Sitting Bull was born around 1831 in a Hunkpapa Village, which was located in the Grand River region of present-day South Dakota. The place of his birth was called “Many Caches” for the number of food storage pits the Sioux had dug there. Before being given the name Sitting Bull, his parents gave him the nickname Hunkesi, which means slow. His parents found Hunkesi fitting because there was nothing remarkable about their son, except that he never hurried and did everything with care. However, young Hunkesi was very anxious to prove himself to his tribe and the entire Sioux nation.

At age fourteen, he participated in his first battle, which happened to be a raid of the Crow nation. It was in this battle with the Crow that Hunkesi earned his true name

“Sitting Bull and the Sioux realized they could not defeat the army alone, [they needed the assistance of other tribes]. They were joined by the Cheyenne and Arapaho, and on June 17, they forced a retreat of the U.S. troops at the Battle of Rosebud, then set up camp at Little Bighorn” (3). After the battle, Sitting Bull led the assembled group of ‘hostile natives’ in the Sun Dance. This important religious ceremony “allowed [warriors] to demonstrate their bravery through self-inflicted pain…” (1-221). Augustin Ravoux, a white mission worker who was sent among the Sioux, made the message clear about the intensity of the Sun Dance: “Horrible and almost incredible are the penances and tortures some Indians inflicted upon themselves to please their gods and obtain their favors” (1-221).

Leading the Sun Dance after the Battle of Rosebud, Sitting Bull offered prayers to Wakan Tanka, the Great Spirit, and slashed his arms one hundred times as a sign of sacrifice. He went into a state of unconsciousness, during which he obtained a vision. When he emerged from his trance, he announced his vision to the gathered warriors. In his vision, he saw soldiers falling into the Sioux camp like grasshoppers falling from the sky. The vision raised and inspired the spirits of the warriors.

. “While the rest of the Sioux war party awaited the enemy to approach, Hunkesi quickly charged towards the enemy on his pony. [It was then that he started “counting coup,” which means touching the enemy without their knowing.] The [rest of the party] changed strategy and followed his lead. The [Crow] warriors were so shocked at the boldness of the attack that they retreated” (6). Chief Jumping Bull, Hunkesi’s father, was so proud of his son that he gave his son a new name. At “Many Caches,” Hunkesi’s was given the new name Tatanka-Iyotanka, which describes a buffalo bull sitting intractably on its haunches. The Sioux thought of the buffalo as a headstrong, stubborn creature. The name would be a perfect description for Sitting Bull throughout his life.

However, after four years in Canada, Sitting Bull finally returned to the United States to surrender because he found it impossible to feed his people in a world where the buffalo was almost extinct. On July 19, 1881, he handed over his rifle to the commanding officer of Fort Buford in Montana. After surrendering, Sitting Bull was held as a prisoner of war at Fort Randall in the South Dakota Territory. On May 10, 1883, about two years later “he was permitted to live on Standing Rock Reservation where he continued to use his influence to keep Sioux lands from being taken by the government” (2). When a delegation of the U.S. Senators came to discuss opening part of the reservation to white settlers, Sitting Bull spoke forcefully, though unsuccessfully, ag

Some topics in this essay:
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