Sitting Bull

1831 - 1890

The Native counterpart to Custer, Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Sioux holy man who gained popularity among his people for his unbending armed resistance to the encroaching settlers and U.S. troops.

It was Sitting Bull who prophesied a great military victory over the white man's forces, and it was this dream which helped to incite fierce resistance when Lt. Col. Custer tried to attack Sitting Bull's winter encampment near Little Bighorn. Sitting Bull's triumph that day was pyrrhic; although he fled to Canada to escape the U.S. retalliation for Little Bighorn, he and his band had to return in 1881 due to hunger and cold. He was moved about for a bit and worked for a time with Buffalo Bill's traveling show, then returned to the reservation only to be killed in an arrest attempt by federal forces anxious he might start trouble. Sitting Bull represents the price paid in Native lives and lifestyle to secure the land where Mount Rushmore sits.