May 30, 2019 • 30 mins
A large part, but by no means the only part, of the story of Native Americans once Europeans arrived in the Americas is persecution. White colonists attempted to strip away their traditions, land, and lives through policy and combat. Many Native Americans assimilated, some going so far as to advocate for slavery and enslave Black people. Others resisted the dominance of white supremacy and the destruction of tribal culture. Sitting Bull was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who dedicated his life to making sure his people and his culture could persist. He met a tragic end, but there's a reason his reputation as a warrior precedes him more than a century after his death.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's not hard to be hated. You could say, criticize
a beloved or powerful person that will earn you the
ire of many. If it's a person who's really high up,
you could even end up behind bars or dead. Or
you can earn that hate by simply being born with
(00:23):
a darker shade of skin. People all over the world
and all throughout history have been detested for that. But
some people, some people draw angry mobs with pitchforks just
for standing for what they believe in. A lot of
(00:43):
these people had big ideas and grand schemes. Others let
very small acts of resistance, but all of them were
bold enough to challenge what society told them was right.
I'm your host, Eve steff Code. This is Unpopular a
(01:08):
podcast about the people in history who did not let
the threat of persecution keep them from speaking truth to power.
It's kind of the thing to talk about who's the
bad guy right now? I mean, call out culture is
in full effect. We may have reached peatrol, but they're
(01:32):
still out there typing and typoing away. Celebrities who have
been denounced for their misdeeds are still getting a bunch
of attention in media and need I even mentioned US politics.
I want to build the wall, the Wader patrol ice.
They all want the wall, but we have some bad
ambres here and we're gonna get them out. I'll let
(01:54):
you decide who these bad folks are. Anyway, It is
kindest or to cool, to be the nonconformists, to be
the opposition, to have an opinion that no one else has,
to proudly avoid the last se of groupthink. You know,
people are really into being refreshingly different right now and
(02:15):
talking about just how different they are as they wave
goodbye to the bandwagon everybody else is riding away on.
But if we're being honest here, a lot of that
objection can be superficial. After all, it's a good way
to get attention, to stroke the ego. Okay, let's be real.
(02:37):
That could be heard earlier. That was from the current
president of the United States, and he got to that
position partly because people saw him as someone who's outside
of the establishment, someone knew, someone who spoke the words
that so many wanted to say but couldn't say, someone
(02:57):
who could disrupt the machine and bring change they so
desperately needed. Now, whether that's true is a different conversation.
The point is somewhere there will always be an accepted
state that someone will turn upside down for better or
for worse. That's why when people meaningfully reject established systems
(03:22):
and norms, knowing that backlash can be dark, but hoping
the outcome could be worth it, it says something. I
know everyone has an opinion, and yes, people can be
super vocal about their opinions, thoughts, or ideas and just
be strong and wrong. Lucky for you, I'm not here
(03:43):
to talk about those people. Unfortunately for all of us,
the arc of history helps us separate the loudmouth quacks
from the people whose descent was actually productive. The reality is,
even though it's not hard to be hate did, it
is hard to be the person who's at the receiving
(04:04):
end of that hate. It takes sacrifice encourage to follow
through when you're advocating for a cause that you know
will put you at odds with others. Some people in
history they dared to go against the current and a
sea that threatened to drown them. They questioned the status
(04:25):
quo even when they had targets on their back, and
they left a mark on the world, or at least
they are little piece of it. When the fight is
one worth fighting, it can pay to be unpopular. The
response maybe fear, a version, ridicule, but hey, nobody can
be loved by everyone anyway. Every week will bring you
(04:50):
the story of a person or group who railed against
the established order of things. This is a show where
people in the minority speak the loud and outcasts are
decidedly in in. Today's person of the Hour is tataka
Io Take, also known as Sitting Bull. I wish it
(05:17):
to be remembered that I was the last man of
my tribe to surrender my rifle. That's what hunk Papua
Lakota chief Sitting Bull said after his son handed his
father's gun over to a commanding officer in eight one.
Throughout his life, Sitting Bull stuck to his goods. He
(05:39):
fought with passion and resolve. He was committed to resisting
the influence and dominance of white people and preserving the
Lacoda lifestyle and land. When we look back at the
life of Sitting Bull, we see him as this larger
than life, heroic character who championed Native American rights. But
(06:01):
it turns out time a close sister of distance can
also make the heart grow fonder. The thing is, while
he was a much respected and loved chief to the
people he fought for, he was a public enemy. The
new America he found himself in wasn't a friendly one.
(06:21):
Whites were generally hostile to the Native people's ways of life,
impartial to assimilation, and sitting bowl wasn't planning on going
down that easy. He was an agitator, so in their
eyes he was a problem. Imaginative for a moment. Living
on a land that feeds you, provides you in your
(06:43):
family's shelter, and gives you clothing. You your parents, your
parents parents have grown up there, tended to the land,
built up communities and traditions there, learned the land and
learn to love it like another family member. It is
your home, and you and your ancestors have made many
memories there. Stories of things that happened on that land
(07:07):
have been passed down through generations. It is your home,
the place you know best. Now imagine that being forcefully
taken away in the name of manifest destiny and misguided
views on assimilation. US President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian
(07:28):
Removal Act in eighteen thirty, which gave the President the
authority to grant lands west of the Mississippi River in
exchange for tribal lands within US boundaries. That led to
the trail of tears, forced relocations of Native people's that
was a lot more brutal and protracted than the name
lets on. The Suppression of Indigenous people's rituals and beliefs
(07:53):
was a constant throughout nineteenth and twentieth century relations between
the U. S Government and tribes. Tribal ceremonies were banned,
Native children were forced to attend boarding schools, use anglicized names,
and where non native outfits. Basically, Indigenous peoples and their
cultures were unwanted in the very place that they had
(08:16):
grown up, and immigrants would do whatever it took to
get rid of them. That isn't to say that Native
Americans were hopeless, defenseless victims of a tyrannical federal government
and a monolithic white population. Some tribes agreed to see
their land and made no effort to resist the federal government.
(08:37):
We know conflict is never that black and white, even
though movies can make it look that easy. The quirky
but treacherous villain tries to foil the hero with increasingly
convoluted plans and expository monologues along the way, and at
the end the good guy triumphs. But no, in real life,
there ain't no story that's as simple as good versus
(08:58):
evil were only one and can prevail in this story.
The story of Sitting Bull, Defender of the Northern Plains
Native Americans, is one that begins in tragedy and ends
in tragedy. Sitting Bull was born around eighteen thirty one.
(09:21):
According to Sitting Bull's great grandson, he was born on
the Yellowstone River south of Miles City, Montana, though it's
been said by others that he was born in what
would become the Dakota Territory. His father was a warrior
named Jumping Bull, and his mother's name was her Holy Door.
(09:41):
The hunt Papas were one of seven branches of the
Lakota who lived west of the Missouri River. Let me
just pause here to say that the term sue is
widely used to describe an alliance of several tribes of
Northern Plains indigenous peoples, but the term isn't except it
by all the people it describes. Many of these people
(10:04):
preferred to refer to themselves as Lakota or Dakota, because
the label Sue is a derogatory name that enemies gave them,
so here we'll stick with saying Lakota and Dakota. At
the time of Sitting Bull's birth, hostilities between the US
government and Native Americans were already at a high point.
(10:27):
The government was already lustily looking at rich Native lands
and sending people west. Tribes were already resisting American strong arming,
and the government was already attempting to civilize Native Americans.
All that's to say US and Native American relations weren't
exactly in the best place. Okay, they were terrible in
(10:49):
getting more hostile, and that's the climate. Sitting Bull, or
Jumping Badger, as he was first named, was born into
Sitting Bulls nickname as a child was slow because of
how measured his demeanor was, but it didn't take long
for him to earn the name most people know him by.
(11:11):
The Plans Natives were bison hunters. They used the hides
for tepee covers, clothing, and blankets, the meat for food,
and the bones for tools and utensils. So when he
was just ten years old, Sitting Bull killed his first
bison and when he was fourteen, he counted coup or
(11:34):
struck a rival Crow warrior by forcing him off his
horse with acoustick, which was a stick that warriors used
in battle to touch enemies without killing them and show
their courage. It was after this brave moment when his
father gave him the name that would embody his headstrong
and persistent character for the rest of his life, Tatanka
(11:57):
e o Take, which described a bison bull that's sitting down,
and so the story goes. Sitting Bull became a warrior.
He got into the Strong Heart Warrior society, which fought
enemies of the Lakota people, and by the time he
was twenty five, he became a leader. Throughout his youth,
(12:20):
he went to war with rival tribes like the Crows,
Hadatza flat his shashone and man dance. Once, when he
was in battle with the Crows during a horse dealing
raid in eighteen fifty six, Sitting Bull was shot in
his left foot. He walked with a limp for the
rest of his life, but he had killed the offending crow,
(12:41):
so he was praised for his courage. He would also
go on to become a member of the Silent eaters,
an exclusive group that discussed tribal welfare, and when his
father was killed by a crow warrior in eighteen fifty eight,
Sitting Bull exacted revenge by mutile lating the killer's body.
(13:02):
Sitting Bowl even adopted Arrival, a Sinna boy and boy
that he caught in battle as his brother. The accounts
of young Sitting Bowls bravery and his exploits seemed never ending,
but as Sitting Bowl got older, the fight that defined
his plucky and obstinate warrior spirit was the one against
(13:24):
encroaching white men that threatened their ways of life and
lives themselves. Because not many white people traveled through where
Sitting Bowl lived, it wasn't until the early eighteen sixties
when Sitting Bowl at his first serious run in with them.
The Santee Dakota that lived on reservations in Minnesota grew
(13:46):
tired of their mistreatment and rebelled by killing and wounding
soldiers and other white people and taking women hostage. US
troops quilled the uprising, but the US retaliated by sending
Generals Henry Hastings, Sibley and Alfred Sully to attack Lakota camps.
Sibley's expedition went into hunk Papa territory, and Sitting Bull
(14:10):
helped fight, even though he hadn't been part of the rebellion.
In July eighteen sixty four, Sully launched an attack on
the Lakota and Dakota at Kildeer Mountain as part of
the retaliation, and Sitting Bull helped lead the defense. And
from there he fought many more battles against the US,
including the War on Powder River and attacks on Fort Rice.
(14:33):
Between all those battles of Indigenous people versus white people,
Sitting Bull made the decision to never bow to white
men who wanted them to assimilate our give up their
freedom and land, and that was the resolve he had
as he led his people. The extent of Sitting Bulls
authority over individual tribes has been called into question, but
(14:58):
it's been said that around eighteen six eight, Sitting Bull
became the head chief of the entire Lacoda nation thanks
to his leadership in resistance to US forces. Either way,
Sitting Bulls reputation as a warrior leader and medicine man
preceded him, and he managed to unite the Western Northern
Plains tribes in their fight against American westward expansion and
(15:21):
cultural dominance. In sitting Bulls, opposition would only grow stronger.
We'll be back after this quick break. For more than
two months, France's Yellow Fest protesters have been on the
(15:43):
streets and gry over the cost of living and a
political system and president they say ignores the poorest. Friday's
prayers in Sudan ended with cause for more protests demanding
the resignation of president. Dominant issue mccaby is long gone,
but in Bobwe's anguish is getting only worse. The second
(16:03):
time in six months, the government dealt with demonstrations by
deputing truths we need our pay checks. Across the country,
increasingly desperate federal workers stage protests against the shutdown. People
have been using protest as a way to get what
(16:25):
they want for centuries. Time has proven that if a
person or group is unhappy with something, they will fight
back an attempt to change it. Protests has caused compromise,
It's caused death, and it's caused change. People who have
used their voices to reject laws, people, and conventions have
(16:46):
risked their lives in service of causes. They believe we're right.
But that's the thing each side operates under the notion
that what they believe is right. Otherwise there would be
no left versus right, no old guard versus new guard,
no black versus white. If we make decisions based on
(17:10):
our personal ethics, education, and opinions, then those things will
guide which position we take on political and social issues,
and we're going to believe what we believe until our knowledge, morals,
or opinions change. That's why one person can be completely
gung ho about the fact that Earth is spherical and
(17:30):
another can be like, the Earth is flat. Changed my mind,
my reality, my senses tell me that the Earth is
flacking stationary. After all, we were sure the Earth was
flat back in the day until we weren't. Anyway, it's
so easy to get caught up in who is on
which side, who should be condemned, and who should be praised,
(17:51):
especially since we have the Internet at our fingertips. Gone
are the days when people can say, hey, wait, I'm
pretty where the earth is round and escape The criticism
of the entire world's peanut gallery discent is amplified now,
and considering the number of social media comments I've seen
(18:12):
sarcastically dismissing people as edgy for having unorthodox opinions. They
seem like we kind of have a discent fatigue. That
fatigue shows up in Americans who are tired of social
justice warriors. You can see it in Americans who are
tired of people denying the legitimacy of Trump's presidency. And
(18:34):
then there are those who are tired of political correctness.
And that fatigue even shows up in people tired of
others who decry the mainstream media as fake news. I
know that we really want to hate the fact that
everybody has opinions and can share those opinions with the
world easily and become I really dislike this word, but influencers.
(19:00):
But people's informed, dissenting opinions have gotten us out of
messes and into better places. And we don't get to
have productive opposition without some nonsense here and there. People
like Sitting Bull, who hold fast to their resistance of
the status quo and take one for the team helped
(19:21):
the world go round because it's not flat. Well, this
is awkward. The latter half of Sitting Bull's life was
full of conflict with the US. American forces were powerful
(19:45):
and their ability to organize was great, but Sitting Bull
and all the other Native Americans who wanted to resist
the influence of white people were tenacious and determined to
ensure the survival of their people. Two. When Sitting Bull
was a prisoner of war at Fort Randall, he told
(20:07):
James Creelman the following in an interview. This land belongs
to us, for the Great Spirit gave it to us.
When he put us here, we were free to come
and go and to live in our own way. But
white men, who belonged to another land have come upon
(20:28):
us and are forcing us to live according to their ideas.
That is an injustice. We have never dreamed of making
white men live as we live. White men like to
dig in the ground for their food. My people preferred
to hunt the buffalo as their fathers did. White men
(20:50):
like to stay in one place. My people want to
move their teps here and there to the different hunting grounds.
The life of white man and is slavery. They are
prisoners in towns are farms. The life my people want
is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that
(21:11):
a white man has houses or railways, are clothing or food.
That is as good as the right to move in
the open country and live in our own fashion. Why
has our blood been shed by your soldiers? And Sitting
Bool would go on to say this, we marched across
(21:33):
the lines of our reservation, and the soldiers followed us.
They attacked our village, and we kill them all. What
would you do if your home was attacked? You would
stand up like a brave man and defend it. That
is our story I have spoken. We'll be right back, okay.
(22:13):
After the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty five, white
settlement and expansion was booming again. Gold was discovered in Montana.
Advances in agricultural machinery brought more people looking to make
a book off farming to the west, and the first
transcontinental railroad was completed in eighteen sixty nine, creating a
(22:37):
stream of passengers headed west. That meant that white people
were headed towards hunk Papa land, and that influx of
people was a huge threat to the lives of Lakota
since there were nomadic and relied on the bison for sustenance.
Even the bison were targeted by US forces since they
(22:57):
were a source of Native American survival. Even though they
were up against a lot, Sitting Bowl still tried to
get tribes to fight together against whites. The Lakota attacked
railroad surveyors and soldiers, committed massacres, and raided forts. The
tribe's resistance was putting a lot of pressure on US forces.
(23:21):
Seeing how much war and uprising there was in the West,
the federal government drew up the Treaty of Fort Laramie
in eighteen sixty eight. The treaty established what was called
the Great Sioux Reservation, including an area called the Black
Hills that would be designated exclusively for those Native people
(23:42):
who agreed to it. It also said that the U
s would abandon forts it had set up along the
Bowsman Trail, which had become a point of conflict between
the US and Native Americans. Spoiler alert Sitting Bowl never
signed a treaty, but the starry eyed hope for this
treaty was peace and the late eighteen sixties in early
(24:07):
eighteen seventies where the era of President Ulysses Grant's Peace Policy,
which attempted to get rid of corrupt Indian Bureau agents.
There was a moment of relative silence, but it definitely
wasn't all peaceful. The government was still after the natives
way of life. The US instituted agricultural training on reservations,
(24:31):
and established schools and churches intended to convert Native Americans
to Christianity. So the word peace is probably a euphemism,
but that faux piece didn't last too long anyway. In
eighteen seventy four, General George Armstrong Custer lent an expedition
(24:52):
looking for gold into the Black Hills, and even though
that land was a no go for prospectors because of
the Laramie Treaty, they went for it anyway. The Lakota people,
of course, weren't having it, and Sitting Bull helped unite
the branches of the Lakota to face the army and
reservation agents. Sitting Bowl was also a respected medicine man,
(25:23):
so when he underwent the Sun Dance, a religious ceremony
that's done for the welfare of the people, and had
a vision of a victory, people believed him. When custer
seventh Cavalry rolled into the Lakota encampment on a mission,
the Natives emerged victorious, but Americans were really upset about
(25:45):
the defeat, and the Lakota people who had linked up
to fight custers troops suffered a lot of losses to
persist in cavalrymen, so Sitting Bowl and the anti treaty
natives who hadn't surrendered flat to Canada. M That didn't
go so well either. Sitting Bowl was losing people's allegiance
(26:08):
as they had a hard time finding food in Canada,
and one after five years in Canada, Sitting Bowl went
back to America with less than three hundred of his followers.
When he got back, he handed in his rifle, then
was sent to Standing Rock Reservation, then Fort Randall, where
(26:30):
he was held as a prisoner of war for almost
two years. Even though he had surrendered, he was still
steadfast in his resistance to white assimilation, and he remained
(26:53):
that way until he died. Near the end of his life,
he joined in on the Ghost Stands, a ceremony that
was spreading through Native American tribes that was supposed to
put an end to white people's oppression of Indigenous peoples
and bring about a new leader. But the dance brought
(27:14):
about Sitting Bulls demise. Americans were afraid that the Ghost
Dance was really a call to political action, and Sitting Bull,
as fearsome as he was, could in no way be
a part of that. On December ninety, police tried to
(27:34):
arrest Sitting Bull fearing his involvement in the Ghost Dance.
In the scuffle that ensued, one of the Lakota policemen
shot and killed Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull was all about
the preservation of his people in their way of life,
(27:56):
but white people were able to suppress Native traditions and
languages in a major way. That doesn't mean that Sitting
Bowls efforts were for not. Sitting Bulls legacy as a
defender of the Lakota people lives on, and he has
achieved a sort of legendary status in Native American, American
(28:17):
and world history. It's unfair to say just because he
didn't when the war he was fighting, and it was
a war that Sitting Bulls efforts were meaningless. Sitting Bowl
was resilient. He was an enemy of many people throughout
his life because of his commitment to protecting Native American lives.
(28:38):
It would have been easy for him to choose the
path of least resistance. Instead, he chose to disrupt. It
is not hard to be hated, but if you are
going to be, at least make it worthwhile. Sitting Bulls
(28:59):
resolve despite all the backlash and losses he faced is
a good reminder that sometimes a fight just takes serious doggedness.
Sitting Bull helped keep Native people in traditions alive, and
he inspired tons of people to resist, to honor their heritage,
(29:20):
and to be brave. Sitting Bull was hunted and feared
for his defiance, but it was his defiance that made
him the bold leader we remember him as today. Andrew
Howard is our producer. Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are
(29:44):
executive producers. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular
k
It's not hard to be hated. You could say, criticize
a beloved or powerful person that will earn you the
ire of many. If it's a person who's really high up,
you could even end up behind bars or dead. Or
you can earn that hate by simply being born with
(00:23):
a darker shade of skin. People all over the world
and all throughout history have been detested for that. But
some people, some people draw angry mobs with pitchforks just
for standing for what they believe in. A lot of
(00:43):
these people had big ideas and grand schemes. Others let
very small acts of resistance, but all of them were
bold enough to challenge what society told them was right.
I'm your host, Eve steff Code. This is Unpopular a
(01:08):
podcast about the people in history who did not let
the threat of persecution keep them from speaking truth to power.
It's kind of the thing to talk about who's the
bad guy right now? I mean, call out culture is
in full effect. We may have reached peatrol, but they're
(01:32):
still out there typing and typoing away. Celebrities who have
been denounced for their misdeeds are still getting a bunch
of attention in media and need I even mentioned US politics.
I want to build the wall, the Wader patrol ice.
They all want the wall, but we have some bad
ambres here and we're gonna get them out. I'll let
(01:54):
you decide who these bad folks are. Anyway, It is
kindest or to cool, to be the nonconformists, to be
the opposition, to have an opinion that no one else has,
to proudly avoid the last se of groupthink. You know,
people are really into being refreshingly different right now and
(02:15):
talking about just how different they are as they wave
goodbye to the bandwagon everybody else is riding away on.
But if we're being honest here, a lot of that
objection can be superficial. After all, it's a good way
to get attention, to stroke the ego. Okay, let's be real.
(02:37):
That could be heard earlier. That was from the current
president of the United States, and he got to that
position partly because people saw him as someone who's outside
of the establishment, someone knew, someone who spoke the words
that so many wanted to say but couldn't say, someone
(02:57):
who could disrupt the machine and bring change they so
desperately needed. Now, whether that's true is a different conversation.
The point is somewhere there will always be an accepted
state that someone will turn upside down for better or
for worse. That's why when people meaningfully reject established systems
(03:22):
and norms, knowing that backlash can be dark, but hoping
the outcome could be worth it, it says something. I
know everyone has an opinion, and yes, people can be
super vocal about their opinions, thoughts, or ideas and just
be strong and wrong. Lucky for you, I'm not here
(03:43):
to talk about those people. Unfortunately for all of us,
the arc of history helps us separate the loudmouth quacks
from the people whose descent was actually productive. The reality is,
even though it's not hard to be hate did, it
is hard to be the person who's at the receiving
(04:04):
end of that hate. It takes sacrifice encourage to follow
through when you're advocating for a cause that you know
will put you at odds with others. Some people in
history they dared to go against the current and a
sea that threatened to drown them. They questioned the status
(04:25):
quo even when they had targets on their back, and
they left a mark on the world, or at least
they are little piece of it. When the fight is
one worth fighting, it can pay to be unpopular. The
response maybe fear, a version, ridicule, but hey, nobody can
be loved by everyone anyway. Every week will bring you
(04:50):
the story of a person or group who railed against
the established order of things. This is a show where
people in the minority speak the loud and outcasts are
decidedly in in. Today's person of the Hour is tataka
Io Take, also known as Sitting Bull. I wish it
(05:17):
to be remembered that I was the last man of
my tribe to surrender my rifle. That's what hunk Papua
Lakota chief Sitting Bull said after his son handed his
father's gun over to a commanding officer in eight one.
Throughout his life, Sitting Bull stuck to his goods. He
(05:39):
fought with passion and resolve. He was committed to resisting
the influence and dominance of white people and preserving the
Lacoda lifestyle and land. When we look back at the
life of Sitting Bull, we see him as this larger
than life, heroic character who championed Native American rights. But
(06:01):
it turns out time a close sister of distance can
also make the heart grow fonder. The thing is, while
he was a much respected and loved chief to the
people he fought for, he was a public enemy. The
new America he found himself in wasn't a friendly one.
(06:21):
Whites were generally hostile to the Native people's ways of life,
impartial to assimilation, and sitting bowl wasn't planning on going
down that easy. He was an agitator, so in their
eyes he was a problem. Imaginative for a moment. Living
on a land that feeds you, provides you in your
(06:43):
family's shelter, and gives you clothing. You your parents, your
parents parents have grown up there, tended to the land,
built up communities and traditions there, learned the land and
learn to love it like another family member. It is
your home, and you and your ancestors have made many
memories there. Stories of things that happened on that land
(07:07):
have been passed down through generations. It is your home,
the place you know best. Now imagine that being forcefully
taken away in the name of manifest destiny and misguided
views on assimilation. US President Andrew Jackson signed the Indian
(07:28):
Removal Act in eighteen thirty, which gave the President the
authority to grant lands west of the Mississippi River in
exchange for tribal lands within US boundaries. That led to
the trail of tears, forced relocations of Native people's that
was a lot more brutal and protracted than the name
lets on. The Suppression of Indigenous people's rituals and beliefs
(07:53):
was a constant throughout nineteenth and twentieth century relations between
the U. S Government and tribes. Tribal ceremonies were banned,
Native children were forced to attend boarding schools, use anglicized names,
and where non native outfits. Basically, Indigenous peoples and their
cultures were unwanted in the very place that they had
(08:16):
grown up, and immigrants would do whatever it took to
get rid of them. That isn't to say that Native
Americans were hopeless, defenseless victims of a tyrannical federal government
and a monolithic white population. Some tribes agreed to see
their land and made no effort to resist the federal government.
(08:37):
We know conflict is never that black and white, even
though movies can make it look that easy. The quirky
but treacherous villain tries to foil the hero with increasingly
convoluted plans and expository monologues along the way, and at
the end the good guy triumphs. But no, in real life,
there ain't no story that's as simple as good versus
(08:58):
evil were only one and can prevail in this story.
The story of Sitting Bull, Defender of the Northern Plains
Native Americans, is one that begins in tragedy and ends
in tragedy. Sitting Bull was born around eighteen thirty one.
(09:21):
According to Sitting Bull's great grandson, he was born on
the Yellowstone River south of Miles City, Montana, though it's
been said by others that he was born in what
would become the Dakota Territory. His father was a warrior
named Jumping Bull, and his mother's name was her Holy Door.
(09:41):
The hunt Papas were one of seven branches of the
Lakota who lived west of the Missouri River. Let me
just pause here to say that the term sue is
widely used to describe an alliance of several tribes of
Northern Plains indigenous peoples, but the term isn't except it
by all the people it describes. Many of these people
(10:04):
preferred to refer to themselves as Lakota or Dakota, because
the label Sue is a derogatory name that enemies gave them,
so here we'll stick with saying Lakota and Dakota. At
the time of Sitting Bull's birth, hostilities between the US
government and Native Americans were already at a high point.
(10:27):
The government was already lustily looking at rich Native lands
and sending people west. Tribes were already resisting American strong arming,
and the government was already attempting to civilize Native Americans.
All that's to say US and Native American relations weren't
exactly in the best place. Okay, they were terrible in
(10:49):
getting more hostile, and that's the climate. Sitting Bull, or
Jumping Badger, as he was first named, was born into
Sitting Bulls nickname as a child was slow because of
how measured his demeanor was, but it didn't take long
for him to earn the name most people know him by.
(11:11):
The Plans Natives were bison hunters. They used the hides
for tepee covers, clothing, and blankets, the meat for food,
and the bones for tools and utensils. So when he
was just ten years old, Sitting Bull killed his first
bison and when he was fourteen, he counted coup or
(11:34):
struck a rival Crow warrior by forcing him off his
horse with acoustick, which was a stick that warriors used
in battle to touch enemies without killing them and show
their courage. It was after this brave moment when his
father gave him the name that would embody his headstrong
and persistent character for the rest of his life, Tatanka
(11:57):
e o Take, which described a bison bull that's sitting down,
and so the story goes. Sitting Bull became a warrior.
He got into the Strong Heart Warrior society, which fought
enemies of the Lakota people, and by the time he
was twenty five, he became a leader. Throughout his youth,
(12:20):
he went to war with rival tribes like the Crows,
Hadatza flat his shashone and man dance. Once, when he
was in battle with the Crows during a horse dealing
raid in eighteen fifty six, Sitting Bull was shot in
his left foot. He walked with a limp for the
rest of his life, but he had killed the offending crow,
(12:41):
so he was praised for his courage. He would also
go on to become a member of the Silent eaters,
an exclusive group that discussed tribal welfare, and when his
father was killed by a crow warrior in eighteen fifty eight,
Sitting Bull exacted revenge by mutile lating the killer's body.
(13:02):
Sitting Bowl even adopted Arrival, a Sinna boy and boy
that he caught in battle as his brother. The accounts
of young Sitting Bowls bravery and his exploits seemed never ending,
but as Sitting Bowl got older, the fight that defined
his plucky and obstinate warrior spirit was the one against
(13:24):
encroaching white men that threatened their ways of life and
lives themselves. Because not many white people traveled through where
Sitting Bowl lived, it wasn't until the early eighteen sixties
when Sitting Bowl at his first serious run in with them.
The Santee Dakota that lived on reservations in Minnesota grew
(13:46):
tired of their mistreatment and rebelled by killing and wounding
soldiers and other white people and taking women hostage. US
troops quilled the uprising, but the US retaliated by sending
Generals Henry Hastings, Sibley and Alfred Sully to attack Lakota camps.
Sibley's expedition went into hunk Papa territory, and Sitting Bull
(14:10):
helped fight, even though he hadn't been part of the rebellion.
In July eighteen sixty four, Sully launched an attack on
the Lakota and Dakota at Kildeer Mountain as part of
the retaliation, and Sitting Bull helped lead the defense. And
from there he fought many more battles against the US,
including the War on Powder River and attacks on Fort Rice.
(14:33):
Between all those battles of Indigenous people versus white people,
Sitting Bull made the decision to never bow to white
men who wanted them to assimilate our give up their
freedom and land, and that was the resolve he had
as he led his people. The extent of Sitting Bulls
authority over individual tribes has been called into question, but
(14:58):
it's been said that around eighteen six eight, Sitting Bull
became the head chief of the entire Lacoda nation thanks
to his leadership in resistance to US forces. Either way,
Sitting Bulls reputation as a warrior leader and medicine man
preceded him, and he managed to unite the Western Northern
Plains tribes in their fight against American westward expansion and
(15:21):
cultural dominance. In sitting Bulls, opposition would only grow stronger.
We'll be back after this quick break. For more than
two months, France's Yellow Fest protesters have been on the
(15:43):
streets and gry over the cost of living and a
political system and president they say ignores the poorest. Friday's
prayers in Sudan ended with cause for more protests demanding
the resignation of president. Dominant issue mccaby is long gone,
but in Bobwe's anguish is getting only worse. The second
(16:03):
time in six months, the government dealt with demonstrations by
deputing truths we need our pay checks. Across the country,
increasingly desperate federal workers stage protests against the shutdown. People
have been using protest as a way to get what
(16:25):
they want for centuries. Time has proven that if a
person or group is unhappy with something, they will fight
back an attempt to change it. Protests has caused compromise,
It's caused death, and it's caused change. People who have
used their voices to reject laws, people, and conventions have
(16:46):
risked their lives in service of causes. They believe we're right.
But that's the thing each side operates under the notion
that what they believe is right. Otherwise there would be
no left versus right, no old guard versus new guard,
no black versus white. If we make decisions based on
(17:10):
our personal ethics, education, and opinions, then those things will
guide which position we take on political and social issues,
and we're going to believe what we believe until our knowledge, morals,
or opinions change. That's why one person can be completely
gung ho about the fact that Earth is spherical and
(17:30):
another can be like, the Earth is flat. Changed my mind,
my reality, my senses tell me that the Earth is
flacking stationary. After all, we were sure the Earth was
flat back in the day until we weren't. Anyway, it's
so easy to get caught up in who is on
which side, who should be condemned, and who should be praised,
(17:51):
especially since we have the Internet at our fingertips. Gone
are the days when people can say, hey, wait, I'm
pretty where the earth is round and escape The criticism
of the entire world's peanut gallery discent is amplified now,
and considering the number of social media comments I've seen
(18:12):
sarcastically dismissing people as edgy for having unorthodox opinions. They
seem like we kind of have a discent fatigue. That
fatigue shows up in Americans who are tired of social
justice warriors. You can see it in Americans who are
tired of people denying the legitimacy of Trump's presidency. And
(18:34):
then there are those who are tired of political correctness.
And that fatigue even shows up in people tired of
others who decry the mainstream media as fake news. I
know that we really want to hate the fact that
everybody has opinions and can share those opinions with the
world easily and become I really dislike this word, but influencers.
(19:00):
But people's informed, dissenting opinions have gotten us out of
messes and into better places. And we don't get to
have productive opposition without some nonsense here and there. People
like Sitting Bull, who hold fast to their resistance of
the status quo and take one for the team helped
(19:21):
the world go round because it's not flat. Well, this
is awkward. The latter half of Sitting Bull's life was
full of conflict with the US. American forces were powerful
(19:45):
and their ability to organize was great, but Sitting Bull
and all the other Native Americans who wanted to resist
the influence of white people were tenacious and determined to
ensure the survival of their people. Two. When Sitting Bull
was a prisoner of war at Fort Randall, he told
(20:07):
James Creelman the following in an interview. This land belongs
to us, for the Great Spirit gave it to us.
When he put us here, we were free to come
and go and to live in our own way. But
white men, who belonged to another land have come upon
(20:28):
us and are forcing us to live according to their ideas.
That is an injustice. We have never dreamed of making
white men live as we live. White men like to
dig in the ground for their food. My people preferred
to hunt the buffalo as their fathers did. White men
(20:50):
like to stay in one place. My people want to
move their teps here and there to the different hunting grounds.
The life of white man and is slavery. They are
prisoners in towns are farms. The life my people want
is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that
(21:11):
a white man has houses or railways, are clothing or food.
That is as good as the right to move in
the open country and live in our own fashion. Why
has our blood been shed by your soldiers? And Sitting
Bool would go on to say this, we marched across
(21:33):
the lines of our reservation, and the soldiers followed us.
They attacked our village, and we kill them all. What
would you do if your home was attacked? You would
stand up like a brave man and defend it. That
is our story I have spoken. We'll be right back, okay.
(22:13):
After the Civil War ended in eighteen sixty five, white
settlement and expansion was booming again. Gold was discovered in Montana.
Advances in agricultural machinery brought more people looking to make
a book off farming to the west, and the first
transcontinental railroad was completed in eighteen sixty nine, creating a
(22:37):
stream of passengers headed west. That meant that white people
were headed towards hunk Papa land, and that influx of
people was a huge threat to the lives of Lakota
since there were nomadic and relied on the bison for sustenance.
Even the bison were targeted by US forces since they
(22:57):
were a source of Native American survival. Even though they
were up against a lot, Sitting Bowl still tried to
get tribes to fight together against whites. The Lakota attacked
railroad surveyors and soldiers, committed massacres, and raided forts. The
tribe's resistance was putting a lot of pressure on US forces.
(23:21):
Seeing how much war and uprising there was in the West,
the federal government drew up the Treaty of Fort Laramie
in eighteen sixty eight. The treaty established what was called
the Great Sioux Reservation, including an area called the Black
Hills that would be designated exclusively for those Native people
(23:42):
who agreed to it. It also said that the U
s would abandon forts it had set up along the
Bowsman Trail, which had become a point of conflict between
the US and Native Americans. Spoiler alert Sitting Bowl never
signed a treaty, but the starry eyed hope for this
treaty was peace and the late eighteen sixties in early
(24:07):
eighteen seventies where the era of President Ulysses Grant's Peace Policy,
which attempted to get rid of corrupt Indian Bureau agents.
There was a moment of relative silence, but it definitely
wasn't all peaceful. The government was still after the natives
way of life. The US instituted agricultural training on reservations,
(24:31):
and established schools and churches intended to convert Native Americans
to Christianity. So the word peace is probably a euphemism,
but that faux piece didn't last too long anyway. In
eighteen seventy four, General George Armstrong Custer lent an expedition
(24:52):
looking for gold into the Black Hills, and even though
that land was a no go for prospectors because of
the Laramie Treaty, they went for it anyway. The Lakota people,
of course, weren't having it, and Sitting Bull helped unite
the branches of the Lakota to face the army and
reservation agents. Sitting Bowl was also a respected medicine man,
(25:23):
so when he underwent the Sun Dance, a religious ceremony
that's done for the welfare of the people, and had
a vision of a victory, people believed him. When custer
seventh Cavalry rolled into the Lakota encampment on a mission,
the Natives emerged victorious, but Americans were really upset about
(25:45):
the defeat, and the Lakota people who had linked up
to fight custers troops suffered a lot of losses to
persist in cavalrymen, so Sitting Bowl and the anti treaty
natives who hadn't surrendered flat to Canada. M That didn't
go so well either. Sitting Bowl was losing people's allegiance
(26:08):
as they had a hard time finding food in Canada,
and one after five years in Canada, Sitting Bowl went
back to America with less than three hundred of his followers.
When he got back, he handed in his rifle, then
was sent to Standing Rock Reservation, then Fort Randall, where
(26:30):
he was held as a prisoner of war for almost
two years. Even though he had surrendered, he was still
steadfast in his resistance to white assimilation, and he remained
(26:53):
that way until he died. Near the end of his life,
he joined in on the Ghost Stands, a ceremony that
was spreading through Native American tribes that was supposed to
put an end to white people's oppression of Indigenous peoples
and bring about a new leader. But the dance brought
(27:14):
about Sitting Bulls demise. Americans were afraid that the Ghost
Dance was really a call to political action, and Sitting Bull,
as fearsome as he was, could in no way be
a part of that. On December ninety, police tried to
(27:34):
arrest Sitting Bull fearing his involvement in the Ghost Dance.
In the scuffle that ensued, one of the Lakota policemen
shot and killed Sitting Bull. Sitting Bull was all about
the preservation of his people in their way of life,
(27:56):
but white people were able to suppress Native traditions and
languages in a major way. That doesn't mean that Sitting
Bowls efforts were for not. Sitting Bulls legacy as a
defender of the Lakota people lives on, and he has
achieved a sort of legendary status in Native American, American
(28:17):
and world history. It's unfair to say just because he
didn't when the war he was fighting, and it was
a war that Sitting Bulls efforts were meaningless. Sitting Bowl
was resilient. He was an enemy of many people throughout
his life because of his commitment to protecting Native American lives.
(28:38):
It would have been easy for him to choose the
path of least resistance. Instead, he chose to disrupt. It
is not hard to be hated, but if you are
going to be, at least make it worthwhile. Sitting Bulls
(28:59):
resolve despite all the backlash and losses he faced is
a good reminder that sometimes a fight just takes serious doggedness.
Sitting Bull helped keep Native people in traditions alive, and
he inspired tons of people to resist, to honor their heritage,
(29:20):
and to be brave. Sitting Bull was hunted and feared
for his defiance, but it was his defiance that made
him the bold leader we remember him as today. Andrew
Howard is our producer. Holly Fry and Christopher Hasiotis are
(29:44):
executive producers. You can subscribe to the show on Apple Podcasts,
the I Heart Radio app, or wherever you get your podcasts.
We'll be back next week with another episode of Unpopular
k
Unpopular News
Host
Yves Jeffcoat
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