Sitting Bull Research Paper

On June 25, 1876, The Battle of Little Bighorn took place near the Black Hills in Montana. This was one of the most controversial battles of the 20th century and the line between good guys and bad guys was grey at best. Gen. George Armstrong Custer (reduced to LTC after the civil war) had 366 men of the 7thU.S. Cavalry under his command that day. Sitting Bull (A Medicine Man) led 2000 braves of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes (Klos, 2013). At the conclusion of the battle, the stories of the Indians savagery were used to demonize their culture and there were no survivors from the 7thcavalry to tell what really happened.

Most of the women and children in Big Foot's tribe were family members of the warriors who had died in the Plains wars. The Indians had agreed to live on small reservations after the US government took away their land. At the Wounded Knee camp, there were 120 men and 230 women and children. At the camp, they were guarded by the US Seventh Cavalry lead by Major Samuel Whitside. During the year 1890 a new dance called the Ghost Dance started among the Sioux and other tribes. The Sioux's Christ figure, Wovoka, was said to have flown over Sitting Bull and Short Bull and taught them the dance and the songs. The Ghost Dance legend was that the next spring, when the grass was high, the Earth would be covered with a new layer of soil, covering all white men. Wild buffalo and horses would return and there would be swift running water, sweet grass, and new trees. All Indians who danced the Ghost dance would be floating in the air when the new soil was being laid down and would be saved. The Ghost Dance was made illegal after the Wounded Knee massacre though. On December 28, 1890 the Seventh Cavalry saw Big Foot moving his tribe and Big

George Armstrong Custer was a United States cavalry officer who served with distinction in the American Civil War and was the youngest ever brevet brigadier general at age twenty-three (History.com Staff, 2009). Custer had various disciplinary issues throughout his career ranging from abandoning his post for romantic reasons to leaving the field without searching for a slain reconnaissance unit (History.com Staff, 2009). His expedition in 1874 that led to the discovery of gold, was in violation of the treaty of 1868 wherein the Black Hills were recognized to belong to the Sioux Nation. Custer was known to have a reckless temperament and was often at odds with superior officers. Nevertheless, as a Lieutenant Colonel assigned to the Seventh Cavalry Regiment out of Fort Riley, Kansas, Custer was tasked to lead the force against Sitting Bull’s alliance (History.com Staff, 2009).

In 1854 Curly visited the Brules' camp with his tribe. There he was introduced to the Brule Chief Conquering Bear. While visiting, a young Brule warrior shot an old near death cow belonging to a man from a Mormon wagon train. The Mormon was furious and demanded the warrior be turned over. Conquering Bear refused and soon Second Leuteneant John Grattan, 29 soldiers, two Howitzer cannons, and an interpreter were sent to retrieve the young Indian. Conquering Bear still refused to turn him over. During all of this Curly is watching atop a cliff. The soldiers began firing into the Brule camp. Conquering Bear fell to the ground mortally wounded (McMurtry 48-62).

Andrew Jackson has gone down as one of the best presidents in United States history and that’s because he did many great things to improve the United States. Throughout his presidency he constantly abused his power as the president and did many things that expanded the powers of the president. One of the biggest things that President Jackson did while in office was pass the Indian Removal Act. The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was when Jackson forced all the Indians to move to the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase, while the Supreme Court declared this unconstitutional. Many of the Indians went peacefully, but many of the Indians also decided to protest and take it to the Supreme Court (Darrenkamp). While the court did side with the Indians Jackson and Congress forced the Indians to give up their land. The federal troops were called in to escort the Indians to their new land. Fifteen thousand Indians were forced to move and while on their way about a third of the Indians died, and this event became to be known as the Trail of Tears (Darrenkamp). Jackson had

After the Sioux signed the peace treaty the soldiers wanted to take more of their land, they had forced the Sioux out f their own land, the Sioux had to move to the reservations instead. Sitting Bull once again joined with the other Sioux chiefs in 1876, to fight back and get their land back from the government. Together the tribes fought back against the government to take back

Sitting bull was born in 1831 in the Dakota Territory. It was common for people of the Lakota tribe to have many names throughout their life. Sitting Bull’s first name given to him was Jumping Badger. Later his name was changed “Tatanka-Iyotanka.” This is a term that describes a buffalo bull sitting on its back haunches showing aggression and its reluctance to back down. Throughout his life he would live up to this name. Sitting Bull was only 14 years old when he experienced his first battle. This battle was a raid on the Crow, another Indian tribe that was enemies with the Sioux. He was appointed chief of the Lakota in 1857. His first encounter with American soldiers was in

The reservation was also the place where the Battle of Wounded Knee occurred (“History of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation”). As the Ghost Dance movement grew in strength and popularity, so did the uneasiness of the United States government. Sitting Bull was captured and killed. The U.S. 7th Cavalry attacked Black Elk’s Sioux encampment, killing 200 men, women, and children. Black Elk also experienced the poverty and starvation forced upon them by the policies of the U.S. government (“Black Elk”). The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 guaranteed land to the Great Sioux Nation. This was cut down to create the present day Pine Ridge Reservation (Martinez).

After moving 42 miles in three days, Custer realized that “directly west, in his front, are the very Indians the columns [were] searching for.” He massed his forces and deployed scouts to confirm the enemy's position. Before dawn on June 25th, they found “6,000 to 7,000 natives . . . encamped about 15 miles away . . . in the expansive Little Bighorn Valley.” Post-battle analysis confirmed “at least 2,000 warriors” in a settlement that “cover[ed] nearly two miles.” During this reconnaissance, Custer believed the enemy had discovered his column, and hastily began his attack, “fearing the natives might escape.”

Prior to Jackson’s presidency, wherein the great majority of well-known Jackson-driven atrocities against the Natives occur, Jackson proved to be a monster for the Natives. After the Creek War, Jackson happily punished the Creeks, whether they be friend or foe. The Creek War was originally an internal conflict between two subsets of the Creek people, but Jackson saw this as an opportunity to force the Natives to cede land. Much of the conflict was between the Lower Creeks, whom Jackson would eventually “ally” with, and the Upper Creeks, A.K.A. the Red Sticks, who, unlike the Lower Creeks, were highly opposed to the U.S. encroachment and subsequent assimilation.

His reputation grew to that Crazy Horse was getting recognized as a leader. This was even more defined when he was selected to lead a group of nine other Indians to lead as a decoy for an ambush. After he had successfully lead the solders five miles to the site, Crazy Horse was labeled as a leader. But he was yet in a position to influence the older leaders.

Sitting Bull had many jobs to do as the chief of his tribe. One of his careers was to be the Sash Wearer, the leader of a group called the Strong Hearts. The Strong Hearts were a group of Sioux chiefs. They were in charge of the safety of the Sioux. (Black, 26) Later in his life he went on tour with Buffalo Bill on the Wild West show. He enjoyed it but he got homesick and went back to South Dakota to be with his family. (Black, 115)

Cavalier in Buckskin, a book about George Armstrong Custer’s life up until his death on June 25, 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn, taught me many things about how Custer lived and acted. It also taught me a lot about Custers personality in battle which made me come to the conclusion that he was a very confident man in what he did and how he fought his battles which in turn possibly could have ended his life because overconfidence can be deadly.

Sitting Bull was a 'Wichaska Wakan', a holy man, he saw things in visions and in dreams and what he saw came true. He could predict the

Crazy Horse was brutally murdered and the Sioux surrendered (“Battle”). In 1890 the government learned that the Native Americans were doing the Ghost Dance (Cayton 265). The Ghost Dance was a ritual in which people join hands and twirled in a circle (Cayton 265). When the government saw the Ghost Dance, they thought the Native Americans were crazy and trying to rebel, so they tried to arrest Sitting Bull (Cayton 265). In this conflict that came to be known as the Battle of Wounded Knee, soldiers killed Sitting Bull, 120 men, and 230 women and children (Cayton 265). These battles pushed Native Americans onto reservations and took away their basic human rights.