Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull. . , Born in the Grand River Valley in what is now South Dakota, Sitting Bull, or Tatanka Yotanka, received early recognition from his tribe as a warrior and man of vision. During his youth he joined in the usual tribe as a warrior and man of vision. When the defeated Indians were driven west to the plains, he heard from them what life was like on a reservation. In July 1864, it was during this period that Sitting Bull formed his resolve to keep his people away from the white man's world and never to sign a treaty that would force them on a reservation. With other Sioux leaders he soon took his followers to the pristine valleys of the Powder and Yellowstone Rivers where buffalo and other game were abundant. During this time, Red Cloud of the Oglala sub-tribe was the leader of the Tetons, but Sitting Bull's influence as a holy man was growing. Beginning in the summer of 1865 columns of U.S. soldiers repeatedly invaded the Powder River country. After Red Cloud signed the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, and then agreed to live on a reservation, his influence waned. Sitting Bull's disdain for treaties and reservation life soon attracted a large following not only from the Sioux, but from the Cheyenne and Arapaho. In 1873, he and Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer skirmished briefly while Custer was guarding surveyors for the Northern Pacific Railroad in Montana Territory. Three years later they met again on the Little Bighorn in the battle that made both men famous. Although Sitting Bull survived, an aroused and vengeful army forced him to flee to Canada. In 1881 he returned to the United States, surrendered, and was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Randall, South Dakota Territory. After two years, he was permitted to live on Standing Rock Reservation where he continued to use his influence to keep Sioux lands from being taken by the government. In 1885 he traveled for a season with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. The rise of the Ghost Dance, a tribal religion that proclaimed that all white people would disappear and dead Indians and buffalo would return, brought him into disfavor with government officials in 1890 because he made no effort to stop the dancing at Standing Rock. When Indian police were sent to arrest him on December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull was killed in a melee outside his cabin.