Sitting Bull: The Lakota Chief Who Took On the US Army
today's protagonist helped wage war against the u.s government in defense of his people's land and if it's war you're looking to wage that i've got good news for you because today's video is sponsored by conflict of nations a free online strategy game that pits millions of players against each other worldwide in conflict of nations you fight up to 64 other players in real time games that can take weeks to complete the game is set in the early 21st century and features modern day weapons and technology your objective is to take over the world to find your own strategy build powerful armies by combining dozens of different types of infantry tanks and planes and fight for world domination in a challenging pvp environment if real-time modern warfare sounds like your kind of game you can join a huge community of millions of players both in the game and on discord and use your diplomatic skills to forge alliances with other players everything is fully optimized for cross-platform gaming play 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looking to preserve the past completely defiant when it came to his refusal to abandon the old ways of his people even if this meant war and even death right off the bat we have a bit of controversy regarding sitting bull's birthplace as there's some disagreement between the official version and the information passed down through oral tradition according to the history books sitting bull was born circa 1831 in modern-day south dakota on the bank of the grand river however some of his descendants assert that the tribal leader was actually born in montana near modern-day mars city on the bank of the yellowstone river sitting bull was part of the hunk papa lakota tribe themselves a subdivision of the sioux people his name in the lakota language was tatanka leotarko which literally translates as buffalo bull who sits down but that was not the name that he had as a child when he was born he was given the name jumping badger and later acquired the nickname slow for his restrained and calculated demeanor his father and his uncles were all tribal chiefs there was a lot of pressure for jumping badger following their footsteps fortunately the young lakota seemed determined to cast off the moniker slow which he wasn't too fond of and display the four virtues which were considered fundamental to the lakota bravery wisdom fortitude and generosity from an early age he took part in many games and competitions that tested his skills and he showed his mettle when he took down his first buffalo when he was only 10 years old when he turned 14 years of age jumping badger was given his first opportunity to count coup this meant striking an enemy up close and was the most common way of gaining war honours among the native american tribes of the great plains it could have been done with the hand a weapon or a whip but it was most commonly done with a coup stick a long peeled wand with a feather on the end the challenge was getting close enough to the enemy to touch him and then escape without getting injured or killed it was generally seen as more honorable than killing or scalping the enemy but at the same time it was a great humiliation for the target so most native warriors would have gone to great lengths to avoid being the ones that someone else counted kuan anyway when he was 14 jumping badger was presented with a coup stick and joined a lakota war party on a raid against the crow who were their greatest enemy at the time during the fight the young man was successful in counting coup against a crow warrior this filled his father with pride and when they returned home the tribe had a ceremony to honor the young warrior and mark his passage into adulthood he also received a new name that was more worthy of him and jumping badger became sitting bull at 14 sitting ball was already regarded as a warrior and he continued his meteoric rise through the ranks of the lakota tribe he was a member of several groups most notably of the strong heart society which was made up of the bravest and most elite warriors he was then given the prestigious title of sash wearer and became the leader of the group in 1856. sitting ball proved himself to be a natural leader and it was only fitting that he became one of the people who shaped their tribe's relationships with the outside world particularly after his father was killed in a fight with a crow warrior at first he was indifferent to the u.s government and white settlers he said i have seen
nothing that the white man has which is as good as our right to roam and live on the open plains as we choose that being said he wasn't hostile either growing up most of the interactions with white people that he experienced were positive since most of them involved fur traders who were eager to stay on friendly terms with the lakota but as settlers and prospectors kept expanding westward animosity developed on both sides that inevitably turned violent this resulted in the dakota war of 1862 also known by many other names such as the sioux uprising or little crows war the conflict started in minnesota which had only become a state a few years earlier to help colonize the territory the u.s government passed the homestead act in 1862 which promised 160 acres of land to any person or family who claimed that land and then lived and cultivated it for five years most of that territory originally belonged to native american groups such as the dakota and ojibwe people on paper the american government obtained all the land fair and square by either buying it directly or setting up reservations where the native tribes were supposed to receive regular payments and supply shipments but the government regularly broke the treaties which were heavily in their favor to begin with payments were missed supplies were late and contracts were renegotiated to get more and more concessions by 1858 the dakota people from minnesota lived on a small strip of land and many of them were starving due to the lack of food shipments and their inability to hunt frustration turned to anger which turned to violence in 1862 a faction of dakota warriors led by chief little crow began raiding settlements and stores launching a six-week long war that saw the deaths of over 350 settlers the civil war slowed down the government response but the dakota eventually fought an army consisting mainly of volunteers they were decisively defeated at the battle of wood lake and littlecrow was later killed during a raiding party afterwards dozens of dakota warriors were hanged for their role in the war and the government voided all treaties with the dakota people forcing them to leave minnesota altogether sitting bull had no role in this war but his people and many other tribes suffered the consequences all the same as the government decided to punish all the sioux by sending military expeditions into their territory to push them back even further it was in june 1863 that sitting bull first fought the united states army but this was just a minor skirmish a real fight occurred a year later on july 28 1864 at the battle of kildare mountain this conflict involved around 4 000 soldiers in total which may have been the largest single battle between the u.s army and the plains tribes larger than the more famous battle of little bighorn that we'll cover in a bit on one side there were two brigades led by brigadier general alfred sully around 2200 soldiers their mission usually referred to as sully's expedition was to weaken the sioux however possible and get them to relocate further west best way to do this was to destroy their villages they had already done it once back at white stone hill back in september 1863 and now they had their sights set on a new target an even larger sioux encampment near the little missouri river in present-day dunn county north dakota on the other side were around 1 600 warriors most of them belonging to various lakota tribes sitting bull was there as the leader of the papa alongside another famed warrior named gaul sally was expecting an enemy force double even triple what he actually encountered but he had superior firepower which also included two cannons the fight was fairly one-sided that lakota tried a few times to charge into the ranks of the army soldiers but their guns kept the warriors at bay until they finally reached within cannon range once that happened the battle was pretty much over sully batted the village with cannon fire until the inhabitants had no choice but to abandon it the following day his men marched into the settlement and destroyed everything including food and supplies so that the lakota would have no reason to return for many warriors like sitting bull it was the first time that they encountered artillery in battle and were finally realizing the strength that they were up against even so they did not retreat completely and instead kept harassing sully's troops with small raids as the army made its way through the rugged hills and the steep ravines west of kildare mountain this eventually culminated in the battle of the badlands almost two weeks after their first conflict once again superior firepower won the day and sully ended his military campaign once the lakota had been driven into montana during this time sitting bull was hardly the only lakota leader who fought the united states army in 1866 another violent conflict emerged known as red cloud's war which was led by chief red clown leader of the oglala lakota people for two years he fought the u.s army for control of the powder river country region in wyoming strictly speaking when a treaty had been signed that land belonged to the crow people however the oglala fought them over it the same way that they had done for centuries and they won so they considered the territory rightfully theirs then the u.s government tried taking advantage of the situation to drive them away since that was an important piece of land that territory contained part of the bozeman trail which at that time was the shortest route that took settlers and prospectors from the oregon trail in wyoming to the gold rush region of montana it was a route that the government desperately wanted to control so they tried building several new forts to gain a foothold in the area what made this conflict notable was that it ended in a victory for the lakota for most of the war red cloud and his allies which included sitting bull resorted to raids and other blitz attacks that being said there were a few large-scale battles such as the fetterman fight which ended in decisive victories for the dakota eventually the u.s government sought peace and signed the treaty of fort laramie in 1868 the military agreed to abandon the forts and retreat from the area more importantly the treaty established the gracie reservation a large swath of land that was reserved for native people it also recognized the black hills in the dakota territory as being unseated territory that was sacred to the lakota as their place of origin and granted them exclusive use of it around 130 tribal leaders signed the treaty of fort laramie but sitting bull was not one of them he didn't do it because he didn't want to move his people or change their way of life but his actions proved somewhat prophetic because it took the united states government less than a decade to break the treaty once they discovered that there was gold in those hills throughout the late 1860s and early 1870s sitting bull continued to carry out minor skirmishes against various parties that entered lakota territory most notable of all being a group working for the northern pacific railway who wanted to lay down track over land which sitting bull considered to belong to the hong papa some sources claim that during this time sitting bull became the supreme chief of sioux nation but others strongly contend that no such position existed at most sitting bull came to be regarded as the unofficial leader of the non-treaty lakota meaning all the native americans who refused to sign and adhere to the treaty of fort laramie and lived outside the great sioux reservation in 1874 the united states government dispatched the seventh cavalry to the black hills inside the dakota territory their mission was to scout for a suitable location for a new fort but also to search the area for natural resources specifically they were to investigate a rumor that there might be gold in the black hills this was a time when america was firmly gripped with gold fever the california gold rush had a massive effect on the country's economy and its migration toward the west so the possibility of a similar scenario in dakota was just too good to ignore therefore on july the 2nd 1874 a thousand soldiers and 110 wagons set off on the black hills expedition led by lieutenant colonel george armstrong custer the california gold rush also had a devastating effect on the native american population and in august 1874 the worst thing possible for them happened custer found gold in the black hills he described as an extensive area rich in gold deposit and in just a week the new york tribune proclaimed the black hills to be new gold country nowhere in custer's report or the newspapers was it mentioned that the land was the gold was legally the lakotas by autumn over 15 000 miners have already made their way to the dakota territory at first the army was there to arrest and evacuate the prospectors who snuck into lakota land although it was mainly saving them from being killed by the native americans the government made an offer of six million dollars to purchase the black hills an offer which was firmly rejected by sitting bull at that point president ulysses s grant pretty much said screwed the treaty and pulled the army from the region allowing people to travel unimpeded to the black hills in december 1875 grant gave a deadline of january 31 1876 by which point all the sioux people had to relocate inside the great sioux reservation those who failed to do so would be considered and treated as hostiles even if sitting bull would have been willing to move which he wasn't it would have been almost impossible to do it in such a short time and during the middle of winter therefore he saw no other choice the deadline passed and the great sioux war began word of sitting bull's refusal to accept any kind of deal with the american government reached other tribes that were living outside the great zoo reservation the first half of 1876 or many of them make their way to sitting bull's camp which soon turned into a village with around 10 000 people on the bank of the little bighorn river these were mainly lakota and dakota sioux but also some northern cheyenne and arapaho the exact number of warriors remains disputed to this day but it's generally estimated to be around 2 000 and besides sitting bull other prominent leaders included garl and the famed warrior crazy horse the opening skirmish of the conflict which was also known as the black hills war occurred in may 1876 when six cavalry troops led by colonel joseph j reynolds attacked a native american village in montana's powder river valley reynolds split his army into four groups but due to a miscalculation from the colonel only one reached the village in time although they managed to destroy the village they also sustained casualties and ultimately were forced to retreat for his actions reynolds was later charged with dereliction of duty and court-martialed another notable fight was the battle of rosebud on june 17 named after montana's rosebud creek this was a bigger affair that included around a thousand soldiers on each side but like the first one sitting bull was not involved rather this one saw general george crook go against crazy horse and his oglala lakota warriors crook also had assistance from the crow and the shoshone who had allied themselves with the u.s government in this
war but he still narrowly avoided a bloody crushing defeat that would have seen most of his troops wiped out technically he won the battle because he had control of the battlefield when it was said and done but this is usually regarded as a strategic victory for the sioux and the cheyenne they inflicted a lot of damage and they retreated from the battlefield of their own accord emboldened by their success against the american army but most importantly they completely immobilized crooks unit left with little supplies and plenty of wounded crook soldiers would play no part in the bigger battle that was about to take place just a days later came the famed battle of little bighorn known as the battle of the greasy grass to the dakota originally the army planned a three-pronged approach involving three military columns coming from different directions that would have culminated in one big attack against sitting bull's village one of those three columns was the one led by general crook and that one had been eliminated by crazy horse another one was led by colonel john gibbon who had been delayed and was not in the area at the time of the battle that left the third column by general alfred terry on june 22nd terry sent a scouting party ahead which consisted of the same seventh cavalry regiment that first discovered gold in the black hills once again commanded by lieutenant colonel george armstrong custer on the morning of june 25th custer found sitting bull's camp and in a very fool-hearty move decided not to wait for reinforcements he had between 600 and 700 soldiers with him and he thought that would be enough to defeat the lakota even though he was uncertain of how many warriors awaited him of course the lakota had their own scout since sitting bull was aware of the impending attack and was ready to strike back we should mention that although sitting bull is generally the native american closest associated with this battle many sources claim that he didn't actually fight by this point he would have been in his mid to late 40s so his role was more of a spiritual leader whereas the young braves were led in battle by crazy horse and gall it was around mid-afternoon that custard decided to launch his attack and almost immediately it became clear that he'd made a big mistake his 700 cavalry men were up against a force numbering in the thousands and they were quickly overwhelmed after just 20 minutes of fighting the lakota had already gained the upper hand and had forced the u.s soldiers to fall back kustra divided his army into five groups and although they all sustained heavy losses the brunt end was felt by the detachment led by kuster himself they retreated to higher ground where they were surrounded by their enemies and killed the very last man this final resistance became known as custer's last stand and the place where it happened is now a memorial called lost stand hill the battle had been a disaster for the us army as it gave it its worst defeat in all of its many wars against the sioux however looking back at it it can also be regarded as the beginning of the end for the dakota for starters they had to go on the march immediately since they knew that a stronger army would have followed but this also forced the government to increase its efforts against the zoo dramatically besides bringing in thousands of extra soldiers it also applied great pressure on the native tribes within the reservation to meet the non-treaty leaders and convince them to surrender even cutting off their rations until they succeeded chief red cloud was the one who led this delegation and he convinced many of the people led by crazy horse to surrender on may 5 1877. once again sitting ball had no interest in a treaty with the government so when the others surrendered he took his group of a few hundred hunk papa lakota across the northern border but life in canada proved very difficult the winters were cold and the buffalo were scarce more and more people were leaving sitting bull's tribe and returning to the reservation ultimately after four years of harsh living the lakota leader omitted defeat in 1881 he returned to the united states and surrendered to the american government at first sitting bull was placed under arrest and sent to stay in an army fort but in 1883 he was released and allowed to live on the standing rock reservation there he still resisted change particularly in his refusal to learn how to farm to the annoyance of agents in charge of the reservation sitting bull discovered that he didn't need to learn in order to survive following the battle of little bighorn the lakota chief had become quite notorious in the country and people were eager to meet him he began charging for photographs and autographs and was able to live off his newfound fame in 1884 sitting ball met annie oakley the performing sharpshooter and the two struck up a friendship as the lakota leader was greatly impressed with her shooting skills he even gave her the nickname little shoreshot a moniker she adopted and began using in a stage act soon afterwards sitting bull met another notable figure of that era buffalo bill cody the man who brought the wild west experience to people all over the country and even in europe with his touring show he convinced sitting ball to join him a move that made the former warrior even more famous it was pretty easy living sitting bull made 50 a week plus another 1 per autograph and all he had to do was ride around in a circle and talk even so he only lasted for 4 months before it decided to return to the reservation even though sitting bull no longer had any official authority he was still revered by the lakota something the reservation agents greatly resented in the late 1880s a paiute religious leader named oavoka began travelling from tribe to tribe and prophesizing a resurgence of the native people something which became known as the ghost dance movement this worried the government because they feared that it might cause the native americans to rise up again and begin a new war they were particularly concerned about the ghost dance movement gaining support from prominent leaders and at the time there was no living leader greater than sitting bull on december 15 1890 reservation agent james mclaughlin sent indian police to arrest sitting bull they burst into his cabin early in the morning and took him outside despite being close to 60 years old the former warrior was as stubborn and defiant as ever and refused to cooperate in a short while the police were surrounded by angry lakota men with guns and rifles one of them took the first shot and in retaliation the indian police opened fire on sitting bull shooting him in the head and the chest killing him almost instantly another dozen men also died in the gunfight that ensued as for the ghost dance movement the government took care of it just two weeks later when it orchestrated the wounded knee massacre killing between 150 and 250 lakota people many of them women and children to show that it was prepared to crush even the slightest into rebellion caused by anger over the murder of sitting bull so i really hope you enjoyed this video thank you again to conflict of nations for sponsoring remember if you want to jump into their grand strategy game use the link in the description below to start playing and that'll get you the bonus 13 000 gold in a month for free premium it's a very cool deal and as always thank you for watching
2021-10-05 09:34
