Sitting Bull, spiritual leader and war chief of the Hunkpapa band of the Sioux
In 1880,
Sitting Bull leads his ailing band of Hunkpapa to surrender at Fort
Buford in the Dakota Territory, a few miles east of the confluence
of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers. From there they
traveled to their reservation at Standing Rock, and for five years
Sitting Bull traveled with Wild Bill Cody's Wild West
show.
The colorful
leader was a favorite among the eastern press and was often quoted
for his eloquence of speech. "When I was a boy the Lakota
owned the world," he was fond of saying. "The sun rose and
set on our land. Where are the warriors today? Who slew
them? Where are our lands? Who owns them? What
law have I broken? Is it wrong for me to love my own? Is it
wicked for me because my skin is red, or because I would die for my
people and my country?"
In 1890,
Sitting Bull would be killed in a shoot-out with tribal policemen
(of his own tribe) on the Standing Rock Reservation in south
central North Dakota.
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