1881 - Detail

July 20, 1881 - Sioux chief Sitting Bull leads the final group of his tribe, still fugitive from the reservation, and surrenders to United States troops at Fort Buford, Montana.



Chief Sitting Bull, Tatankan Eyotanka, was Lakota Native American. No, he was not Sioux, not to the tribe. That was a word given to the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota tribes of the plains as if they were one by the white man. He would not adapt, in his early life all the way to the end of his life, to the ways of the white men who settled the territories. He would not accept the massacres and battles by the U.S. Army against his people. He, along with Chief Crazy Horse, took apart the cavalry under General George Armstrong Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876 and left no man alive. And no, he was not the perfect Native American hero. He was in the area of Little Bighorn fighting against other tribes who had been transplanted there during reservation treaties. He spent the next five years in Canada, fleeing westward chased by General Miles until he reached the border. Finally, in 1881, he was captured by Canadian authorities and remandered to the United States.

June 20th 1881, Hau Diary

This Anpetu Tokahe (Monday), the Lakota have finally surrendered to the white men. Maybe now, after four years of constant battle, my people will be able to have some relief. I had hoped to never submit to the snakelike white men, but my people are starving; I have no choice. Crying lol wah cheen (I am hungry) and mnee wah cheen (I am thirsty) constantly, I have realized that the white men have won. Commander Terry of the white men is forcing out people to move to the Standing Rock Reservation. Who knows what horrors lie there?

Doka, Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull was taken to Fort Buford as others in the Lakota were floated down the rivers on steamboats to Bismarck and Fort Yates. There, he and the tribe were put on the Standing Rock reservation as well as other reservations in the west.

Sitting Bull Before Little Bighorn

Sitting Bull, a name he gave himself in 1857 around the time he became a medicine man, was born near Grand River in 1834. He had been known before that as Jumping Badger or Four Horns, which was also his father's name. Sitting Bull was always an agitator, coupled together members of the Dakota Tetons with other tribes to engage in raids on trading posts and settlements, plus against the tribe of the Crows. He attacked Fort Buford in 1856, would not remain on the reservation, and became a target of General Sheridan as a hostile enemy of the U.S. Army.

December 2nd 1857: Hau Diary

This Anpety Wajan (Sunday), the chiefs have decided that I will be a tribal war chief, in addition to being the leader of the Strong Heart Warrior Society. I'm going to go and sacrifice one buffalo to the Wakan Tanka while the chiefs have decided to hold a sun dance in my honor. I thank the Wakan Tanka for this opportunity and I swear to my people that I will protect my people with honor and wacantoognaka (Generosity with the Heart.) I've also been mastering the sacred Lakota mysteries, and soon, I will become a holy man. Hopefully, I will become a great leader.

Doka, Sitting Bull.

June 16 1863: Hau Diary

The White Men have started invading into Lakota lands. I have repeated time and time again that if they left our people alone, the Lakota would leave them alone, but they never listen. Just like a snake, they offer us friendship but stab us in the back. Doe kay sh kay lay ay cha moo ktay hey (How do I do this)? I've been looking forward for an opportunity to display my bravery but I never expected that they would come faster than a hare. What does the Wakan Tanka have in store for us, I wonder? I have to travel to the Killdeer Mountain now. Maybe we'll run into some white men.

Doka, Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull After Fort Buford

With his life confined on various reservations, including Standing Rock, Sitting Bull raised a family, nine children, with two wives, both sisters, and looked for a way to escape. Finally, in 1883, at Fort Randal on the Missouri River, he was liberated, still hostile. Although he would retain his influence over the tribe, it was often contrary to their own good. He refused to accept the Treaty of 1888; and did the same in treaty negotiations in 1890. Stampeding from those meetings to live in the countryside with the other hostiles and ghost dancers, Chief Sitting Bull would be a key target for arrest again by the U.S. Army and Tribal Police.

December 13, 1890; Hau Diary

Kicking Bear's Ghost Dance has caused unrest among the Lakota peoples. I have let my people believe what they wanted, but I have not yet participated; I shall continue to devote my efforts to praying to the Wakan Tanka. Lakota hired to be policeman by the white men have slowly become more oppressive, and it's only sooner or later that they will arrest me. The white men have been able to divide us, when only a decade before, we were united. From now on, txun blays ya huh, txoe kata key ya, ma wah nee (I will work towards a future making good and sober decisions). However, I think this is the end of my story and the end of my people.

Woe ksue yea (In memory of those who died),
Sitting Bull

He would not go quietly. Near the Grand River, the Indian Police captured him in the middle of the night at a log house. Six members of the Indian Police were killed. Crow Foot, his son, and other hostiles also met their death. Sitting Bull died on December 15, 1890.

Near the end of his life, Sitting Bull would communicate with the Spirit World, and communicate to the Native American and white Europeans of the United States.

SITTING BULL'S MESSAGE.

Sitting Bull, the Chief, returneth.
Though a Spirit, he still yearneth
Over his beloved nation,
Still he feeleth obligation
Toward the Indian tribes and races;
Therefore he unto pale faces
Cometh, with strong words of pleading.
Through another interceding
For his hapless, hopeless brothers.
For the poor, dejected mothers
Who sit daily moaning, crying,
With their children round them dying.
Though his message he conveyeth
Through another, yet he prayeth
That the people who peruse it
Will not scoff at, or abuse it,
Will not say there is no merit
In the message of a Spirit
Through another brain transmitted.

The Great Father hath permitted
Those who pass beyond Death's portals
To approach their fellow mortals
And make known to them their feeling.
Thus comes Sitting Bull appealing,
Sending forth his supplication
To the chief men of the nation,
To the great men in high places,
That the Indian tribes and races
Be accorded fairer dealing,
This he asks with kindly feeling.
He for justice only, pleadeth,
That the bread his people needeth
To sustain them from starvation
Be supplied them by the nation.
From their lands have they been driven,
And with faces shrunken, shriven.
Have they wandered forth, unsightly,
Wandered daily, wandered nightly.
Vainly seeking for protection.
Oh! the sadness, the dejection
Of a race thus doomed to wander.
Sitting Bull long years did ponder
O'er the direful situation.
Oft he sat in contemplation,
Through the long night watches, lonely.

In his heart was one thought only,
How to lift the Indian nation,
From their woe and degradation.
He for light was ever calling;
Yet the darkness, so appalling.
Sent him back no answer'ng token.
All unrifted, all unbroken.
Did the heavy cloud hang o'er him.
Walk beside him, move before him.
Heavy was his heart with groaning.
Sore became his breast from moaning.
Sore and weary with his sighing.
When he saw his people dying
For the bread from them withholden.
It did all his thought embolden.
And within him woke the spirit
That the red man doth inherit
From his fathers gone before him.
Yea, it seemed they did bend o'er him,
And did whisper their monition
Urged him to demand rendition
Of the lands and bread belonging
To his people round him thronging.
This he sought, through arbitration.
To accomplish for his nation.
But the Government, unheeding.

Listened not unto his pleading;
Or, while listening, failed in action,
And he gained no satisfaction.
What remained then, O pale faces,
For the Indian tribes and races,
But to seek revenge in battle
In its dreadful din and rattle?
Sitting Bull to white man sayeth,
Wonder not the red man slayeth
When he sees his people stricken.
Sees his sons and daughters sicken.
Sees them fainting, falling, dying,
For the bread he is denying.
Long the red man's blood had bounded
With injustice, ere he sounded
War's dread tocsin. Had white nation
But fulfilled its obligation.
Made for red man intervention.
There had been no dark contention.
With the white man lies the error
Of the turmoil and the terror
That hath siezed upon the nation.
With him rests the obligation.
Will the lesson sore be heeded?
And will justice be conceded
To the Indian tribes and races

By their brothers, the pale faces?
Or will they by deeds unholy
Still oppress the red man, lowly?
Will he still be driven, driven,
Naked, hungry, shrunken, shriven?
Will the white man still pursue him.
Taking what belongeth to him.
Leaving him in destitution?
Then, O pale face, restitution
Must you make for wrongs committed,
Justice ne'er can be outwitted.
Man may plot and rob his brother.
But in one sphere or another
He the "utmost farthing" payeth.
This the law of Justice sayeth.
This the white man's Bible teacheth,
From this text he often preacheth.
Sitting Bull oft heard it quoted,
But its spirit had not noted.
He but listened to the letter,
White man doeth no whit better.
He, too, listens to the reading.
But gives to it little heeding.
Speaketh Sitting Bull too boldly?
Yet not bitterly, or coldly,
He the word of truth declareth.

Truth is ever bold! it spareth
None to whom it makes appealing;
But, while wounding, it gives healing,
Giveth ever where it taketh,
Bindeth wheresoe'er it breaketh.
Though his written word sharp stingeth,
Sitting Bull no malice bringeth
From the Hunting-grounds of Spirit.
The quick blood he did inherit
Floweth now more calmly, slowly;
Therefore cometh he more lowly,
In a spirit of contrition.
Gone is all his proud ambition,
Gone his bitterness and hatred,
All his anger hath been sated.
From the people long departed.
They, the wise ones, the large-hearted.
Hath he learned a kindlier feeling,
Therefore cometh he appealing
For the good of every nation.
True, with stronger obligation
Turns he to the Indian races.
Yet he seeth that pale faces
Are in bondage and oppression.
Even they have not possession
Of the rights belonging to them.

Of the freedom that is clue them.
What shall rend the cloud asunder,
That the nations now sit under,
The dark cloud, that sore oppresseth?
Sitting Bull with pain confesseth
That far distant seems the dawning
Of that glad, redemption morning
Pictured oft in ancient story,
Not yet seeth he its glory.
Yet, while far the time appeareth,
There is still one sign that cheereth;
He beholdeth every nation
In a state of agitation.
This a better time presages
For mankind in coming ages.
Sitting Bull sees by this token
That the yoke shall yet be broken.
That now resteth on his nation.
And they gain full liberation.
It is coming, O pale faces,
Freedom for the Indian races!
Though the white man's power seem stronger.
Comes a day when he no longer
Can misuse the Indian nation.
Even now, with indignation
Is his hot blood doubly heated.

And indignities repeated
Will but make him more unruly;
Do not anger him unduly.
He not easily is sated,
Not soon is his wrath abated,
Not soon doth he make retraction
When he hath been roused to action.
Sitting Bull sends forth his warning,
To be met, no doubt, with scorning;
Such as oft to him was meted
When for justice he entreated.
Yet hath he no motive, other
Than to save his pale faced brother,
And the Indian tribes and races,
From the conflict that disgraces.
And alike unto each nation
Bringeth woe and desolation.
Sitting Bull the "oil of healing"
Fain would pour on wounded feeling
Of his stricken sons and daughters,
Fain would calm the troubled waters
By which they are now surrounded.
He, with love that is unbounded,
Saith unto them. Education
Is your only sure salvation
From the evils that surround you,

From the ills that long have bound you.
Oh, then, rouse ! put forth endeavor!
To injustice grant no favor;
But, all bitterness eschewing,
Labor for the full undoing
Of the ignorance of ages.
Back of you are seers and sages,
Back of you your long gone sires,
These shall help you light the fires
Of a noble, true ambition,
That in time shall yield fruition.
With the fathers, gone before you.
Are your mothers, they who bore you;
They, their past rude life ignoring.
Now return to you, imploring
That you rise from degradation
And become a noble nation.
Urge with kindness the pale faces
To accord you better places.
Better lands and reservations
Then fulfil your obligations.
Plough and sow, and you shall gather
'Tis the law of the Great Father;
And while it remains unheeded
Will the bread of life be needed.
Gain that comes to him that worketh.

Cometh not to him that shirketh.
Not to him that idly sigheth,
But to him whose feet swift flieth
Is the race at length accorded,
And the golden prize awarded.
Listen ! my beloved nation,
To the earnest exhortation
Sitting Bull brings from your sires.
Dance no longer round your fires.
Thinking thus to woo the sages.
The Messiahs of past ages!
All your forms have no attraction
For these souls of earnest action.
But in every true endeavor
Will they aid and guide you, ever.
And, O pale face, more enlightened,
Be not anxious, be not frightened.
When you see the red man dancing,
'Round his camp fires wildly prancing;
'Tis his mode of invocation.
White man maketh supplication
When and wheresoe'er he chooseth.
Yet the privilege refuseth
To his poor, untutored brother,
Who at present knows no other
Way to ease his burdened feeling.

Than by this rude, wild appealing.
Would you lift him to your station,
Pale face, give him education:
Not the kind that comes from preaching,
Or from praying, but the teaching
That results from observation.
Give him this, O pale faced nation.
By allowing him to enter
Every business mart and centre
That is open to pale faces.
Why not he, like other races.
Be accorded free admission,
Come and go without permission?
The Great Father who created
Red and white man hath not stated
That the red man's claim be bounded.
Nay! in liberty was founded
Life for every tribe and nation:
Bondage bringeth degradation.
Therefore Sitting Bull now prayeth
That whene'er the red man strayeth
From his lands and reservations
Unto those of other nations.
He be kindly met and treated
Kindness would in turn be meted
For the red man hath deep feeling.

And love maketh strong appealing
To his nature deeply hidden.
Should he sometimes come unbidden,
Or with rudeness seek to enter
The dominions where you centre
As a great and mighty nation,
Do not flee in consternation;
Let him view your ways and measures.
Look upon your arts and treasures;
It would quicken his ambition.
Help to change his sad condition,
This the teaching red' man needeth.
Seldom is it that he readeth
Of what goeth on around him.
White man's laws so close have bound him,
That he knoweth not nor heedeth
How the world about him speedeth.
Sitting Bull the white man heareth,
Making answer, that he feareth
The red man would sore abuse him,
Were he from his bonds to loose him.
Nay! were red man's wrongs adjusted,
He could be as safely trusted
As can any other nation.
Red man feels deep obligation.
For a kindness to him meted.
Rarely, save when illy treated
Doth the Indian rob and plunder,
And break white man's laws asunder.
Give him liberty, pale faces,
As accorded other races.
And he would become a nation
Purged from crime and degradation!

Sitting Bull his plea hath ended.
Though not all by him intended
Hath he through his scribe transmitted.
Should his message, thus submitted
To the people, be rejected.
Be despised and be neglected.
He hath filled his obligation.
Henceforth he his loving station
Holdeth near his people, stricken.
He will watch by those who sicken,
He will whisper to the dying
Of a land where is no sighing.
Of a land where plenty reigneth.
Where no cold nor hunger paineth.
Where the white man and red brother
Dwell in peace with one another.
Thus will he impress and guide them,
Though they know not that beside them
Sitting Bull, their chief, still walketh,
And that with them still he talketh.
Though his outward form be hidden,
He - will come and go unbidden,
Working_for the elevation
Of his poor, down-trodden nation.
This is Sitting Bull's desire,
'Tis his Heaven! he seeks none hig-her.

The above states what was going through Sitting Bull's thoughts, inspired by his beliefs, and are better than anything this writer could espound. Believe what you wish, but much of what he said, seems like a good deal of the truth of the Lakota tribe.

Above photo: Photo of Chief Sitting Bull, 1884, Palmquist & Jurgen. Courtesy Library of Congress. Below: Sitting Bull in front of teepee on reservation with squaw and twins and thought to be General Miles on horseback in the background, 1882, Bailey, Dix, and Mead. Courtesy Library of Congress. Info Source: "Sitting Bull in His Own Words," 2015, Julia McDonnell; Christopher Newport University; "Sitting Bull's Message from Spirit Life, 1891, Sitting Bull; Hathitrust; Library of Congress; "Oral History of the Dakota Tribes 1800's - 1945, As Told to Colonel A.B. Welch, The First White Man Adopted by the Sioux Nation; "Diary Entries," https://seehyunparkgreatleaderproject.weebly.com/; Wikipedia Commons.

History Photo Bomb

Oklahoma Land Rush. Courtesy Library of Congress.

Chief Sitting Bull, (Tatonka-I-Yatanka) Hunkpapa Sioux, circa 1885. Courtesy National Archives.

Timeline Book

Thomas Edison and his phonograph. Courtesy Library of Congress.

ABH Travel Tip

The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island can be visited from two locations; Liberty State Park in New Jersey and from New York City. Ferry service takes visitors on a round trip to both locations. Tours of the Statue may be reserved in advance or tickets picked up when buying tickets for the ferry service on a first come, first served basis.

Photo above: Torch and Arm of the Statue of Liberty on display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition in 1876. Photo: Centennial Photographic Co., 1876.

World's Fair History, 1880's

Louisville 1883
New Orleans 1884-5
Cincinnati 1888

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