Assignment 15

Assignment 15 Chp 18
In 1877, after the government drove the Sioux out of Nebraska, the Sioux were settled in several different reservations. Red Cloud and his Ogalas were settled in the southwest corner of the reservation Pine Ridge, while east of Pine Ridge, Spotted Tail and his Brules were settled along the Little White River at an agency called Rosebud, and the remaining Sioux tribes four other agencies: Lower Brule; Crow Creek; Cheyenne River; and Standing Rock. During this time, there was outrage by the white pioneers and settlers who wanted railroads, roads, and more settlements to go through Sioux reservation lands. In the old days, the Sioux would have fought to keep the whites off their lands, but now they were disarmed and dismounted and had no way of feeding themselves let alone pushing back against further encroachment.
Sitting Bull and his followers had escaped to Canada and lived there for four years following the battle at Little Bighorn. The army was displeased with allowing a force as powerful as Sitting Bull to remain free, but Canada would offer little help in the capture of the Indians as long as they presented no real threat. In the meantime, Canada allowed no assistance to the Indians either because they were not true Canadians, but had just escaped over the border to avoid capture. During the winter of 1880 a blizzard struck and many Sioux horses froze to death and in the spring many of Sitting Bull’s exiles made the southward trek to Dakota Territory. Alas, in July of 1881, Sitting Bull and 186 of his remaining followers crossed border and rode into Fort Buford. Officials had made promises that if Sitting Bull turned himself in, he would have a full pardon, but they ignored the old promise and took him as a military prisoner. Late in the same summer, Spotted Tail was assassinated by one of his own people, Crow Dog. Plans from the government backfired slightly in detaining Sitting Bull; they only made him grow in popularity. Chiefs, sub chiefs, newspapermen, and more came to visit with the old chief and instead of being forgotten, he became famous.
Despite resistance from the Sioux, they came very close to losing nearly 14,000 square miles of their land in 1882. Commissions were sent out to the agencies to coerce the Sioux into signing documents to give over their lands. They thought they were signing a paper that would give them cattle and bulls, but the commissioners had tricked them by actually signing over their lands. If it hadn’t been for a separate party sent from Washington to investigate, the Sioux would have forfeited much of their lands. Sitting Bull was released from prison shortly before the investigating party was sent from Washington. He was a driving force urging the Sioux not to sell. In the summer of 1883, the transcontinental railroad was completed, and because Sitting Bull was so famous, they asked him to come and make a speech at its inauguration. He did not make the typical speech for such a big celebration, but made insulting remarks and told of how he hated whites, but the interpreter changed his words to make the crowd cheer, applaud, and they gave him a standing ovation. His popularity grew even more after that and he toured with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show through much of the U.S. and Canada. After the season ended, he returned to Standing Rock with two farewell presents being a huge white sombrero and a trained performing horse. In 1887 Buffalo Bill invited Sitting Bull to rejoin the company for a tour of Europe, but he passed stating that he was needed because “there is more talk to taking our lands.”
There are more attempts by the U.S. government to convince the Sioux to give up their lands without completely throwing out the treaty of 1868. Most of the attempts fail until General Crook is convinced to help the commission under the understanding that if the Sioux wouldn’t sell their lands, the government would take them by force. Sitting Bull is not invited to the last council and fights his way in, however, the papers get signed and the Sioux give up the rights to most of their lands. About a year after the breakup of the Great Sioux Reservation, Sitting Bull hears rumors of a great Messiah and of the Ghost Dance ritual that is taking place in other reservations. He convinces Kicking Bear to come to Standing Rock to teach his people the Ghost Dance, even though Sitting Bull himself does not participate or believe in the Ghost Dance. Agent James McClaughlin accused Sitting Bull of being a high priest or leading apostle of latest Indian absurdity, but he only superintended it in order for his people to have a future.
The Ghost Dance took on the importance of the former Sundance. They believed that if they were honest, virtuous, non- violent, prayed, sang, and danced that all of their dead ancestors would come back to life as well as the game would return to the prairies, and all the whites would die from a massive flood. Dancers became so enthralled with it that the store houses, school houses, and trading stores would be empty. The whites saw the Ghost Dance with a sense of paranoia and thought it was dangerous. Army soldiers were called in at the request of the whites on the reservations, and the tensions grew. McClaughlin thought Sitting Bull was the force behind the Ghost Dance and ordered him to be arrested. Just before day break on December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull was arrested by forty-three Indian police. He was going quietly, until the arresting officer Bull Head and Red Tomahawk started to push the old man towards his horse and Sitting Bull started to push back. When this happened, Catch-the-Bear threw off his blanket and fired his rifle at Bull Head wounding him in the side. As Bull head fell, he shot Sitting Bull, and Red Tomahawk shot Sitting Bull in the head and killed him.



Assignment 15 Chp 19
After Sitting Bull’s assassination, the Ghost Dance was the only driving force keeping the Indians from retaliating. Instead, many of his Hunkpapa Sioux fled the Standing Rock reservation to seek refuge in Red Cloud’s Pine Ridge agency. December 17, about a hundred of the fleeing Hunkpapas reached Big Foot’s Minneconjou camp near Cherry Creek. As soon as Big Foot learned of Sitting Bull being killed, he started with his people toward Pine Ridge in hopes that Red Cloud could protect them from the soldiers. En route, Big Foot becomes ill with pneumonia, and is no longer able to walk and has to travel by wagon. On December 28, the Minneconjous first sighted the four troops of soldiers and luckily Big Foot has a white flag flying above his wagon. Major Samuel Whitside of the Seventh Cavalry stops them and informs them he has orders to take them to a cavalry camp at Wounded Knee Creek. Whitside wishes to disarm them as soon as he stops the Indians, but one of his scouts, John Shangreau, warns him that to do this would mean bloodshed. Hearing this, Whitside finally agrees to take them to Wounded Knee first and then disarm and dismount them.
Upon arrival at Wounded Knee Creek, Whitside knew it would be dark soon so he decides to disarm the Indians in the morning. They get a full headcount of 120 men and 230 women and children. To make sure the Indians did not try to escape, he stationed two troops of cavalry around the Sioux tepees and then posted two Hotchkiss guns on top of a rise overlooking the camp. In the middle of the night, the rest of the Seventh Cavalry joins the group and Colonel James W. Forsyth takes charge of the operations and placed two more Hotchkiss guns on another hill. Their new mission is to bring Big Foot’s band to the Union Pacific Railroad for shipment to a military prison in Omaha. Even though the Indians have their ghost shirts that are supposed to protect them from harm, they are nervous and scared throughout the night.
The next morning, Colonel Forsyth informed the Indians that they had to be disarmed. All of the Indians did as they were told and brought their rifles out and laid them down, and even though they were angry, they did as they were told. Not satisfied with the number of weapons, the soldiers searched all the tepees and emptied bundles as well as ordered the chiefs to remove their blankets in order to be searched. With this, Yellow Bird put up a fuss, and Black Coyote raised his Winchester rifle to exclaim it was his and he had paid a lot of money for it. Seeing Black Coyote raise his gun, the soldiers grabbed him, spun him around, and grabbed his gun. As this happened, the gun fired and the soldiers took the sound as the signal for them to fire. They killed Big Foot as he attempted to rise out of his blankets and they killed anything and everything that moved. Since most of the Indians had no arms, they began to flee and the big guns on the hills opened fire on them. When the firing ended, Big Foot and half of his people were dead or seriously wounded. There were 153 known dead, but many of the wounded crawled away to die afterward. The final total of dead was nearly 300 of the original 350 men, women, and children. The soldiers lost twenty-five and thirty-nine were wounded. Most of them had been hit by their own cavalrymen or by sharp from the guns on the hill.
With an impending blizzard approaching, the soldiers gathered up Indians who were still alive and loaded them into wagons. The dead Indians were left lying where they had fallen. Upon arrival at Pine Ridge, the Episcopal church in was turned into a make shift hospital for the wounded Indians. When the blizzard had subsided five days later, a burial party returned to Wounded Knee Creek and found the bodies including Big Foot’s in contorted and grotesque shapes.