Sitting Bull

He was called Slow — Huŋkesni — because he did nothing quickly, and it was not an insult. His parents had named him Jumping Badger. The sources put his birth somewhere between 1831 and 1837 along the Grand River, though his great-grandson, working from family memory, places it on the Yellowstone instead. At about 14 he rode out ahead of a raiding party and counted coup on a startled Crow warrior in front of witnesses, and his father marked it with a feast, an eagle feather, a horse, a hardened buffalo-hide shield, and his own name. From that day the son was Thathaŋka Iyotake and the father was Jumping Bull. In 1864 a soldier's bullet went through his left hip and out the small of his back.

From 1865 to 1868 he led war parties against Forts Berthold, Stevenson and Buford, and when the treaty came he would not sign it — he told a Jesuit sent to persuade him that he did not propose to sell any part of his country. In 1872 and 1873 his Hunkpapa turned back the crews surveying the Northern Pacific line across their land. What followed at the Little Bighorn, and what the Army did about it afterward, BriefHistory tells in full. This page is about the man the Army never managed to read.

Hunger brought him back. On July 19, 1881, he crossed into the United States with 186 followers and had his young son Crow Foot hand the rifle to the commander at Fort Buford, saying he wished it remembered that he was the last man of his tribe to give one up. The Army then loaded 172 of them onto a steamboat down the Missouri and held them at Fort Randall as prisoners of war for 20 months. What he was, exactly, is disputed. Stanley Vestal, interviewing surviving Hunkpapa in 1930, reported that the nations had made him supreme chief of all the Sioux. Later historians and ethnologists reject the title, because Lakota society was decentralized and bands decided for themselves whether to fight.

His cabin on the Grand River was shipped to Chicago, where it stood as an exhibit at the 1893 world's fair. His body stayed at Fort Yates until 1953, when Lakota family members, working with boosters from Mobridge, South Dakota, crossed the state line after midnight and carried off what they believed were his remains for reburial near his birthplace. A monument went up over them. The Postal Service put him on a stamp in 1989 and Standing Rock College took his name in 1996. In October 2021 a Copenhagen geneticist matched DNA from a lock of his hair to Ernie LaPointe and his three sisters, confirming in a laboratory a descent the family had asserted for decades.

Sitting Bull's life against the full span of the corpus.

• Refusal of the Treaty of Fort Laramie other
  Other Hunkpapa signed at Fort Rice. He would not, and said he would sell no part of his country. 1868
• Resistance to the Northern Pacific survey mission
  Hunkpapa parties forced the railroad survey crews off Lakota land two years running 1873
• The alliance encampment on the Little Bighorn other
  The largest gathering of Plains fighters ever assembled 1876
• The exile at Wood Mountain mission
  He led his band into Canada rather than surrender, and stayed four years 1877
• Season with Buffalo Bill's Wild West other
  Four months at about 50 dollars a week. He charged for autographs and gave much of it away. 1885

• c. 1845 aged ~14 Counts coup on a Crow warrior and receives his father's name His father gave a feast, an eagle feather, a horse and a buffalo-hide shield, and took the name Jumping Bull.
• September 1864 aged 27 Shot through the left hip attacking a wagon party in the Badlands The bullet came out at the small of his back.
• July 2, 1868 aged 30 The Fort Laramie treaty is signed at Fort Rice without him Gall and other Hunkpapa representatives signed. Sitting Bull refused.
• 1872 aged ~41 Attacks the Northern Pacific survey party and forces it to turn back
• June 25, 1876 aged 38 The 7th Cavalry rides into the valley of the Little Bighorn
• May 1877 aged 39 Leads his band north to Wood Mountain rather than surrender
• July 19, 1881 aged 43 Surrenders at Fort Buford with 186 followers He had his son Crow Foot hand over the rifle. The band was then held at Fort Randall for 20 months.
• 1884 aged ~53 Meets Annie Oakley in Minnesota and adopts her as Little Sure Shot He paid 65 dollars to have the two of them photographed together.
• December 15, 1890 aged 53 Shot by Standing Rock policemen during an attempt to arrest him Fourteen men died at the house within minutes, including the officer who fired first.

• Crazy Horse 1840–1877
  Oglala Lakota war leader who played a major role in resistance to U.S. military expansion on the northern plains. fought alongside
• Red Cloud 1822–1909
  Oglala Lakota leader whose successful resistance forced the United States to abandon forts along the Bozeman Trail. supported his war
• Chief Joseph 1840–1904
  Nez Perce leader remembered for resistance to forced removal and eloquent advocacy for his people. made the same run for Canada
• Geronimo 1829–1909
  Apache leader whose prolonged resistance became a powerful symbol of Indigenous opposition to U.S. expansion. the same campaign in the south
• Ulysses S. Grant 1822–1885
  18th President and Union Army general whose leadership was decisive in winning the Civil War. ordered the bands onto the reservation
• William Tecumseh Sherman 1820–1891
  Union general whose campaigns through Georgia and the Carolinas helped destroy the Confederacy’s capacity to wage war. commanded the army against him