7/18/2008:
On this day in July of 1881 preparations were being made for the surrender of chief Sitting Bull at Fort Buford, North Dakota. The next morning at 11 a. m. one struggle for the great Hunkpapa leader would formally come to an end.
This emblematic event was recorded in the Bismarck Tribune on July 21st via telegraph. Sitting Bull handed his rifle to his five-year-old son, Crowfoot, and addressed the assembled officials:
“I surrender this rifle to you through my youngest son...I wish it to be remembered that I was the last of my tribe to surrender my rifle. This boy has given it to you and he wants to know how he is going to make a living. Whatever you have to give or whatever you have to say, I would like to hear or receive it now, for I don’t wish to be kept in darkness any longer.”
Sitting Bull’s decision to formally surrender concluded many difficult months of negotiations between his tribe, Canada, and the US. Sitting Bull had fled to Canada in 1877 after the Battle of Little Bighorn, but in 1879 Canada sided with the US and urged the Sioux to cross back over the border. The surrender signaled the end of not only this set of negotiations, but decades of fighting and tensions.
In 1878 progression of the railroad caused settlement to boom on the prairies and by 1879 the once great herds are buffalo were near extinction. The incoming settlers and the loss of the buffalo irrevocably changed the way of life for all the tribes along the upper Missouri. Starvation loomed for Sitting Bull and his people. The winter of 1880 had been particularly severe. Hunger forced many of Sitting Bull’s fellow leaders to comply with the wishes of the US troops.
44 men and 143 women and children were all that remained of Sitting Bull’s once vast following as he made his way from Canada to Fort Buford. This famous Sioux medicine man who witnessed the defeat of Custer at Little Bighorn now knew the struggle, although not ended, no longer belonged on the battle field.
Sitting Bull’s rifle symbolized not only a decision to cease hostilities against the oncoming wave of settlers moving into the North Dakota, it also symbolized a people’s sacrifice of a way of life that once dominated the plains.
In a portrait from 1883, Sitting Bull poses in front of a camera. His still strong gaze reads pride and tenacity. A butterfly is pinned to the brim of his hat. What it may mean, no one now knows. It may be a symbol of beauty and fragility, but like the butterfly whose wing-flap can give rise to tempests, this man’s spirit lives on today.
Bismarck Tribune July 21, 1881
Robert M. Utley, “The Lance and the Shield” 1993
Bob Bernotas “Sitting Bull: Chief of the Sioux” 1992
By Maria Witham