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December 15, 2018 4 mins

Sitting Bull, the Hunkpapa Lakota leader and seminal Native American figure, was killed at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation on this day in 1890.

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to This Day in History Class from how Stuff
Works dot Com and from the desk of Stuff You
Missed in History Class. It's the show where we explore
the past one day at a time with a quick
look at what happened today in history. Hello, and welcome
to the podcast. I'm Christopher haciotis your host, filling in

(00:21):
this week for Tracy V. Wilson. Today is December and
Sitting Bowl was killed on this day in Born around
eighteen thirty one, Sitting Bull was a member of the
hunk Papa community. Now that's one of seven distinct Native
American groups that make up the Lakota Tribe. Family History
says that Sitting Bull was born in the Dakota Territory

(00:41):
in what's today southeastern Montana, though you'll also find a
lot of references to him being born in with South Dakota.
At the time, though he wasn't known as Sitting Bowl.
His childhood name was Jumping Badger, but after an active
bravery in a raid on a crow camp when he
was fourteen years old, Jumping Badger received the name Tatanka
Yotake or Sitting Bowl. Over the next several decades, Sitting Bull,

(01:04):
who became a leader, and his people had contact with
the white people traveling westward, but as the Lakota lands
are further north than most transcontinental routes, it wasn't as
constant as with other tribes. But the hung Papa and
Lakota couldn't avoid the increasing tension between Native Americans and
the invading forces of the United States, both military and civilian.
By this time, Sitting Bull had become a political, military,

(01:27):
and spiritual leader of his people. Over the years, he
grew cognizant of the reality of the invasion and conquest.
He learned of conditions and reservations from other tribal leaders,
for instance, and he continually warned his followers that were
there people to survive as free Indians, their fates would
be intrinsically tied to that of the bison that populated
North America, and those bison were such a valuable resource

(01:47):
to many Native people. The Sitting Bull led guerilla attacks
over the years and was involved in a number of
notable conflicts, from the Battle of Killdeer Mountain to Red
Clouds War, and from the Great Sioux War to the
Battle of Little Big Horn. Now that famed battle is
when Custer's seventh Cavalry attacked Cheyenne and Lakota encampments near
the Little Big Horn River, which to the Lakota was

(02:08):
known as the Greasy Grass River. But more than two
thousand warriors were following Sitting Bull at that point, and
they overwhelmed the attackers and successfully defended themselves. The U.
S public reacted with shock at Custer's defeat, considering it
a massacre, and thousands of soldiers were sent to fight
the Lakota tribes. Sitting Bull eventually surrendered six years later
on July nineteenth, eighteen eighty one, and over the last

(02:30):
decade of his life he served time as a prisoner
of war and was eventually housed at the Standing Rock
Reservation in South Dakota. He was allowed to leave to
tour with Buffalo Bill Cody's Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show.
Sitting Bull met and befriended Annie Oakley. He posed for pictures,
he signed autographs, and the money that he raised doing
that he is said to have often given away to

(02:51):
beggars and homeless people he encountered. He also became involved
in the ghost dance spiritual movement, and this became pivotal
in what ended up becoming Sitting Bull's end. After returning
to Standing Rock, he eventually died on December fifteenth, eighteen ninety.
And what happened is a government representative named James McLaughlin
was afraid that Sitting Bull was planning to leave the

(03:11):
reservation with the Ghost Dancers and ordered him arrested by
reservation police. Around five thirty a m. On December fifteenth,
a number of police officers, led by Lieutenant Henry Bullhead
and four volunteers surrounded Sitting Bull's house and tried to
arrest him. Sitting Bull and his wife delayed the arrest
as his followers gathered, and when police ordered Sitting Bull
atop a horse, he resisted and the police responded with force.

(03:34):
A Lakota warrior named Catched the Bear fired a rifle
at Lieutenant Bullhead, who then fired his pistol at Sitting Bowl.
Another policeman fired at Sitting Bull as well. The Lacoda
leader was struck in the chest and head and died
soon thereafter, a fight broke out, and in total sixteen
people died, eight policemen, eight tribesmen. Sitting Bull's body was

(03:55):
taken to fort yates and buried nearby, but in nineteen
fifty three, family members ext what they believed to be
his remains and buried them near what then was believed
to be his birthplace in South Dakota. A number of
monuments to Sitting Bull now exists across the United States.
You can learn more about one of the pivotal moments
in Sitting Bull's life in the Stuff You Missed in
History Class November sixteen episode, The Dakota War of eighteen

(04:17):
sixty two and the white Stone Hill Massacre. Thanks to
Casey Pegram and Chandler Mays for their audio work on
this show. You can subscribe to This Day in History
Class on Apple Podcasts, the I Heart Radio app, or
wherever else you like to find your podcasts. Please come
back for our next episode, where we'll discuss a notable
get together on a boat.

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