Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull was born into the Sioux nation and became a great war chief just like his father. His main goal was to protect his tribe's hunting grounds and prevent the whites' westward expansion into them. In order to do this, he communicated this to representatives of the U.S. government and he was the first Native American who had done this. This is important because his idea of non-violent communication gave the Native Americans a better chance to keep their land. Sitting Bull was also a great leader because he was able to unify different tribes against the whites' westward expansion. Normally these tribes would have individually defended their own land, but Sitting Bull was able to unify them to defend all the land because of his great leadership. Sitting Bull had agreed upon a truce with the whites to keep their land under reservations. Eventually, because of gold found, this treaty was broken. By then, Sitting Bull had unified 4,000 troops from many tribes and would not move from their territory of the broken treaty. Feeling threatened by this great number of Native Americans, the U.S. government sent troops to kick them out, but they retaliated and this resulted in the Great Sioux War. I think it was very unfair how the government used their power to control where the Native Americans lived. Their land was very sacred to them and was their traditional home, but because of a greedy and powerful government, they had to be pushed back. Sitting Bull, determined, remained and would not give an inch of ground, fought the Army with his ally Crazy Horse and defeated them in the Battle of Little Bighorn. This was a humiliating defeat to the U.S. army and caused much tension between the two forces. This tension led to constant attacks by the U.S. Army and they eventually forced Sitting Bull's army to retreat. Most of his army died and he was later arrested. After he was released, he rejoined his people and continued to resist white assimilation through the Ghost Dance religion. Sitting Bull was a very important figure in the preservation of Native American culture because he resisted assimilation. The whites were trying to force their culture, language, and religion upon the Native Americans, but Sitting Bull resisted and preserved much culture. As a result of Sitting Bull's great leadership, much rich culture and land had been preserved and gave the Native Americans a new respect.

"Sitting Bull." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .