Tatanka Iyotanka "Sitting Bull"

by Mathew Barkhausen (Awohali)

Yesterday, December 15th was the 109th anniversary of the death of Sitting Bull. Tatanka Iyotanka, his name implying an almost immovable buffalo bull, sitting still and fearful of nothing. I'm pretty sure he was born sometime around 1834 at a time when the Lakota were still the Lords of the Northern Plains. At a time when anyone wishing to pass through their territory had to pay a heavy toll. During his lifetime Tatanka Iyotanka witnessed the decline of the Lakota's power and their repeated betrayal by the U.S. government. I heard one story about him I thought was pretty amazing.

He had been told in a vision that he could not be harmed in battle and that he would not die that way. During one battle he walked out in the middle of all the violence, spread out a buffalo skin, sat still and smoked a pipe as arrows and bullets flew all around, not a single one was able to kill him. Tatanka Iyotanka sacrificed his flesh at a sundance to ensure victory at the battle of the Little Bighorn. Of course he did not fight because he was still weak from his offering and was already old by the time of the battle.

He stayed in Canada for a long time and was among the last to return to the U.S. of the Lakota's who had taken refuge there. He eventually became a part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, touring to far away places like London and New York. When in New York he couldn't understand why in a city that was so successful that there were so many homeless and poor people. He gave away most of his pay from the Wild West show to homeless people and newspaper boys. When he returned the reservation he befriended a Catholic woman who tried to convert him.

But she was at the same time a sort of anthropologist and tried collecting information about the Lakota's from him. She painted a portrait of him in his traditional clothing. One day Tatanka Iyotanka had a dream, in it a bird landed on a fence post and spoke to him in his native language, it said, "Your own people, Lakota's, will kill you."

During this time the Ghost Dance was still popular among many Indians of the Plains. Tatanka Iyotanka was a traditional Lakota spiritual person and did not even believe in the Ghost Dance. But reservation officials had been told he was a leader in it and was making trouble on the reservation.

They sent reservation police to arrest him, all the police were Indian. Indians who had been raised in boarding schools in the East, who had their hair cut short and wearing their uniforms. They went to Tatanka Iyotanka's cabin and he went out peacefully. But the police noticed a large crowd had gathered around the cabin. Some of the men were armed and were not about to allow their beloved Sitting Bull to be taken away. A shot rang out but it struck no one. Almost immediately one of the policemen shot Tatanka Iyotanka and killed him. A few others died before the shooting stopped. In a way Sitting Bull's death could be said to be a greater tragedy than that of Crazy Horse. Because in his case, he was murdered by his own people.