 39 of the accused.

Sitting Bull faced the might of the U.S. military again at the Battle of Killdeer Mountain on
July 28, 1864, when U.S. forces under General Alfred Sully surrounded an Indian trading
village, eventually forcing the Sioux to retreat. These face-offs convinced Sitting Bull to
never sign a treaty that would force his people onto a reservation.

Sitting Bull and The Fort Laramie Treaty

His resolve was not shared by all. In 1868, Red Cloud, or Mahpiua Luta (1822-1909), chief of
the Oglala Teton Dakota Sioux, signed the Fort Laramie Treaty with 24 other tribal leaders
and representatives of the U.S. government including Lieutenant General William Tecumseh
Sherman. The treaty created the Great Sioux Reservation and earmarked additional land for
the Sioux in parts of South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska.

HE refused to sing the threaty

Sitting Bull’s anti-treaty stance won him many followers, and around 1869, he was made
supreme leader of the autonomous bands of Lakota Sioux—the first person to ever hold such
a title. Members of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes soon joined him.
The uneasy peace of the Fort Laramie Treaty was short-lived. In 1874, gold was discovered in
the Black Hills, a place sacred to the Sioux and within the boundaries of the Great Sioux

the whites wanted to buy it, but when they did not succed, they forgot about the treaty

Reservation. White settlers seeking their fortunes rushed to claim the land as their own. The
U.S. government reneged on the treaty, demanding that any Sioux who dared resist move to
the redrawn reservation lines by January 31, 1876 or be considered an enemy of the United
States. Sitting Bull was expected to move everyone in his village an impossible 240 miles in
the bitter cold. they had to move toa reservation; those who refused to do so – will be hunted

Defiant, Sitting Bull refused to back down. He mustered a force that included the Arapaho,
Cheyenne and Sioux and faced off against General George Crook on June 17, 1876, winning
victory in the Battle of the Rosebud. From there, his forces moved to the valley of the Little
Bighorn River.

The Battle of Little Bighorn

It was in a camp at Little Bighorn River that Sitting Bull, then a revered leader and holy man,
or “Wichasa Wakan,” participated in a Sun Dance ceremony where he famously danced for
36 hours straight, making 50 sacrificial cuts on each arm before falling into a trance. When he
awoke, he revealed that he had a vision of U.S. soldiers falling like grasshoppers from the
sky, which he interpreted as an omen that the army would soon be defeated.

On June 25, 600 men under the leadership of General George Custer, a West Point graduate,
entered the valley. Sitting Bull ensured the women and children of the tribe were safe while
Crazy Horse (c.1840-77) led over 3,000 Native Americans to victory in the Battle of the Little
Bighorn, overwhelming Custer’s smaller force of 300. Custer and every single one of his men
were killed in what came to be known as Custer’s Last Stand.

But while Sitting Bull was active in protecting the camp’s women and children during the
attack, he seems to have left the fighting to the younger men, most of whom battled in
disorganized groups.

Sitting Bull Surrenders

In the wake of The Battle of Little Bighorn, the incensed U.S. government redoubled their
efforts to hunt down the Sioux. At the same time, the encroachment of white settlers on
traditionally Indian lands greatly reduced the buffalo population that the Sioux depended on
for survival. In May 1877, Sitting Bull led his people to safety in Canada.

there was not much buffalo there since they faced starvation, they had to move back,
surrender

With food and resources scarce, Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army on July 20, 1881 in
exchange for amnesty for his people. He was a prisoner of war in South Dakota’s Fort Randall
for two years before being moved to Standing Rock Reservation.
Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show
Sitting Bull’s Death and Burial Site
Standing Rock Reservation soon became the center of controversy when the Ghost Dance
Movement started gaining traction. Followers believed that deceased tribe members would
rise from the dead along with killed buffalo while all white people would disappear. Worried
that the influential Sitting Bull would join the movement and incite rebellion, Indian police
advanced on his cabin to arrest him.

wanted the inidans to return the old way

In a quick, chaotic gunfight, the legendary Sitting Bull was shot dead.
04:37
As the United States marched into the 20th century,
04:40
the proud, nomadic lifestyle of the Plains Indian...
04:44
...was a thing of the past.

On December 15, 1890, Indian police woke the sleeping Sitting Bull in his bed at 6 a.m.
When he refused to go quietly, a crowd gathered. A young man shot a member of the Indian
police, who retaliated by shooting Sitting Bull in the head and chest. Sitting Bull died
instantly from the gunshot wounds. Two weeks after his death, the army massacred 150 Sioux
at Wounded Knee, the final fight between federal troops and the Sioux.

Sitting Bull was buried at Fort Yates Military Cemetery in North Dakota by the army. In
1953, family members exhumed what they thought was Sitting Bull’s grave and reburied the
bones they found near Mobridge, South Dakota, overlooking the Missouri River. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLpHR-Gayq8

https://www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/sitting-bull
life all that land provided us with plenty
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much more than we needed
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our people lived by plowing corn and
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hunting buffalo
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just like our predecessors almost all
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parts of the great animal were used
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but this life in harmony with our land
was perennially threatened by the white
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man
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who spread and degraded the land they
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occupied
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but our people did not allow our sacred
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lands t