Chief Sitting Bull

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Chief Sitting Bull

• A Native American Hero

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• Sitting Bull, Chief of the Lakota Sioux Indians
  of South Dakota, is probably one of the most
  famous Native American heroes.

http//www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/s_z/sitting
bull.htm
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• Sitting Bull was born in 1831 in the Black Hills
  of South Dakota. Like other Native Americans, he
  was not given a name when he was born instead he
  would have to earn it like all Native Americans
  do. Unfortunately, when he was young he was very
  quiet and moved very slowly. For this reason,
  the other Indians made fun of him and named him
  Slow and that name stayed with him for a long
  time.

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• At the age of 14 however, Sitting Bull showed all
  the other Native Americans that he was actually a
  person with very special powers. During a battle
  with another Native American tribe, Slow rode
  forward on his horse to attack the enemy alone.
  Hundreds of other Indians shot at him but none
  could hit him even when he came so close that he
  actually touched them. Sitting Bull killed
  nobody that day, but he touched ten enemy
  warriors without getting hit. This miraculous
  act of bravery convinced many Native Americans,
  even his enemies, that Slow actually had
  magical powers.

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• After that day, other Indians called Slow their
  medicine man. Medicine man is what Native
  Americans call men with magical powers. Because
  of his magical powers, Slow quickly became the
  leader for many of the Sioux tribes. In
  particular, Slow was famous for his prophetic
  dreams. Slows dreams always came true.

http//www.accessgenealogy.com/native/sioux/images
/sittingbull.jpg
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• In 1863, the U.S. Army started attacking the
  Native Americans in South Dakota. Slow wanted
  peace and had always lived in peace with White
  settlers, but he would not allow the U.S. Army to
  kill his people. Even though the Army killed
  innocent Native American women and children, Slow
  continued being kind and friendly to White
  settlers.

http//people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/grimsley1/usma
/sand.jpg
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• It was in 1872, when Slow got the name Sitting
  Bull. He and his warriors faced a large group of
  U.S. Army soldiers. The Sioux knew that the U.S.
  Army had faster and better guns and could kill
  them easily, so they hesitated to move forward.
  Slow was not afraid of anything though. He
  calmly walked over to the enemy army and sat down
  in the grass right in front of them. Then he
  pulled out a pipe and started smoking. The
  solders started shooting, but to their dismay,
  none of them could hit him. They tried for about
  ten minutes but no bullets could hit. After he
  finished smoking, Slow calmly cleaned his pipe,
  put it away, and walked back to his people. This
  convinced the Indians that Slows magic was so
  strong that even the U.S. Army couldnt beat
  them. With new found bravery, they attacked and
  won the battle.

http//cache.eb.com/eb/image?id91534rendTypeId4
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• After that day, everybody started calling him
  Tatanka Iyotanka, which means Sitting Bull in the
  Sioux language. Sitting Bull became a famous
  leader as people from many Native American tribes
  started believing in him.

http//www3.cesa10.k12.wi.us/Ecosystems/prairies/r
eviews/bull/picture
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• In 1876 Sitting Bull had another prophetic dream.
  He dreamed that White men were going to come and
  take away the land of his people, the Black
  Hills. His dream came true. A White man found
  gold in the Black Hills and thousands more
  quickly rushed in to look for gold. Soon, the
  U.S. Army came and told the Sioux Indians that
  they had to move away and live on a reservation.
  Sitting Bull took his people away from there but
  did not go to the reservation instead, he and
  his people hid from the army.

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http//www.blackhillsphoto.com/black-hills-wedding
s/black-hills.jpg
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• But the army was not going to give up. In fact,
  this is what U.S. Army General Custer wanted. He
  and many others wanted an excuse to attack and
  kill all of the Sioux people---men, women, and
  children. The Army hunted for Sitting Bull and
  his people hoping to catch them and kill every
  one of them.

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• Thats when Sitting Bull had another dream. He
  dreamed that the U.S. Army found where his people
  were hiding and attacked them. But in his dream,
  the Sioux fought back and won.

http//www.gutenberg.org/files/14784/14784-h/image
s/img-080.jpg
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• Just like all his other dreams, this one also
  came true. The U.S. Army found a village where
  all the Sioux women and children were living.
  They looked around but they could see no Indian
  warriors. The village was defenseless. General
  Custer ordered his men to attack the village and
  kill all of the helpless people there. When the
  Army came in to attack however, Sitting Bull and
  his warriors appeared. At first, Custer believed
  there were very few warriors so he did not
  retreat. Suddenly they saw the largest Native
  American army ever. Sitting Bull had collected a
  huge army of Indians. It was much bigger than
  the U.S. Army group led by Custer. It was too
  late for Custer and his men to run. They were
  surrounded.

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• Sitting Bull and his warriors destroyed Custers
  soldiers in only a few minutes. In fact, very
  few Indian warriors died because the U.S.
  soldiers guns wouldnt work. For some reason,
  their guns jammed and wouldnt shoot.

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r-l.jpg
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ster_Last_Stand_lg.jpg
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• Unfortunately for the Sioux, their victory only
  made their lives worse. The U.S. made a bigger
  army and went after Sitting Bull and his people.
  Sitting Bull and the Sioux had to run away to
  Canada to escape the U.S. Army. With the help of
  the Canadian government, Sitting Bull and the
  Sioux people signed a peace treaty with the U.S.
  government. The treaty said that the Sioux and
  the U.S. would stop fighting.

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• Once the war was done, Sitting Bull decided he
  would travel around the world so he could learn
  more about White people. Sitting Bull joined a
  famous traveling show called Buffalo Bills Wild
  West Show. During the show, Sitting Bull would
  ride out on a horse and speak to the audience in
  the Sioux language. The audience loved the show
  and cheered for Sitting Bull. They didnt know
  that Sitting Bull was actually swearing at them
  in Sioux.

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• The Wild West show paid Sitting Bull a lot of
  money but Sitting Bull was not interested in
  money or White peoples things. Sitting Bull
  often gave his money to the poor and hungry
  homeless children he saw in the cities that he
  visited.

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• When he was old, Sitting Bull decided to return
  to his home in South Dakota. Thats when he had
  another dream. He dreamed that he would be
  killed there.

http//www.snowwowl.com/images/sonyasitbul.jpg
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• At that time, the Sioux Indians were at peace
  with the U.S. government, but some of them had a
  new method of fighting back. This method was not
  with guns, but with magic. They did a magic
  dance that conjured up ghosts. The believed the
  ghosts would make the United States weak and the
  Indians strong. This movement was called the
  Ghost Dance.

http//students.umf.maine.edu/powellas/
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• The ghost dancers came to Sitting Bull. They
  wanted Sitting Bull to join them, but the Indian
  reservation had police that worked for the U.S.
  government and these police wanted to stop
  Sitting Bull from joining the ghost dance. In
  1890, Sitting Bull was killed while trying to
  escape from the reservation.

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ht/lewis_and_clark/advancingsettlers.jpg