Sitting Bull, c.1831–1890, Native American chief, Sioux leader in the battle of the Little Bighorn. He rose to prominence in the Sioux warfare against the whites and the resistance of the Native Americans under his command to forced settlement on a reservation led to a punitive expedition. In the course of the resistance occurred the Native American victory on the Little Bighorn, where George Armstrong Custer Custer, George Armstrong, 1839–76, American army officer, b. New Rumley, Ohio, grad. West Point, 1861.

Civil War Service

Custer fought in the Civil War at the first battle of Bull Run , distinguished himself as a member of General McClellan's
..... Click the link for more information. and his men were defeated and killed on June 25, 1876. Sitting Bull and some of his followers escaped to Canada, but returned (1881) on a promise of a pardon and were settled on a reservation. In 1885 he appeared in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, but his championship of the Native American cause was not at an end. He encouraged the Sioux to refuse to sell their lands, and he advocated the ghost dance religion. He was killed by Native American police on a charge of resisting arrest. He was buried in North Dakota, but in 1954 his remains were removed to South Dakota.

Bibliography

See J. M. Carroll, ed., The Arrest and Killing of Sitting Bull: A Documentary (1986); biographies by S. Vestal (rev. ed. 1957, repr. 1972); A. B. Adams (1973); K. B. Smith (1987).

Sitting Bull

(born c. 1831, near Grand River, Dakota Territory, U.S.—died Dec. 15, 1890, on the Grand River in South Dakota) Teton Sioux chief under whom the Sioux peoples united in their struggle for survival. Frequent skirmishes between the U.S. Army and Sitting Bull's warriors occurred in 1863–68, at the end of which the Sioux agreed to accept a reservation in southwestern Dakota Territory. When gold was discovered in the Black Hills in the mid-1870s, further outbreaks occurred. At the Battle of the Rosebud, troops under Gen. George Crook were forced to retreat; and at the Battle of Little Bighorn, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his men were killed. In 1877 Sitting Bull led his followers into Canada, but, with the buffalo reduced to near extinction, starvation eventually drove the Sioux to surrender. From 1883 Sitting Bull lived on Indian Agency lands, at one point (1885) traveling with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. During the Ghost Dance movement, Sitting Bull was arrested. He was killed when his warriors tried to rescue him.

Sitting Bull (b. Tatanka Yotanka) (?1831–90) Hunkpapa Sioux leader and medicine man; born on the Grand River in S.D. Even as a youth he was known among the Sioux as a warrior; by 1856 he headed the Strong Heart warrior society and in 1866 he became chief of the northern hunting Sioux. Bitterly opposed to white encroachment, he made peace with the U.S. government (1868) when it guaranteed him a large reservation free of white settlers. Following the discovery of gold in the Black Hills (1874), he joined with the Arapaho and Cheyenne to fight against the invaders. Although head of the war council, he remained in the encampment and performed a rite while his warriors defeated Col. George Custer's men at the Little Bighorn (1876). He and his followers attempted to move to Canada, but the Canadian government refused to accept them, and they returned to the U.S.A. in 1881. After serving a two-year imprisonment, he traveled with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show (1885–86). He was arrested for supporting the Ghost Dance movement and killed by Indian policemen—just prior to the battle of Wounded Knee.

Sitting Bull

(1831–1890) Indian chief who united the Sioux tribes against the white men. [Am. Hist.: EB, IX: 243–244]

See : Wild West