Sitting Bull

Hi everyone, I'm gonna tell you some facts of the life of this incredible man, a man that I admire a lot.

Sitting Bull(1831-1890), also known by his Sioux name Tatanka Iyotanka, was a native Amerindian chief of the Sioux's tribe Hunkpapa.

He was born in 1831 near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Dakota Territory. When he was born he was named Jumping Badger but there is a Sioux tradition by which he was later given one of his father's names, Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka, Sitting Bull in English.

In the Dakota War of 1862 the Sioux killed 600 settlers and soldiers in Minnesota as a response to the bad treatment that the Sioux have received by the gorvernment. Because of that, in 1864 about 2200 American soldiers attacked a Sioux village. The defenders were led by Sitting Bull among others Sioux chiefs. But as a result the Sioux were driven out.
In September of the same year Sitting Bull was shot but the wound wasn't too serious.

During the period 1868–1876, Sitting Bull became the most important of Native American chiefs as most of the chiefs had moved to live in the reservations where they were dependent for subsistence on the US Indian agencies. But Sitting Bull refused to adopt any dependence and he and his warriors lived isolated on the Plains. Every Amerindian tribe which was threatened by the white people asked for Sitting Bull's help, and their people became really numerous.

On June 25, 1876 the Americans attacked the Sitting Bull's camp, the Little Big Horn River, but they didn't know how large the camp was so they were defeated by the Amerindian warriors. Over the next year, the new American military forces pursued the Sioux, forcing many of them to surrender. Sitting Bull refused to surrender and in May 1877 led his band across the border into Saskatchewan, Canada.
But in 1881 hunger and cold forced Sitting Bull and the people who remained with him to surrender.

At first they were recluded as prisoners of war in the Fort Randall but 20 months after they were allowed to come back to to the Standing Rock Agency. But when the Ghost dance took place the American feared it and thought that Sitting Bull was one of the leaders of this Ghost dance. Finally he was killed by a Sioux, their people got angry. As a result 8 policemen and 7 of his supporters died that day.

As time passed, Sitting Bull became a symbol and archetype of Native American resistance movements .

I hope you like the life of this amazing man, a symbol for many people, a hero for a society.

Borja Gil García