Life and Times of Sitting Bull

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Blog Created: 9-15-2023

Last Updated: 9-16-2023

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Sitting Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake [tˣa.ˈtˣə̃.ka ˈi.jɔ.ta.kɛ];[4] c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him, at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.

Before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw many soldiers, "as thick as grasshoppers", falling upside down into the Lakota camp, which his people took as a foreshadowing of a major victory in which many soldiers would be killed. About three weeks later, the confederated Lakota tribes with the Northern Cheyenne defeated the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer on June 25, 1876, annihilating Custer's battalion and seeming to fulfill Sitting Bull's prophetic vision. Sitting Bull's leadership inspired his people to a major victory. In response, the U.S. government sent thousands more soldiers to the area, forcing many of the Lakota to surrender over the next year. Sitting Bull refused to surrender, and in May 1877, he led his band north to Wood Mountain, North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan). He remained there until 1881, when he and most of his band returned to U.S. territory and surrendered to U.S. forces.

After working as a performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency in South Dakota. Because of fears that Sitting Bull would use his influence to support the Ghost Dance movement, Indian Service agent James McLaughlin at Fort Yates ordered his arrest. During an ensuing struggle between Sitting Bull's followers and the agency police, Sitting Bull was shot in the side and head by Standing Rock policemen Lieutenant Bull Head (Tatankapah, Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Pȟá) and Red Tomahawk (Marcelus Chankpidutah, Lakota: Čhaŋȟpí Dúta), after the police were fired upon by Sitting Bull's supporters. His body was taken to nearby Fort Yates for burial. In 1953, his Lakota family exhumed what were believed to be his remains, reburying them near Mobridge, South Dakota, near his birthplace.

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Early life ~

Sitting Bull was born on land later included in the Dakota Territory. In 2007, Sitting Bull's great-grandson asserted from family oral tradition that Sitting Bull was born along the Yellowstone River, south of present-day Miles City, Montana. He was named Ȟoká Psíče (Jumping Badger) at birth, and nicknamed Húŋkešni [ˈhʊ̃kɛʃni] or "Slow" said to describe his careful and unhurried nature. When he was 14 years old, he accompanied a group of Lakota warriors (which included his father and his uncle Four Horns) in a raiding party to take horses from a camp of Crow warriors. He displayed bravery by riding forward and counting coup on one of the surprised Crow, which was witnessed by the other mounted Lakota. Upon returning to camp, his father gave a celebratory feast at which he conferred his own name upon his son. While the name, Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake, in the Lakota language roughly translates to "Buffalo Who Sits Down", Americans came to commonly refer to him as "Sitting Bull". Thereafter, Sitting Bull's father was known as Jumping Bull. At this ceremony before the entire band, Sitting Bull's father presented his son with an eagle feather to wear in his hair, a warrior's horse and a hardened buffalo hide shield to mark his son's passage into manhood as a Lakota warrior.

During the Dakota War of 1862, in which Sitting Bull's people were not involved, several bands of eastern Dakota people killed an estimated 300 to 800 settlers and soldiers in south-central Minnesota in response to poor treatment by the government and in an effort to drive the whites away. Despite being embroiled in the American Civil War, the United States Army retaliated in 1863 and 1864, even against bands that had not been involved in the hostilities. In 1864, two brigades of about 2200 soldiers under Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacked a village. The defenders were led by Sitting Bull, Gall and Inkpaduta. The Lakota and Dakota were driven out, but skirmishing continued into August at the Battle of the Badlands.

In September, Sitting Bull and about one hundred Hunkpapa Lakota encountered a small party near what is now Marmarth, North Dakota. They had been left behind by a wagon train commanded by Captain James L. Fisk to effect some repairs to an overturned wagon. When he led an attack, Sitting Bull was shot in the left hip by a soldier. The bullet exited through the small of his back, and the wound was not serious.

Red Cloud's War ~

From 1866 to 1868, Red Cloud, a leader of the Oglala Lakota, fought against U.S. forces, attacking their forts in an effort to keep control of the Powder River Country of Montana. In support of Red Cloud, Sitting Bull led numerous war parties against Fort Berthold, Fort Stevenson and Fort Buford and their environs from 1865 through 1868. The uprising has come to be known as Red Cloud's War.

By early 1868, the U.S. government desired a peaceful settlement to the conflict. It agreed to Red Cloud's demands that the U.S. abandon Forts Phil Kearny and C.F. Smith. Gall of the Hunkpapa (among other representatives of the Hunkpapa, Blackfeet and Yankton Dakota) signed a form of the Treaty of Fort Laramie on July 2, 1868 at Fort Rice (near Bismarck, North Dakota). Sitting Bull did not agree to the treaty. He told the Jesuit missionary Pierre Jean De Smet, who sought him on behalf of the government: "I wish all to know that I do not propose to sell any part of my country." He continued his hit-and-run attacks on forts in the upper Missouri area throughout the late 1860s and early 1870s.

The events of 1866–1868 mark a historically debated period of Sitting Bull's life. According to historian Stanley Vestal, who conducted interviews with surviving Hunkpapa in 1930, Sitting Bull was made "Supreme Chief of the whole Sioux Nation" at this time. Later historians and ethnologists have refuted this concept of authority, as the Lakota society was highly decentralized. Lakota bands and their elders made individual decisions, including whether to wage war.

Great Sioux War of 1876 ~

Sitting Bull's band of Hunkpapa continued to attack migrating parties and forts in the late 1860s. When in 1871 the Northern Pacific Railway conducted a survey for a route across the northern plains directly through Hunkpapa lands, it encountered stiff Lakota resistance. The same railway people returned the following year accompanied by federal troops. Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapa attacked the survey party, which was forced to turn back. In 1873, the military accompaniment for the surveyors was increased again, but Sitting Bull's forces resisted the survey "most vigorously." The Panic of 1873 forced the Northern Pacific Railway's backers (such as Jay Cooke) into bankruptcy. This halted construction of the railroad through Lakota, Dakota and Nakota territory.

After the 1848 discovery of gold in the Sierra Nevada and dramatic gains in new wealth from it, other men became interested in the potential for gold mining in the Black Hills. In 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a military expedition from Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck to explore the Black Hills for gold and to determine a suitable location for a military fort in the Hills. Custer's announcement of gold in the Black Hills triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush. Tensions increased between the Lakota and European Americans seeking to move into the Black Hills.

Although Sitting Bull did not attack Custer's expedition in 1874, the U.S. government was increasingly pressured by citizens to open the Black Hills to mining and settlement. Failing in an attempt to negotiate a purchase or lease of the Hills, the government in Washington had to find a way around the promise to protect the Sioux in their land, as specified in the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. It was alarmed at reports of Sioux depredations, some of which were encouraged by Sitting Bull. In November 1875, President Grant ordered all Sioux bands outside the Great Sioux Reservation to move onto the reservation, knowing full well that not all would comply. As of February 1, 1876, the Interior Department certified as "hostile" those bands who continued to live off the reservation. This certification allowed the military to pursue Sitting Bull and other Lakota bands as "hostiles".

Based on tribal oral histories, historian Margot Liberty theorizes that many Lakota bands allied with the Cheyenne during the Plains Wars because they thought the other nation was under attack by the U.S. Given this connection, she suggests the major war should have been called "The Great Cheyenne War". Since 1860, the Northern Cheyenne had led several battles among the Plains Indians. Before 1876, the U.S. Army had destroyed seven Cheyenne camps, more than those of any other nation.

Other historians, such as Robert M. Utley and Jerome Greene, also use Lakota oral testimony, but they have concluded that the Lakota coalition, of which Sitting Bull was the ostensible head, was the primary target of the federal government's pacification campaign.

During the period 1868–1876, Sitting Bull developed into one of the most important Native American political leaders. After the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868) and the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation, many traditional Sioux warriors, such as Red Cloud of the Oglala and Spotted Tail of the Brulé, moved to reside permanently on the reservations. They were largely dependent for subsistence on the U.S. Indian agencies. Many other chiefs, including members of Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa band such as Gall, at times, lived temporarily at the agencies. They needed the supplies at a time when white encroachment and the depletion of buffalo herds reduced their resources and challenged Native American independence.

In 1875, the Northern Cheyenne, Hunkpapa, Oglala, Sans Arc, and Minneconjou camped together for a Sun Dance, with both the Cheyenne medicine man White Bull or Ice and Sitting Bull in association. This ceremonial alliance preceded their fighting together in 1876. Sitting Bull had a major revelation.

At the climactic moment, "Sitting Bull intoned, 'The Great Spirit has given our enemies to us. We are to destroy them. We do not know who they are. They may be soldiers.' Ice too observed, 'No one then knew who the enemy were – of what tribe.'...They were soon to find out."

Sitting Bull's refusal to adopt any dependence on the U.S. government meant that at times he and his small band of warriors lived isolated on the Plains. When Native Americans were threatened by the United States, numerous members from various Sioux bands and other tribes, such as the Northern Cheyenne, came to Sitting Bull's camp. His reputation for "strong medicine" developed as he continued to evade the European Americans.

After the ultimatum on January 1, 1876, when the U.S. Army began to track down as hostiles those Sioux and others living off the reservation, Native Americans gathered at Sitting Bull's camp. He took an active role in encouraging this "unity camp". He sent scouts to the reservations to recruit warriors and told the Hunkpapa to share supplies with those Native Americans who joined them. An example of his generosity was Sitting Bull's provision for Wooden Leg's Northern Cheyenne tribe. They had been impoverished by Captain Reynolds' March 17, 1876 attack and fled to Sitting Bull's camp for safety.

Over the course of the first half of 1876, Sitting Bull's camp continually expanded as natives joined him for safety in numbers. His leadership had attracted warriors and families, creating an extensive village estimated at more than 10,000 people. Lt. Col. Custer came across this large camp on June 25, 1876. Sitting Bull did not take a direct military role in the ensuing battle; instead, he acted as a spiritual leader. A week prior to the attack, he had performed the Sun Dance, in which he fasted and sacrificed over 100 pieces of flesh from his arms.

Battle of the Little Bighorn ~

On June 25, 1876, Custer's scouts discovered Sitting Bull's camp along the Little Big Horn River (known as the Greasy Grass River to the Lakota).

After being ordered to attack, Custer's 7th Cavalry's troops lost ground quickly and were forced to retreat. Sitting Bull's followers, led into battle by Crazy Horse, counterattacked and ultimately defeated Custer while surrounding and laying siege to the other two battalions led by Reno and Benteen.

Aftermath of the Battle of the Little Bighorn ~

The Native Americans' victory celebrations were short-lived. Public shock and outrage at Custer's defeat and death, as well as the government's understanding of the military capability of the remaining Sioux, led the War Department to assign thousands more soldiers to the area. Over the next year, the new American military forces pursued the Lakota, forcing many of the Native Americans to surrender. Sitting Bull refused to do so and in May 1877 led his band across the border into the North-West Territories, Canada. He remained in exile for four years near Wood Mountain, refusing a pardon and the chance to return. When crossing the border into Canadian territory, Sitting Bull was met by the Mounties of the region. During this meeting, James Morrow Walsh, commander of the North-West Mounted Police, explained to Sitting Bull that the Lakota were now on British soil and must obey British law. Walsh emphasized that he enforced the law equally and that every person in the territory had a right to justice. Walsh became an advocate for Sitting Bull and the two became good friends for the remainder of their lives.

While in Canada, Sitting Bull also met with Crowfoot, who was a leader of the Blackfeet, long-time powerful enemies of the Lakota and Cheyenne. Sitting Bull wished to make peace with the Blackfeet Nation and Crowfoot. As an advocate for peace himself, Crowfoot eagerly accepted the tobacco peace offering. Sitting Bull was so impressed by Crowfoot that he named one of his sons after him. Sitting Bull and his people stayed in Canada for four years. Due to the smaller size of the buffalo herds in Canada, Sitting Bull and his men found it difficult to find enough food to feed their starving people. Sitting Bull's presence in the country led to increased tensions between the Canadian and the United States governments. Before Sitting Bull left Canada, he may have visited Walsh for a final time and left a ceremonial headdress as a memento.

Surrender ~

Hunger and desperation eventually forced Sitting Bull and 186 of his family and followers to return to the United States and surrender on July 19, 1881. Sitting Bull had his young son Crow Foot surrender his Winchester lever-action carbine to major David H. Brotherton, commanding officer of Fort Buford. Sitting Bull said to Brotherton, "I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle". In the parlor of the Commanding Officer's Quarters in a ceremony the next day, he told the four soldiers, 20 warriors and other guests in the small room that he wished to regard the soldiers and the white race as friends but he wanted to know who would teach his son the new ways of the world. Two weeks later, after waiting in vain for other members of his tribe to follow him from Canada, Sitting Bull and his band were transferred to Fort Yates, the military post located adjacent to the Standing Rock Agency. This reservation straddles the present-day boundary between North and South Dakota.

Sitting Bull and his band of 186 people were kept separate from the other Hunkpapa gathered at the agency. Army officials were concerned that he would stir up trouble among the recently surrendered northern bands. On August 26, 1881, he was visited by census taker William T. Selwyn, who counted twelve people in the Hunkpapa leader's immediate family. Forty-one families, totaling 195 people, were recorded in Sitting Bull's band.

The military decided to transfer Sitting Bull and his band to Fort Randall to be held as prisoners of war. Loaded onto a steamboat, the band of 172 people was sent down the Missouri River to Fort Randall (near present-day Pickstown, South Dakota) on the southern border of the state. There they spent the next 20 months. They were allowed to return north to the Standing Rock Agency in May 1883.

In 1883, The New York Times reported that Sitting Bull had been baptized into the Catholic Church. James McLaughlin, Indian agent at Standing Rock Agency, dismissed these reports, saying: "The reported baptism of Sitting-Bull is erroneous. There is no immediate prospect of such ceremony so far as I am aware."

Sitting Bull and Annie Oakley.

Annie Oakley ~

In 1884 show promoter Alvaren Allen asked Agent James McLaughlin to allow Sitting Bull to tour parts of Canada and the northern United States. The show was called the "Sitting Bull Connection." It was during this tour that Sitting Bull met Annie Oakley in Minnesota. He was so impressed with Oakley's skills with firearms that he offered $65 (equal to $2,117 today) for a photographer to take a photo of the two together. The admiration and respect was mutual. Oakley stated that Sitting Bull made a "great pet" of her. In observing Oakley, Sitting Bull's respect for the young sharpshooter grew. Oakley was quite modest in her attire, deeply respectful of others, and had a remarkable stage persona despite being a woman who stood only five feet in height. Sitting Bull felt that she was "gifted" by supernatural means in order to shoot so accurately with both hands. As a result of his esteem, he symbolically "adopted" her as a daughter in 1884. He named her "Little Sure Shot" – a name that Oakley used throughout her career.

Wild West show ~

In 1885, Sitting Bull was allowed to leave the reservation to go Wild Westing with Buffalo Bill Cody's Buffalo Bill's Wild West. He earned about $50 a week (equal to $1,629 today) for riding once around the arena, where he was a popular attraction. Although it is rumored that he cursed his audiences in his native tongue during the show, the historian Utley contends that he did not. Historians have reported that Sitting Bull gave speeches about his desire for education for the young, and reconciling relations between the Sioux and whites.

Sitting Bull with Buffalo Bill Cody.

The historian Edward Lazarus wrote that Sitting Bull reportedly cursed his audience in Lakota in 1884, during an opening address celebrating the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway. According to Michael Hiltzik, "...Sitting Bull declared in Lakota, 'I hate all White people.' ... 'You are thieves and liars. You have taken away our land and made us outcasts.'" The translator, however, read the original address which had been written as a 'gracious act of amity', and the audience, including President Grant, was left none the wiser.

Sitting Bull stayed with the show for four months before returning home. During that time, audiences considered him a celebrity and romanticized him as a warrior. He earned a small fortune by charging for his autograph and picture, although he often gave his money away to the homeless and beggars.

Ghost Dance movement Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency after working in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show. The tension between Sitting Bull and Agent McLaughlin increased and each became warier of the other over several issues including division and sale of parts of the Great Sioux Reservation. During that period, in 1889 Indian Rights Activist Caroline Weldon from Brooklyn, New York, a member of the National Indian Defense Association "NIDA", reached out to Sitting Bull, acting to be his voice, secretary, interpreter and advocate. She joined him, together with her young son Christy, at his compound on the Grand River, sharing with him and his family home and hearth. In 1889, during a time of harsh winters and long droughts impacting the Sioux Reservation, a Paiute Indian named Wovoka spread a religious movement from Nevada eastward to the Plains that preached a resurrection of the Native. It was known as the "Ghost Dance movement" because it called on the Indians to dance and chant for the rising up of deceased relatives and the return of the buffalo. The dance included shirts that were said to stop bullets. When the movement reached Standing Rock, Sitting Bull allowed the dancers to gather at his camp. Although he did not appear to participate in the dancing, he was viewed as a key instigator. Alarm spread to nearby white settlements.

Death and burial ~

In 1890, James McLaughlin, the U.S. Indian agent at Fort Yates on Standing Rock Agency, feared that the Lakota leader was about to flee the reservation with the Ghost Dancers, so he ordered the police to arrest him. On December 14, 1890, McLaughlin drafted a letter to Lieutenant Henry Bullhead (noted as Bull Head in lead), an Indian agency policeman, that included instructions and a plan to capture Sitting Bull. The plan called for the arrest to take place at dawn on December 15 and advised the use of a light spring wagon to facilitate removal before his followers could rally. Bullhead decided against using the wagon. He intended to have the police officers force Sitting Bull to mount a horse immediately after the arrest.

Around 5:30 a.m. on December 15, 39 police officers and four volunteers approached Sitting Bull's house. They surrounded the house, knocked and entered. Bullhead told Sitting Bull that he was under arrest and led him outside. Sitting Bull and his wife noisily stalled for time, and the camp awakened and men converged at the house. As Bullhead ordered Sitting Bull to mount a horse, he said that the Indian Affairs agent wanted to see the chief, and that Sitting Bull could then return to his house. When Sitting Bull refused to comply, the police used force on him. The Sioux in the village were enraged. Catch-the-Bear, a Lakota, shouldered his rifle and shot Bullhead, who reacted by firing his revolver into the chest of Sitting Bull. Another police officer, Red Tomahawk, shot Sitting Bull in the head, and Sitting Bull dropped to the ground. Sitting Bull died between 12 and 1 p.m.

A close-quarters fight erupted, and within minutes, several men were dead. The Lakota killed six policemen immediately, while two more died shortly after the fight, including Bullhead. The police killed Sitting Bull and seven of his supporters at the site, along with two horses.

Sitting Bull's body was taken to Fort Yates, where it was placed in a coffin (made by the Army carpenter) and buried. A monument was installed to mark his burial site after his remains were reportedly taken to South Dakota.

In 1953, Lakota family members exhumed what they believed to be Sitting Bull's remains, transporting them for reinterment near Mobridge, South Dakota, his birthplace. A monument to him was erected there.

Legacy ~

Following Sitting Bull's death, his cabin on the Grand River was taken to Chicago for use as an exhibit at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. Native American dancers also performed at the exposition.

Sitting Bull's family in front of his cabin.

On September 14, 1989, the United States Postal Service released a Great Americans series 28¢ postage stamp featuring a likeness of Sitting Bull.

On March 6, 1996, Standing Rock College was renamed Sitting Bull College in his honor. Sitting Bull College serves as an institution of higher education on Sitting Bull's home of Standing Rock in North Dakota and South Dakota.

Main entrance to Sitting Bull College.

In August 2010, a research team led by Eske Willerslev, an ancient DNA expert at the University of Copenhagen, announced its intention to sequence the genome of Sitting Bull, with the approval of his descendants, using a hair sample obtained during his lifetime. In October 2021, Willerslev's research confirmed Lakota writer and activist Ernie Lapointe (who had previously proclaimed himself to be Sitting Bull's great-grandson) and his three sisters to be Sitting Bull's biological great-grandchildren.

South Dakota author Ernie LaPointe and his three sisters are now the only known living descendants of the legendary Lakota warrior Sitting Bull.

Representation in popular culture ~

Sitting Bull was the subject of, or a featured character in, several Hollywood motion pictures and documentaries, which have reflected changing ideas about him and Lakota culture in relation to the United States. Among them are:

Sitting Bull: The Hostile Sioux Indian Chief (1914).

Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre (1927), with Chief Yowlachie in the title role.

Annie Oakley (1935), played by Chief Thunderbird.

Annie Get Your Gun (1950), played by J. Carrol Naish.

Sitting Bull (1954), with J. Carrol Naish again in the title role.

Cheyenne (1957), with Frank DeKova as Sitting Bull.

Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976), played by Frank Kaquitts.

Buffalo Girls (1995 miniseries), played by Russell Means.

Heritage Minute: Sitting Bull (Canadian 60-second short film), played by Graham Greene.

Into the West (2005 miniseries), played by Eric Schweig.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007), played by August Schellenberg.

Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart (2008), documentary.

Woman Walks Ahead (2017), played by Michael Greyeyes.

- As time passed, Sitting Bull has become a symbol and archetype of Native American resistance movements as well as a figure celebrated by descendants of his former enemies:

- Legoland Billund, in Billund, Denmark, the first Legoland park, contains a 36-foot-tall Lego sculpture of Sitting Bull.

- Sitting Bull is featured as the leader for the Native American Civilization in the computer game Civilization IV.

- Sitting Bull is listed as one of 13 great Americans in President Barack Obama's children's book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.

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Signature of Sitting Bull.

William Frederick "Buffalo Bill" Cody stands in the center of the back row of a group portrait in a studio. Sitting in front of Cody is Hunkpapa Sioux Chief Sitting Bull, who toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in 1885. The others in the portrait include, from left, William Halsey (Sitting Bull's interpreter), Crow Eagle, young Johnny Baker (later known as the "Cowboy Kid" in the Wild West Show and foster son to Cody) and Adirondack (a naturalist). Both Sitting Bull and Crow Eagle wear feather headdresses. Cody wears an embroidered shirt and scarf and holds his hat, probably a Stetson, in his left hand. He wears thigh boots and his belt has a large, square buckle. Adirondack holds a cane in his left hand. Baker holds his hat in his lap. A straw fan is propped against Sitting Bull's right leg. (ID´s above from Denver Public Library).

Gray Eagle (second from right) by Gilbert & Bacon).

Sitting Bull and Hunkpapa.

Sitting Bull with other Indian Chiefs. 1875.

Sitting Bull and his wife in 1882.

Sitting Bull, with Caroline Weldon after his 1882 surrender.

Sitting Bull's family 1891.

Sitting Bull's tepee and family.

Ernie LaPointe, 73, a Lakota Tribe member in South Dakota, had long sought to prove his link to Sitting Bull.

Buffalo robe painted by Sitting Bull.

Cheyenne Beaded Hide Moccasins.

Moccasins of Sitting Bull.

Sitting Bull exhibit at the Little Big Horn Museum.

Sitting Bull's field glasses.

Sitting Bull's headdress.

Sitting Bull's war bonnet.

Sitting Bull's medicine bag.

Sitting Bull's pipe bag.

Sitting Bull's pipe.

Sitting Bull's war shirt.

Spoon found at Sitting Bull's camp.

Sitting Bull's death mask and tomahawk.

General George Armstrong Custer.

Bloody Knife, Custer's scout, on Yellowstone Expedition, 1873.

Gall (Native American leader).

Hunkpapa Lakota chief Gall (c.1840-1894) in war bonnet.

Alvaren Allen.

Caroline Weldon. 1915.

Crow Foot by D.F. Barry.

Crowfoot, Head Chief of the Blackfoot.

Curley, Custer's Crow scout and interpreter through the battle.

Custer and Bloody Knife (kneeling left), Custer's favorite Indian Scout.

Custer and his wife, Libby at Fort Abraham Lincoln, Dakota Territory, 1874.

James McLaughlin (1842-1923), US Indian Inspector.

James Morrow Walsh 22 May 1840 – 25 July 1905. Born in Prescott, Ontario.

Jay Cooke.

Major C. Newell, Indian Agent.

Red Cloud.

Spotted Tail.

U.S. Army Brigadier General Alfred Sully.

Wovoka.

Edward Lazarus. 2021.

Robert M. Utley. 2007.

Ernie LaPointe.

Sitting Bull's rifle with document.

Serial no. 126747 for 1876, .44 caliber.

Rifle: Presented to Sitting Bull the Minor (Sitting Bull the Good, Oglala Lakota, 1841-1876) on June 6, 1875 by President Ulysses S. Grant; collected by General Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925, U.S. Army, then a colonel) following Sitting Bull's death at the hands of the Crows on December 16, 1876 on the Tongue River in Montana; inherited by General Miles' children, Cecelia Miles Reber (Mrs. Samuel K. Reber, 1869-1952) and Major General Sherman Miles (1882-1966); donated to MAI by Major General Sherman Miles and Cecelia Miles Reber in 1925.

Parker Field Flintlock name engraved.

Custer's personal Army issued Model 1866 Spencer rifle.

Gen. George Armstrong Custer's .22 revolver, which was presented to him by the United States Volunteers in 1863, has an opening bid of $25,000 in Heritage Auctions' Legends of the West Auction. Photo courtesy of Heritage Auctions, HA.com.

The sale’s top lot had solid provenance. Dr Kenneth Leonard purchased this US Colt Single Action Army Revolver from a family in Little Eagle, S.D., on the Standing Rock Reservation in 1962. Kenneth practiced medicine on patients at the reservation and was a known collector of Indian-used arms, acquiring them from these families when making his rounds. It features a serial number that places it within the correct range of those issued to Custer’s 7th Cavalry and the 1962 sellers acknowledged it had been taken at the Battle of Little Bighorn by their ancestors. The revolver sold the highest of any Custer Colt in the sale, earning $47,500.

Only 25 of the 650 carbine rifles issued to the 7th Cavalry were ever recovered. This 1873 US Springfield Trapdoor Carbine falls within the correct serial number range and is believed to be among those captured by the Native Americans after the Battle of Little Bighorn. The rifle sold for $21,875.

Colt Single Action Army, serial No 5773 7th Cavalry issued.

Custer and Little Big Horn memorabilia.

Custer's revolver.

Custer's Indian Scout Rifle.

Custer's set of two Colt Model 1861.

Custer's target rifle.

Gun used at Little Bighorn Battle.

One of the Little Bighorn pistols.

Custer's revolver.

Springfield trapdoor rifle with breech open. Custer's troopers were equipped with these breech-loading, single-shot rifles.

This National Arms Co. derringer passed through multiple hands. It belonged to George Custer.

Custer gave this derringer to his wife, Libby.

Used at the Little Bighorn Battle.

Webley. Custer's last gun.

Custer's last gun.

An inkwell with an eagle perched on an extended base. On the bottom of the base the name George Armstrong Custer is written in pencil, dated 1874.

General Custer wants younger brother appointed a 2nd lieutenant in the 7th cavalry. Shapell Manuscript Collection. March 14, 1872.

Custer Letter Response.

1876 Army Campaign against the Sioux.

Custer's Last Stand by Edgar Samuel Paxson.

Death of Custer, scene by Pawnee Bill's Wild West Show performers c. 1905 of Sitting Bull's stabbing Custer, with dead Native Americans lying on ground.

Last Stand Hill overlooking Little Bighorn River and Location of the Native American encampment on June 25, 1876. Photo taken November 2011.

Marker indicating where General Custer fell among soldiers – denoted with black-face, in center of photo.

Keogh Battlefield Marker 1879.

Movements of the 7th Cavalry A; Custer B; Reno C; Benteen D; Yates E; Weir.

Sitting Bull drawing 1890.

"Scene of Gen. Custer's last stand, looking in the direction of the ford and the Indian village." A pile of bones--including the skeletons of cavalry horses--on the Little Big Horn battlefield--was all that remained, ca. 1877. From the National Archives.

Comanche in 1887. Only survivor of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Memorial Marker as seen from the west.

Memorial Marker plaque.

Fort Randall Military Post in South Dakota.

Fort Buford. 2010.

The Last Great Congress of the Red Man, Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, 1901.

Two of Sitting Bull's wives and two of his daughters are pictured outside the cabin where he was killed.

Location where Sitting Bull's cabin once stood.

Entrance to the exhibit where Sitting Bull's cabin was displayed at the Pan-American Exposition, Buffalo, New York, 1901.

Unidentified photograph showing Standing Rock's Chief Rain in the Face at center surrounded by yet to be identified individuals in front of Sitting Bull's cabin at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868). The signing of a peace treaty by William T. Sherman and the Sioux at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.

Cabinet card photo of Sitting Bull.

First inaugural parade of Theodore Roosevelt, March 4, 1905. Sitting rode rode in this parade.

The 7th Cavalry's trumpet was found in 1878 on the grounds of the Little Bighorn Battlefield (Custer's Last Stand) and is on display in Camp Verde in Arizona.

A July 6, 1876 article in The New York Times reporting the massacre of the troops of George Armstrong Custer. The following is the full text of the article: The New York Times Thursday July 6, 1876 Massacre of Our Troops. Five Companies Killed by Indians. Gen. Custer and Seventeen Commissioned Officers Butchered in a Battle on the Little Horn--Attack on an Overwhelmingly Large Camp of Savages--Three hundred and Fifteen Men Killed and Thirty-One Wounded--Two Brothers, Two Nephews, and a Brother-In-Law of Custer Among the Killed--The Battle-Field Like a Slaughter-Pen Salt Lake, July 5.--The special correspondent of the Helena (Montana) Herald writes from Stillwater, Montana, under date of July 2, as follows: Muggins Taylor, a scout for Gen. Gibbon, arrived here last night direct from Little Horn River, and reports that Gen. Custer found the Indian camp of 2,000 lodges on the Little Horn, and immediately attacked it. He charged the thickest portion of the camp with five companies. Nothing is known of the operations of this detachment, except their course as traced by the dead. Major Reno commanded the other seven companies, and attacked the lower portion of the camp. The Indians poured a murderous fire from all directions. Gen. Custer his two brothers, his nephew, and brother-in-law were all killed, and not one of his detachment escaped. Two hundred and seven men were buried in one place. The number of killed is estimated at 300, and the wounded at thirty-one. The Indians surrounded Major Reno's command and held them one day in the hills cut off from water, until Gibbon's command came in sight, when they broke camp in the night and left. The Seventh fought like tigers, and were overcome by mere brute force. The Indian loss cannot be estimated as they bore off and cached most of their killed. The remnant of the Seventh Cavalry and Gibbon's command are returning to the mouth of the Little Horn, where a steam-boat lies. The Indians got all the arms of the killed soldiers. There were seventeen commissioned officers killed. The whole Custer family died at the head of their column. The exact loss is not known as both Adjutants and the Sergeant-major were killed. The Indian camp was from three to four miles long, and was twenty miles up the Little Horn from its mouth. The Indians actually pulled men off their horses, in some instances. This report is given as Taylor told it, as he was over the field after the battle. The above is confirmed by other letters, which say Custer has met a fearful disaster. Another Account Salt Lake City, July 5.--The Times publishes a dispatch from Boseman, [sic] Montana Territory, dated July 3, 7 P. M. Mr. Taylor, bearer of dispatches from Little Horn to Fort Ellis, arrived this evening, and reports the following: The battle was fought on the 25th of June, thirty or forty miles below the Little Horn. Gen. Custer attacked an Indian village of from 2,500 to 4,000 warriors on one side, and Col. Reno was to attack it on the other side. Three companies were placed on a hill as a reserve. Gen. Custer and fifteen officers and every man belonging to the five companies were killed. Reno retreated under the protection of the reserve. The whole number killed was 315. Gen. Gibbon joined Reno. When the Indians left, the battle-field looked like a slaughter-pen, as it really was, being in a narrow ravine. The dead were much mutilated. The situation now looks serious. Gen. Terry arrived at Gibbon's Camp on a steam-boat, and crossed the command over and accompanied it to join Custer, who knew it was coming before the fight occurred. Lieut. Crittenden, son of Gen. Crittenden, was among the killed. (end).