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"Now," said he, "I
have armed him, for I will not see a brave man killed unarmed. I
will strike him again with my coup-staff to count the first feather;
who will count the econd?"
Again he led the
charge, and this time they all followed him. Sitting
Bull was severely wounded by his own gun in the hands of the
enemy, who was killed by those that came after him. This is a
record that so far as I know was never made by any other warrior.
The second incident
that made him well known was his taking of a boy captive in battle
with the Assiniboines. He saved this boy's life and adopted him
as his brother. Hohay, as he was called, was devoted to
Sitting
Bull and helped much in later years to spread his fame.
Sitting
Bull was a born diplomat, a ready speaker, and in middle life he
ceased to go upon the warpath, to become the councilor of his people.
From this time on, this man represented him in all important battles,
and upon every brave deed done was wont to exclaim aloud: "I,
Sitting
Bull's boy, do this in his name!"
He had a nephew, now
living, who resembles him strongly, and who also represented him
personally upon the field; and so far as there is any remnant left of
his immediate band, they look upon this man One Bull as their chief.
When
Sitting
Bull was a boy, there was no thought of trouble with the whites.
He was acquainted with many of the early traders, Picotte, Choteau,
Primeau, Larpenteur, and others, and liked them, as did most of his
people in those days. All the early records show this friendly
attitude of the
Sioux, and
the great fur companies for a century and a half depended upon them
for the bulk of their trade. It was not until the middle of the
last century that they woke up all of a sudden to the danger
threatening their very existence. Yet at that time many of the
old chiefs had been already depraved by the whisky and other vices of
the whites, and in the vicinity of the forts and trading posts at
Sioux
City, Saint Paul, and Cheyenne, there was general demoralization.
The drunkards and hangers-on were ready to sell almost anything they
had for the favor of the trader. The better and stronger element
held aloof. They would not have anything of the white man except
his hatchet, gun, and knife. They utterly refused to cede their
lands; and as for the rest, they were willing to let him alone as long
as he did not interfere with their life and customs, which was not
long.
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It was not, however, the
Unkpapa band of
Sioux,
Sitting Bull's band, which first took up arms against the whites; and
this was not because they had come less in contact with them, for they
dwelt on the Missouri River, the natural highway of trade. As early
as
1854, the Ogallalas and
Brules had trouble with the soldiers near Fort Laramie; and again in 1857
Inkpaduta massacred several families of settlers at Spirit Lake, Iowa.
Finally, in 1869, the Minnesota
Sioux, goaded
by many wrongs, arose and murdered many of the settlers, afterward fleeing
into the country of the Unkpapas and appealing to them for help, urging
that all
Indians should make common cause against the invader. This
brought
Sitting Bull face to face with a question which was not yet fully
matured in his own mind; but having satisfied himself of the justice of
their cause, he joined forces with the renegades during the summer of
1863, and from this time on he was an acknowledged leader.
In 1865 and 1866 he met
the Canadian half-breed, Louis Riel, instigator of two rebellions, who had
come across the line for safety; and in fact at this time he harbored a
number of outlaws and fugitives from justice. His conversations with
these, especially with the French mixed-bloods, who inflamed his
prejudices against the Americans, all had their influence in making of the
wily Sioux a
determined enemy to the white man. While among his own people he was
always affable and genial, he became boastful and domineering in his
dealings with the hated race. He once remarked that "if we wish to
make any impression upon the pale-face, it is necessary to put on his
mask."
Sitting Bull joined in the attack
on Fort Phil Kearny and in the subsequent hostilities; but he accepted in
good faith the treaty of 1868, and soon after it was signed he visited
Washington with
Red Cloud and
Spotted Tail,
on which occasion the three distinguished chiefs attracted much attention
and were entertained at dinner by President Grant and other notables. He
considered that the life of the white man as he saw it was no life for his
people, but hoped by close adherence to the terms of this treaty to
preserve the
Bighorn
and
Black Hills country for a
permanent hunting ground. When gold was discovered and the
irrepressible gold seekers made their historic dash across the plains into
this forbidden paradise, then his faith in the white man's honor was gone
forever, and he took his final and most persistent stand in defense of his
nation and home. His bitter and at the same time well-grounded and
philosophical dislike of the conquering race is well expressed in a speech
made before the purely
Indian
council before referred to, upon the Powder River. I will give it in
brief as it has been several times repeated to me by men who were present.
"Behold, my friends, the
spring is come; the earth has gladly received the embraces of the sun, and
we shall soon see the results of their love! Every seed is awakened,
and all animal life. It is through this mysterious power that we too
have our being, and we therefore yield to our neighbors, even to our
animal neighbors, the same right as ourselves to inhabit this vast land.
"Yet hear me, friends! we
have now to deal with another people, small and feeble when our
forefathers first met with them, but now great and overbearing.
Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of
possessions is a disease in them. These people have made many rules that
the rich may break, but the poor may not! They have a religion in
which the poor worship, but the rich will not! They even take tithes
of the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule. They
claim this mother of ours, the Earth, for their own use, and fence their
neighbors away from her, and deface her with their buildings and their
refuse. They compel her to produce out of season, and when sterile she is
made to take medicine in order to produce again. All this is
sacrilege."
"This nation is like a
spring freshet; it overruns its banks and destroys all who are in its
path. We cannot dwell side by side. Only seven years ago we
made a treaty by which we were assured that the buffalo country should be
left to us forever. Now they threaten to take that from us also.
My brothers, shall we submit? or shall we say to them: 'First kill me,
before you can take possession of my fatherland!"
As
Sitting Bull
spoke, so he felt, and he had the courage to stand by his words.
Crazy Horse
led his forces in the field; as for him, he applied his energies to state
affairs, and by his strong and aggressive personality contributed much to
holding the hostiles together.
It may be said without
fear of contradiction that
Sitting Bull
never killed any women or children. He was a fair fighter, and while
not prominent in battle after his young manhood, he was the brains of the
Sioux
resistance. He has been called a "medicine man" and a "dreamer."
Strictly speaking, he was neither of these, and the white historians are
prone to confuse the two. A medicine man is a doctor or healer; a
dreamer is an active war prophet who leads his war party according to his
dream or prophecy. What is called by whites "making medicine" in war
time is again a wrong conception. Every warrior carries a bag of
sacred or lucky charms, supposed to protect the wearer alone, but it has
nothing to do with the success or safety of the party as a whole. No
one can make any "medicine" to affect the result of a battle, although it
has been said that
Sitting Bull
did this at the battle of the
Little Big
Horn.
When
Custer
and Reno attacked the camp at both ends, the chief was caught napping.
The village was in danger of surprise, and the women and children must be
placed in safety. Like other men of his age,
Sitting Bull
got his family together for flight, and then joined the warriors on the
Reno side of the attack. Thus he was not in the famous charge
against
Custer;
nevertheless, his voice was heard exhorting the warriors throughout that
day.
During the autumn of
1876, after the fall of
Custer,
Sitting Bull
was hunted all through the Yellowstone region by the military. The
following characteristic letter, doubtless written at his dictation by a
half-breed interpreter, was sent to Colonel Otis immediately after a
daring attack upon his wagon train.
"I want to know what you are doing, traveling
on this road. You scare all the buffalo away. I want to hunt in this
place. I want you to turn back from here. If you don't, I will
fight you again. I want you to leave what you have got here and turn
back from here.
I am your friend,
Sitting Bull.
I mean all the rations you have got and some
powder. Wish you would write me as soon as you can."
Otis, however, kept on
and joined
Colonel Miles, who followed
Sitting Bull
with about four hundred soldiers. He overtook him at last on Cedar
Creek, near the Yellowstone, and the two met midway between the lines for
a parley. The army report says: "Sitting
Bull wanted peace in his own way." The truth was that he wanted
nothing more than had been guaranteed to them by the treaty of 1868 -- the
exclusive possession of their last hunting ground. This the
government was not now prepared to grant, as it had been decided to place
all the
Indians under military control upon the various reservations. |
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