Sitting Bull

Born: c. 1831, Grand River, South Dakota
Died: December 15, 1890 (age 59?), Standing Rock Indian Reservation

Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tanka I-Yotank, also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow") was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man, born near the Grand River in South Dakota and killed by reservation police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him and prevent him from supporting the Ghost Dance movement.

What do you know about Sitting Bull? Try this Old West Legends Quick Quiz.

1. At about the age of 14, Sitting Bull participated in a war party that met a party of warriors. He overtook one of the warriors during their retreat, and knocked him off his horse. For this, Sitting Bull earned a white eagle feather, symbol of a first coup, and also received the name of his father. Who were the warring party?

• Crow
• Pawnee
• Cheyenne

2. Sitting Bull became a Sioux holy man, or wičaša wakaŋ, during his early twenties. His responsibilities as a holy man included understanding the complex religious rituals and beliefs of the Sioux, and also learning about natural phenomena that were related to the Sioux beliefs. He also knew techniques of healing and carried medicinal herbs, though he was not a medicine man.

• Fact or Myth?

3. At the Battle of Dead Buffalo Lake on July 26, 1863 and at the Battle of Stony Lake on July 28, 1863, Sitting Bull likely participated in both of these battles. Who commanded the army units against the Sioux?

• Gen. George Custer
• Col. Henry Sibley
• Lt. Col. George Crook

4. On September 2, 1864, Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapas attacked a wagon train of emigrants led by Capt. James L. Fisk that was traveling through Sioux lands. Sitting Bull again was wounded. Where was he wounded?

• Hip and back
• Neck
• Right leg

5. Chief Gall of the Hunkpapas (among other representatives of the Hunkpapas, Blackfeet, and Yankton Sioux) signed a form of the Treaty of Fort Laramie on July 2, 1868 at Fort Rice (near Bismarck, North Dakota). However, Sitting Bull did not agree to the treaty and continued his hit-and-run attacks on forts in the upper Missouri area throughout the late 1860s and early 1870s.

• Fact or Myth?

6. What was discovered in the Black Hills that opened Sioux land to settlers against the previous peace treaty?

• Gold
• Oil
• Emeralds

7. After defeating Custer at the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull refused to surrender. In May 1877 led his band into hiding. Where did the remain for years ?

• Saskatchewan, Canada
• Sonora, Mexico
• Barrow, Alaska

8. Hunger and cold eventually forced Sitting Bull, his family, and nearly 200 other Sioux in his band to return to the United States and surrender on July 19, 1881. Where were his people kept until 1883?

• Fort Randall
• Fort Sedgwick
• Fort Grant

9. In 1885, Sitting Bull was allowed to leave the reservation. What was the reason?

• Join Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show
• Film Custer and the Little Bighorn
• Play Sitting Bull on stage in New York

10. Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency in South Dakota. Because of fears that he would support the Ghost Dance movement, Indian Affairs authorities ordered him arrested. During a struggle between Sitting Bull's followers and the police on December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull was shot in the side and head by police after they were fired upon by his supporters.

• Fact or Myth?

11. His body was taken to Fort Yates for burial, but it is believed that in 1953, his remains were exhumed and reburied. Where is Sitting Bull believed to be buried?

• Museum of the Upper Missouri, Fort Benton, Montana
• Buried in Undisclosed Place Near Manderson, South Dakota
• Sitting Bull Monument, Mobridge, South Dakota

Sitting Bull Answers

1. Crow
2. Fact
3. Col. Henry Sibley
4. Hip and back
5. Fact
6. Gold
7. Saskatchewan, Canada
8. Fort Randall
9. Join Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show
10. Fact
11. Sitting Bull Monument, Mobridge, South Dakota

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