Biography for
Sitting Bull (II) More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

1831, Grand River, South Dakota, USA

Date of Death

15 December 1890, Standing Rock, South Dakota, USA (shot by police)

Birth Name

Tatanka-Iyotanka

Mini Biography

Sitting Bull was born in March, 1831 near the site of present-day Bullhead, South Dakota. His father bore the name Sitting Bull; his mother, Her-Holy-Door. They named their son Jumping Badger. He was a member of the Hunkpapa Sioux, one of 7 Sioux tribes known collectively as the Teton, or Lakota, Sioux, who made their living hunting buffalo on the plains of North and South Dakota. Jumping Badger inherited his father's name at age 14 as part of the ceremonies celebrating his accession to warrior status. His new name connoted a stubborn buffalo bull planted firmly on his haunches. He was soon inducted into the Strong Hearts, the Hunkpapa warrior society that guarded the encampments and organized the hunting parties. Sitting Bull accumulated a superlative war record in fighting with Assiniboins, Crows, Flatheads, Blackfeet, and other enemy tribes. In 1856, on a raiding party to steal horses, Sitting Bull killed a Crow chief, and at the age of 25 he was elected leader of the Strong Hearts. He waged war against the other tribes and extended the hunting grounds of the Sioux. Sitting Bull's father was killed by a Crow warrior in 1859. Profound spirituality characterized his entire life, and scars on his chest, back, and arms testified to repeated sacrifices in the Sun Dance. During the early years of the Civil War, Sitting Bull tried to isolate his people from the conflict, ignoring the new United States forts being built along the Missouri River and the white settlers pouring into the Dakota territory. But in 1864, while camped in the Killdeer Mountains with other Sioux tribes, he was attacked by soldiers under General Alfred Sully. The Indians beat back the soldiers and then counterattacked at the Battle of the Badlands. The battle was inconclusive, but Sitting Bull began to realize that the Sioux's greatest danger came not from other Indians, but from the white soldiers. The territorial governor of the Dakotas announced a plan to put all the Sioux onto reservations where they could be "civilized," and Sitting Bull led the resistance to the program. In 1865, Sitting Bull's warriors routed United States troops at the Battle of Powder River, and in 1867, at the age of 36, he was elected head war chief of all the Teton Sioux, with Crazy Horse, chief of the Oglala Sioux, his second-in-command. In July, 1868 Sitting Bull negotiated the Treaty of Laramie with the United States, which created the Great Sioux Reservation in western South Dakota and forbid white settlers from entering the region. In 1872, a surveying party for the Northern Pacific Railroad, protected by soldiers, entered the reservation. Sitting Bull attacked, letting the whites know that he took the treaty seriously. Soon the United States was demanding that the Sioux confine themselves to a smaller area of land. When Sitting Bull refused, the War Department in Washington authorized military operations against the Sioux. In 1876, United States troops under General George Crook entered Indian territory and destroyed a Cheyenne village by the Little Powder River. When Sitting Bull heard of the attack, he sent out a call for all the tribes to come together to fight. Soon thousands of Indians - Sioux, Cheyenne, Arapaho, and others - began to assemble at Sitting Bull's camp near the Little Bighorn River in southern Montana. By June 1876, the camp contained 15,000 tepees and almost 5,000 warriors and their families. On July 17, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse attacked General Crook's troops at the Rosebud River and forced them to retreat. The army quickly reorganized and began to march toward the Little Bighorn from three separate directions under the commands of General Crook, General Alfred Terry, and General Custer. Custer, who hoped to boost his prial ambitions with a big victory over the Indians, pushed the 7th Cavalry to arrive ahead of the other columns. Ignoring the size of the Indian camp, which stretched for miles along the Little Bighorn, Custer split his force of 650 men, and on the morning of June 25, 1876 tried to simultaneously attack the northern and southern ends of the encampment. Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse organized the defense, first driving back the southern attack led by Major Reno and then overwhelming Custer in the north with superior numbers. Custer and his entire command of 225 men were killed. Sherman was sent after Sitting Bull and his men. Sitting Bull and about a thousand warriors retreated north, pursued by troops under Colonel Nelson A. Miles. Sitting Bull crossed into Canada in the spring of 1877. He spent 4 years in Canada, but there were not enough buffalo to feed his people, and his numbers dwindled. In July 1881, Sitting Bull and 180 starving warriors recrossed the border and surrendered to the United States Army at Fort Buford, North Dakota. Sitting Bull was held as a prisoner of war for 2 years, and released in May 1883. Sitting Bull retired to the Standing Rock Reservation. Life for the Sioux was changing. As he continued to speak out against the destruction of his tribe, Sitting Bull was encouraged to travel away from the reservation so that he would not stir up futher resistance. In 1885, he toured the United States and Canada with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. In 1887, he retired to a small log cabin near his birthplace by the Grand River. By 1890, a new cult, the Ghost Dance religion, swept through the desperate Indian communities. Sitting Bull encouraged the cult as a new form of resistance to the whites. White settlers were panicked by the cult, and the army decided to arrest Sitting Bull. On December 15, 1890, he was shot and killed by Indian police officers while resisting arrest.

IMDb Mini Biography By: Sujit R. Varma