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It is not easy to
characterize
Sitting
Bull, of all
Sioux
chiefs most generally known to the American people. There are
few to whom his name is not familiar, and still fewer who have learned
to connect it with anything more than the conventional notion of a
bloodthirsty savage. The man was an enigma at best. He was
not impulsive, nor was he phlegmatic. He was most serious when
he seemed to be jocose. He was gifted with the power of sarcasm,
and few have used it more artfully than he.
His father was one of
the best-known members of the Unkpapa band of
Sioux.
The manner of this man's death was characteristic. One day, when the
Unkpapas were attacked by a large war party of Crows, he fell upon the
enemy's war leader with his knife. In a hand-to-hand combat of
this sort, we count the victor as entitled to a war bonnet of trailing
plumes. It means certain death to one or both. In this
case, both men dealt a mortal stroke, and Jumping Buffalo, the father
of
Sitting Bull, fell from his saddle and died in a few minutes.
The other died later from the effects of the wound.
Sitting
Bull's boyhood must have been a happy one. It was long after
the day of the dog-travaux, and his father owned many ponies of
variegated colors. It was said of him in a joking way that his
legs were bowed like the ribs of the ponies that he rode constantly
from childhood. He had also a common nickname that was much to
the point. It was "Hunkeshnee", which means "Slow", referring to
his inability to run fast, or more probably to the fact that he seldom
appeared on foot. In their boyish games he was wont to take the
part of the "old man", but this does not mean that he was not active
and brave. It is told that after a buffalo hunt the boys were
enjoying a mimic hunt with the calves that had been left behind.
A large calf turned viciously on
Sitting
Bull, whose pony had thrown him, but the alert youth got hold of
both ears and struggled until the calf was pushed back into a buffalo
wallow in a sitting posture. The boys shouted: "He has subdued
the buffalo calf! He made it sit down!" And from this
incident was derived his familiar name of
Sitting
Bull.
It is a mistake to suppose that
Sitting
Bull or any other
Indian warrior, was of a murderous disposition. It is true
that savage warfare had grown more and more harsh and cruel since the
coming of white traders among them, bringing guns, knives, and whisky.
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Yet it was still regarded
largely as a sort of game, undertaken in order to develop the manly
qualities of their youth. It was the degree of risk which brought honor,
rather than the number slain, and a brave must mourn thirty days, with
blackened face and loosened hair, for the enemy whose life he had taken.
While the spoils of war were allowed, this did not extend to territorial
aggrandizement, nor was there any wish to overthrow another nation and
enslave its people. It was a point of honor in the old days to treat
a captive with kindness. The common impression that the
Indian
is naturally cruel and revengeful is entirely opposed to his philosophy
and training. The revengeful tendency of the
Indian
was aroused by the white man. It is not the natural
Indian
who is mean and tricky; not Massasoit but King Philip; not Attackullakulla
but Weatherford; not Wabashaw but Little Crow; not Jumping Buffalo but
Sitting Bull!
These men lifted their hands against the white man, while their fathers
held theirs out to him with gifts.
Remember that there were
councils which gave their decisions in accordance with the highest ideal
of human justice before there were any cities on this continent; before
there were bridges to span the Mississippi; before this network of
railroads was dreamed of! There were primitive communities upon the
very spot where Chicago or New York City now stands, where men were as
children, innocent of all the crimes now committed there daily and
nightly. True morality is more easily maintained in connection with the
simple life. You must accept the truth that you demoralize any race
whom you have subjugated.
From this point of view
we shall consider
Sitting
Bull's career. We say he is an untutored man: that is true so
far as learning of a literary type is concerned; but he was not an
untutored man when you view him from the standpoint of his nation. To be
sure, he did not learn his lessons from books. This is second-hand
information at best. All that he learned he verified for himself and
put into daily practice. In personal appearance he was rather
commonplace and made no immediate impression, but as he talked he seemed
to take hold of his hearers more and more. He was bull-headed; quick
to grasp a situation, and not readily induced to change his mind. He
was not suspicious until he was forced to be so. All his meaner
traits were inevitably developed by the events of his later career.
Sitting
Bull's history has been written many times by newspaper men and army
officers, but I find no account of him which is entirely correct. I
met him personally in 1884, and since his death I have gone thoroughly
into the details of his life with his relatives and contemporaries.
It has often been said that he was a physical coward and not a warrior.
Judge of this for yourselves from the deed which first gave him fame in
his own tribe, when he was about twenty-eight years old.
In an attack upon a band of Crow
Indians,
one of the enemy took his stand, after the rest had fled, in a deep ditch
from which it seemed impossible to dislodge him. The situation had
already cost the lives of several warriors, but they could not let him go
to repeat such a boast over the
Sioux!
Continued
Next Page
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Sitting Bull,
courtesy Library of Congress
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