Today in History, December 15: 1890 –
Sitting Bull, Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux medicine man, is killed by his own people. Sitting Bull had been an important and historical figure amongst his people, long before his conflicts with the white man.
He had a vision of the white soldiers falling before the Sioux, and it came to pass with Custer’s Last Stand during Battle of the Little Big Horn. He would survive that battle and spend several years spent in Canada.
Later he would tour with Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show across the nation. Eventually he retired to the Standing Rock Agency. In the year of his death young Sioux had begun taking part in a resurgent “Ghost Dance” movement…agency officials feared that Sitting Bull would lend his name to the movement, and sent Indian Agency Police to arrest Sitting Bull. Things went south quickly, and the Indian Agency Police shot and killed Sitting Bull, leading to the first incident at Wounded Knee.
Mark Loves History! 