Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa (Tribe) Lakota (Nation) leader born in modern-day Montana. The Lakota are more commonly known as the Sioux. This was a name meaning “snakes,” applied to them by Ojibwe enemies. It was also adopted by Canadian and American colonists. Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota are different dialects of the same language. All these versions of the word mean “friend” or “ally,” referencing the political and cultural bonds of the many tribes (Hunkpapa, Oglala, Yankton, etc.) that made up the Lakota confederacy.
Sitting Bull was famous for defeating General George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876. In reality, Sitting Bull did not take part in the fighting. In resistance to being settled on a reservation, he had established a camp for his band on the Little Bighorn River (Greasy Grass River to the Lakota). Other renegade bands joined them over the course of months, swelling their numbers. Sitting Bull, among others, acted as a spiritual leader, performing the Sun Dance, and other cultural rituals to bolster the numerous warriors.
The US Army sent several units to confront the camp and force the Native people back on to reservations. Tellings of the infamous battle vary widely. Some say Custer’s unit, the 7th Cavalry, was ordered to attack, and others insist the general brashly led his soldiers into a situation where they were starkly outnumbered and doomed to slaughter. After wiping out the Americans, the camp disbanded over the next few days. Sitting Bull led his band up into Canada and lived there for 4 years. Most of the bands that remained in the US were hunted down by the Army or surrendered.
Sitting Bull eventually returned to the US and surrendered in 1881. He and his band were confined to the Standing Rock Reservation between North and South Dakota. His time on the reservation was tense. In the late 1880s, a movement called the Ghost Dance spread among western tribes. A Paiute man from Nevada named Wovoka is credited with creating it. He told his followers that if they performed the Ghost Dance their dead would rise, the buffalo would return, and the White people would be driven away. The movement made White westerners paranoid and hostile to its followers. The dance was outlawed on the reservations and many Americans called for the extermination of the remaining western tribes. The authorities of Standing Rock became concerned that Sitting Bull would join this movement and increase its numbers. On December 10, 1890 they ordered his arrest. When he resisted, one of his band fired at the arresting officer, who in turn shot Sitting Bull. A firefight ensued and left 8 men dead from each side.
Sitting Bull. D.F. Barry. 1885.
Many of Sitting Bull’s band fled to the camp of a well known Minneconjou Lakota leader named Spotted Elk on the Cheyenne River Reservation. Fearing conflict with the US Army, Spotted Elk reached out to the Oglala Lakota Chief, Red Cloud, who invited the band to take refuge with him on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The band was intercepted by Major Samuel Whiteside leading a detachment of the 7th Cavalry. Spotted Elk surrendered peacefully and allowed his band to be escorted to a camp by Wounded Knee Creek. That night Colonel James Forsyth arrived and positioned 4 cannons around the camp. The next morning Forsyth and his soldiers ordered the band to disarm. One Lakota man refused, resulting in a gunfight that escalated into a massacre that claimed the lives of over 200 Native people, many of them women, children, and unarmed men.
Initially reported as a battle in which the US Army emerged victorious, more accurate reports soon surfaced and elicited more conflicted reactions from the American public, and even some soldiers. While many view the Wounded Knee massacre as a tragedy born of a communication breakdown, others believe it was a calculated act of vengeance by the 7th Cavalry for the slaughter of Custer’s unit at Little Bighorn. As with so much history of the so-called “Indian Wars,” there is little evidence and many stories.
Sources:
Sioux- Dominican University
A Sioux Chief’s Arrest- Rock Island Auction
Sitting Bull- Canadian Encyclopedia
A Dark Day: Massacre at Wounded Knee- South Dakota Public Broadcasting
Spotted Elk- Aktá Lakota Museum and Cultural Center