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Since it was impossible to reconcile two such conflicting demands, the
hostiles were driven about from pillar to post for several more years, and
finally took refuge across the line in Canada, where
Sitting Bull
had placed his last hope of justice and freedom for his race. Here
he was joined from time to time by parties of malcontents from the
reservation, driven largely by starvation and ill-treatment to seek
another home. Here, too, they were followed by United States
commissioners, headed by
General Terry, who endeavored to
persuade him to return, promising abundance of food and fair treatment,
despite the fact that the exiles were well aware of the miserable
condition of the "good
Indians"
upon the reservations. He first refused to meet them at all, and
only did so when advised to that effect by Major Walsh of the Canadian
mounted police. This was his characteristic remark: "If you have one
honest man in Washington, send him here and I will talk to him."
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Sitting Bull
with Buffalo
Bill Cody, courtesy
Library of Congress
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Sitting
Bull was not moved by fair words; but when he found that if they
had liberty on that side, they had little else, that the Canadian
government would give them protection but no food; that the
buffalo had been all but exterminated and his starving people were
already beginning to desert him, he was compelled at last, in 1881, to
report at Fort Buford,
North
Dakota, with his band of hungry, homeless, and discouraged
refugees. It was, after all, to hunger and not to the strong arm
of the military that he surrendered in the end.
In spite of the
invitation that had been extended to him in the name of the "Great
Father" at Washington, he was immediately thrown into a military
prison, and afterward handed over to
Colonel
Cody ("Buffalo Bill") as an advertisement for his "Wild West
Show." After traveling for several years with the famous showman,
thus increasing his knowledge of the weaknesses as well as the
strength of the white man, the deposed and humiliated chief settled
down quietly with his people upon the Standing Rock agency in
North
Dakota, where his immediate band occupied the Grand River district
and set to raising cattle and horses. They made good progress;
much better, in fact, than that of the "coffee-coolers" or "loafer"
Indians, received the missionaries kindly and were soon a church-going
people.
When the Commissions
of 1888 and 1889 came to treat with the
Sioux for
a further cession of land and a reduction of their reservations,
nearly all were opposed to consent on any terms. Nevertheless,
by hook or by crook, enough signatures were finally obtained to carry
the measure through, although it is said that many were those of women
and the so-called "squaw-men", who had no rights in the land. At
the same time, rations were cut down, and there was general hardship
and dissatisfaction.
Crazy
Horse was long since
dead;
Spotted Tail had fallen at the hands of one of his own tribe;
Red Cloud had become a
feeble old man, and the disaffected among the
Sioux
began once more to look to
Sitting
Bull for leadership.
At this crisis a strange thing happened. A
half-breed
Indian in
Nevada
promulgated the news that the Messiah had appeared to him upon a peak
in the Rockies, dressed in rabbit skins, and bringing a message to the
red race. The message was to the effect that since his first
coming had been in vain, since the white people had doubted and
reviled him, had nailed him to the cross, and trampled upon his
doctrines, he had come again in pity to save the
Indian. He declared that he would cause the earth to shake and to
overthrow the cities of the whites and destroy them, that the
buffalo would return, and the land belong to the red race forever!
These events were to come to pass within two years; and meanwhile they
were to prepare for his coming by the ceremonies and dances which he
commanded.
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This curious story spread like wildfire and
met with eager acceptance among the suffering and discontented people.
The teachings of Christian missionaries had prepared them to believe in a
Messiah, and the prescribed ceremonial was much more in accord with their
traditions than the conventional worship of the churches. Chiefs of
many tribes sent delegations to the
Indian
prophet; Short Bull, Kicking Bear, and others went from among the
Sioux, and on
their return all inaugurated the dances at once. There was an attempt at
first to keep the matter secret, but it soon became generally known and
seriously disconcerted the
Indian
agents and others, who were quick to suspect a hostile conspiracy under
all this religious enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, there was no
thought of an uprising; the dancing was innocent enough, and pathetic
enough their despairing hope in a pitiful Saviour who should overwhelm
their oppressors and bring back their golden age.
When the
Indians
refused to give up the "Ghost
Dance" at the bidding of the authorities, the growing suspicion and
alarm focused upon
Sitting Bull,
who in spirit had never been any too submissive, and it was determined to
order his arrest. At the special request of Major McLaughlin, agent
at Standing Rock, forty of his
Indian
police were sent out to
Sitting
Bull's home on Grand River to secure his person (followed at some
little distance by a body of United States troops for reinforcement, in
case of trouble). These police are enlisted from among the tribesmen
at each agency, and have proved uniformly brave and faithful. They
entered the cabin at daybreak, aroused the chief from a sound slumber,
helped him to dress, and led him unresisting from the house; but when he
came out in the gray dawn of that December morning in 1890, to find his
cabin surrounded by armed men and himself led away to he knew not what
fate, he cried out loudly: "They have taken me: what say you to it?"
Men poured out of the
neighboring houses, and in a few minutes the police were themselves
surrounded with an excited and rapidly increasing throng. They
harangued the crowd in vain;
Sitting
Bull's blood was up, and he again appealed to his men. His
adopted brother, the Assiniboine captive whose life he had saved so many
years before, was the first to fire. His shot killed Lieutenant Bull
Head, who held
Sitting Bull
by the arm. Then there was a short but sharp conflict, in which
Sitting Bull
and six of his defenders and six of the
Indian
police were slain, with many more wounded. The chief's young son,
Crow Foot, and his devoted "brother" died with him. When all was
over, and the terrified people had fled precipitately across the river,
the soldiers appeared upon the brow of the long hill and fired their
Hotchkiss guns into the deserted camp.
Thus ended the life of a
natural strategist of no mean courage and ability. The great chief
was buried without honors outside the cemetery at the post, and for some
years the grave was marked by a mere board at its head. Recently
some women have built a cairn of rocks there in token of respect and
remembrance.
~~~~~~~~~
In 1953,
Sitting
Bull's remains were moved to Mobridge,
South Dakota
where he is honored with an appropriate monument. Overlooking the
Missouri
River near his home, he is remembered among the
Lakota
not only as an inspirational leader and fearless warrior, but also as a
loving father, a spiritual man, and always a person that was friendly to
others.
April, 2005 |
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Excerpted from the book Indian Heroes and Great Chieftains, by
Charles A. Eastman, 1918. (now in the public domain)
Charles A. Eastman earned a medical degree from Boston University School
of Medicine in 1890, and then began working for the Office of
Indian
Affairs later that year. He worked at the Pine Ridge Agency,
South Dakota,
and was an eyewitness to both events leading up to and following the
Wounded Knee Massacre of December 29, 1890. Himself part-Sioux,
he knew many of the people about whom he wrote.
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Sitting Bull
when older, courtesy Library of Congress
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