FYI
The death of Sitting Bull, published in Australia.
The Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser, Saturday 31 Jan 1891
Page 4
News comes from New York that the troubles
with the American Indians have resulted in the
death of the famous Sioux-chief, Sitting Bull and
his son Blackbird. The Indian police, it appears,
marched out in the early morning of December 15
in the direction of the Indian camp, with the object
of arresting Sitting Bull, it having been reported
that the Sioux chief had struck tents and was preparing to join the Indians who were pillaging along
the White River.
When they reached Sitting Bull's camp they found the Indians ready to march, their ponies painted, and many of the savages were stripped for war.
The police made a dash into the camp. They
seized Sitting Bull, and were returning
to Standing Rock Agency, when Blackbird, the
tall, athletic son of the famous chieftain, urged his
comrades to recapture the old man.
The women and children were hidden away in the bushes, and then, with yells, the Indians charged the police,
firing incessantly as they came up. A hand-to-hand struggle ensued, during which Sitting Bull, who was not shackled, could be heard giving his orders in a loud voice. For several minutes the firing was heavy, and so well directed that nearly every man who was hit was Killed.
When the fusillade was hottest, Sitting Bull fell out of his saddle, pierced by a bullet, but whether the shot
was fired by the charging Indians or by the police
is not known. The son of Sitting Bull was slain almost at the first volley fired by the police.
The Indians fired with deadly accuracy, and slowly
drove the police from the field. Four policemen were killed and three wounded. Eight of the Indians were killed, including Sitting Bull, and several others were wounded.
Sitting Bull was one of the most cunning Indians
who ever ruled a tribe. He will be best remembered in connection with the great Indian rising of 1876, when for a long time he held the best troops of the United States at bay. He was not so much a fighting man as a statesman, and although he was nominally in command of the Indians when General Custer, with the finest regiment of the United States, was annihilated, it was really his fighting chief, Crazy Horses, to whom the credit of this Indian victory is due.
It was the same chief, Crazy Horses, who fought General Crook on the Big Horn, and held his ground the whole livelong day, despite Crook's repeated attempts to dislodge him.
Crazy Horses was bayonetted by mistake after he
had surrendered. Sitting Bull, after the great
war, escaped to Canada, where he lived for some
time ; but, being pardoned; he returned to his own
hunting grounds, though he never regained the position of chief of the six tribes forming the Sioux nation. Despite all the efforts of the United States authorities, Sitting Bill would never look upon the white men as other than than his natural enemies. He declared that the white men were always secretly goading the Indians into violence in order to have a pretext for shooting them down and seizing their lands. He took the bounty offered by the Government agents at the Indian Reservations but with an ill grace. For some time he traveled in America with Colonel Cody in his Wild West Show, but, though he took a very intelligent interest in many things he saw, he remained to the last
a typical Indian of the plains, untamed and untamable.