LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Sitting Bull
built 214 days ago
Sitting Bull's boyhood must have been a happy one. It was long after the day of the dog-travaux, and his father owned many ponies of variegated colors. It was said of him in a joking way that his legs were bowed like the ribs of the ponies that he rode constantly from childhood. The boy’s parents, Sitting Bull and Her-Holy-Door, at first gave the boy the name Jumping Badger. It was a name that all understood would be replaced by a more appropriate and meaningful name as the boy grew and began to show what kind of man he would be. However, before Jumping Badger gained his famous name he was to be called by still another name.
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Although Sitting Bull was the principal chief among the Lakota Sioux, he did not personally participate in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. On June 25, Lt. Colonel George A. Custer and the soldiers under his command first rushed the encampment along the Little Big Horn River, as if in fulfillment of Sitting Bull's vision. They then made a stand on a nearby ridge, where by the end of the day, Custer and his column of more than 200 soldiers were dead. That military defeat brought thousands more cavalrymen to the area, and over the next year, they ruthlessly persecuted the Lakota — who had split up following the Custer fight — forcing chief after chief to surrender.
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Born in South Dakota, Sitting Bull had an affinity for the land and his people around him. With millions of buffalo roaming the grounds, his people lived well off of the land, even during the harsh northern winters. In his childhood, he earned what would become his famous nickname when he subdued a buffalo calf that had attacked him. He grabbed the calf by its ears and kicked it back, making the small bull land on his hind-end, appearing as if the bull were sitting upright. In his early 20s, he was known by his people as a warrior. But, he didn’t want to be known only as a fighter, so he began studying medicine according to generations past.
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Soon after his return, Sitting Bull had another mystical vision, like the one that had foretold Custer's defeat. This time he saw a meadowlark alight on a hillock beside him, and heard it say, "Your own people, Lakotas, will kill you." Nearly five years later, this vision ... proved true. Word was traveling fast through the plains of the Ghost Dance, which would rid the area of whites forever. In 1890, fearful that Sitting Bull, still considered a leader of his people, would join the Ghost Dance movement, Lakota police who worked for the agent were sent to arrest him. As followers gathered to protect Sitting Bull, a gunfight began and a member of the Lakota police shot Sitting Bull in the head. He was buried at Fort Yates, North Dakota but in 1953 his remains were moved to Mobridge, South Dakota.
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Sitting Bull and his people lived in the unceded land. In 1872, the Northern Pacific Railroad came out to survey for tracks from Duluth, Minnesota to the Pacific. The Sioux led several attacks against the survey teams and their army guards. Fortunately for the Sioux, a financial panic put off the railroad for another year. But in 1875, the army sent Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer to find a suitable site to build a fort to protect the railroad crews. The site he found had traces of gold and soon a new gold rush was on. The Sioux were very angry as the Black Hills were a sacred site.
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In 1885, the year he returned to his people's reservation, Sitting Bull was allowed to leave the reservation to join Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. He was rumoured to earn about $50 a week for riding once around the arena, where he was a popular attraction. Often asked to address the audience he frequently cursed them in his native tongue to the wild applause of his listeners. He ... earned a small fortune for the time by charging whatever he wanted for his autograph and picture. He was able to do this as during his lifetime he became somewhat of a celebrity and a romanticised freedom fighter, in the vein of Che Guevara, although of course many decades before the South American was born. He stayed with the show only four months, after wanting to return to his own lands, though he did manage to shake hands with President Grover Cleveland, which he took as evidence that he was still regarded as a great chief.
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Sitting Bull