At the age of fourteen he accompanied his father on the warpath against the Crows, and counted his first coup on the enemy. His name (after boyhood) was Four Horn, but when he became a medicine man in 1857, his name was changed to Sitting Bull.
The Handbook presents a brief sketch, part of which I quote.
“He rapidly acquired influence in his own band, being especially skillful in the character of peacemaker. He took an active part in the Plains wars of the ’60’s, and first became widely known to the whites in 1866, when he led a memorable raid against Ft. Buford. Sitting Bull was on the warpath with his band of followers from various tribes almost continuously from 1869 to 1876, either raiding the frontier posts or making war on the Crows or the Shoshoni, especially the former. His autographic pictorial record in the Army Medical Museum at Washington refers chiefly to contests with the Crows and to horse-stealing. His refusal to go upon a reservation in 1876 led General Sheridan to begin against him and his followers the campaign which resulted in the surprise and annihilation of Custer’s troops on Little Big Horn River, Montana, in June. During this battle, in which 2,500 to 3,000 Indian warriors were engaged, Sitting Bull was in the hills ‘making medicine,’ and his accurate foretelling of the battle enabled him ‘to come out of the affair with higher honor than he possessed when he went into it’ (McLaughlin). After this fight the hostiles separated into two parties. Sitting Bull, in command of the western party, was attacked by General Miles and routed; a large number of his followers surrendered, but the remainder of the band, including Sitting Bull himself, escaped to Canada, where they remained until 1881, when he surrendered at Ft. Buford under promise of amnesty and was confined at Ft. Randall until 1883. Although he had surrendered and gone upon a reservation, Sitting Bull continued unreconciled. It was through his influence that the Sioux refused to sell their lands in 1888; and it was at his camp at Standing Rock agency and at his invitation that Kicking Bear organized the Ghost dance on the reservation. The demand for his arrest was followed by an attempt on the part of some of his people to rescue him, during which he was shot and killed. (See page [124]). Although a chief by inheritance, it was rather Sitting Bull’s success as an organizer and his later reputation as a sacred dreamer that brought him into prominence. According to McLaughlin, “his accuracy of judgment, knowledge of men, a student-like disposition to observe natural phenomena, and a deep insight into affairs among Indians and such white people as he came into contact with, made his stock in trade, and he made ‘good medicine’. He stood well among his own people and was respected for his generosity, quiet disposition, and steadfast adherence to Indian ideals. He had two wives at the time of his death (one of whom was known as Pretty Plume), and was the father of nine children. His eldest son was called Louis.”
This in brief is an account of his life, but it fails to give a thorough conception of the man.
He is referred to in many of the War Department reports, between 1800 and 1890. A Mr. W. F. Johnson wrote a book upon his career entitled, “The Life of Sitting Bull,” in 1891; Major McLaughlin has devoted a great deal of space to him, as has Mr. Mooney and others.
Sitting Bull’s favorite declaration which he was wont to inflict on peace commissions from Washington, is an index to the character of the man: “God Almighty made me. He never made me an agency Indian.”
Attuned to this strong chord, was his whole life. He was not a pleasant man, and he incurred the dislike of his Agent, Major McLaughlin, and many others. I do not agree with Major McLaughlin, that Sitting Bull was altogether a coward. If he had been such, we would not have found him associated with the hostile element in the later sixties and all through the seventies. Neither would he have opposed the authorities at the time of the Ghost dance. He knew that opposition must bring imprisonment, and probably execution, and it did.
His boyhood, as was that of Red Cloud and other prominent Indians, was spent among his own people in the chase, about the village, and occasionally he accompanied war parties.
I suppose that he was present during the Fetterman massacre in 1869, and the fact that he is not mentioned by Colonel Carrington and other officers does not necessarily imply that he was absent. Carrington would naturally record the names of such Indians as he met, and Sitting Bull was not a man to seek interviews until he became, against his will, a reservation Indian.
At the Custer fight he made the medicine. I have not presented an account of the battle of the Little Big Horn, for the reason that practically every other writer of modern days has mentioned it at length, and several have devoted chapters to the subject.[[34]]