According to Richard A. Fox, James Donovan, and others, Custer proceeded with a wing of his battalion Yates' Troops E and F north and opposite the Cheyenne circle at that crossing, [44]: The Lone Teepee or Tipi was a landmark along the 7th Cavalry's march. It was where the Indian encampment had been a week earlier, during the Battle of the Rosebud on June 17, The Indians had left a single teepee standing some reports mention a second that had been partially dismantled , and in it was the body of a Sans Arc warrior, Old She-Bear, who had been wounded in the battle.
He had died a couple of days after the Rosebud battle, and it was the custom of the Indians to move camp when a warrior died and leave the body with its possessions. The Lone Teepee was an important location during the Battle of the Little Bighorn for several reasons, including: Cooke , as Custer's Crow scouts reported Sioux tribe members were alerting the village. Ordered to charge, Reno began that phase of the battle. The orders, made without accurate knowledge of the village's size, location, or the warriors' propensity to stand and fight, had been to pursue the Native Americans and "bring them to battle.
They immediately realized that the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne were present "in force and not running away. Reno advanced rapidly across the open field towards the northwest, his movements masked by the thick bramble of trees that ran along the southern banks of the Little Bighorn River. The same trees on his front right shielded his movements across the wide field over which his men rapidly rode, first with two approximately forty-man companies abreast and eventually with all three charging abreast.
The trees also obscured Reno's view of the Native American village until his force had passed that bend on his right front and was suddenly within arrow-shot of the village. The tepees in that area were occupied by the Hunkpapa Sioux. Neither Custer nor Reno had much idea of the length, depth and size of the encampment they were attacking, as the village was hidden by the trees. He ordered his troopers to dismount and deploy in a skirmish line , according to standard army doctrine. In this formation, every fourth trooper held the horses for the troopers in firing position, with five to ten yards separating each trooper, officers to their rear and troopers with horses behind the officers.
This formation reduced Reno's firepower by 25 percent. With Reno's men anchored on their right by the impassable tree line and bend in the river, the Indians rode hard against the exposed left end of Reno's line. After about 20 minutes of long-distance firing, Reno had taken only one casualty, but the odds against him had risen Reno estimated five to one , and Custer had not reinforced him.
Trooper Billy Jackson reported that by then, the Indians had begun massing in the open area shielded by a small hill to the left of Reno's line and to the right of the Indian village. They forced a hasty withdrawal into the timber along the bend in the river. After giving orders to mount, dismount and mount again, Reno told his men, "All those who wish to make their escape follow me," and led a disorderly rout across the river toward the bluffs on the other side.
The retreat was immediately disrupted by Cheyenne attacks at close quarters. Later, Reno reported that three officers and 29 troopers had been killed during the retreat and subsequent fording of the river. Another officer and 13—18 men were missing. Most of these missing men were left behind in the timber, although many eventually rejoined the detachment.
Reno's hasty retreat may have been precipitated by the death of Reno's Arikara scout Bloody Knife , who had been shot in the head as he sat on his horse next to Reno, his blood and brains splattering the side of Reno's face. This force had been on a lateral scouting mission when it had been summoned by Custer's messenger, Italian bugler John Martin Giovanni Martini with the handwritten message "Benteen. Come on, Big Village, Be quick, Bring packs. Their detachments were reinforced by McDougall's Company B and the pack train. The 14 officers and troopers on the bluffs organized an all-around defense and dug rifle pits using whatever implements they had among them, including knives.
This practice had become standard during the last year of the American Civil War, with both Union and Confederate troops utilizing knives, eating utensils, mess plates and pans to dig effective battlefield fortifications. Despite hearing heavy gunfire from the north, including distinct volleys at 4: Benteen's apparent reluctance to reach Custer prompted later criticism that he had failed to follow orders.
Thomas Weir and Company D moved out to make contact with Custer. By this time, roughly 5: The conventional historical understanding is that what Weir witnessed was most likely warriors killing the wounded soldiers and shooting at dead bodies on the "Last Stand Hill" at the northern end of the Custer battlefield. Some contemporary historians have suggested that what Weir witnessed was a fight on what is now called Calhoun Hill. The other entrenched companies eventually followed Weir by assigned battalions, first Benteen, then Reno, and finally the pack train.
Growing native attacks around Weir Ridge forced all seven companies to return to the bluff before the pack train, with the ammunition, had moved even a quarter mile. The companies remained pinned down on the bluff for another day, but the natives were unable to breach the tightly held position. Benteen was hit in the heel of his boot by an Indian bullet. At one point, he personally led a counterattack to push back Indians who had continued to crawl through the grass closer to the soldier's positions.
The precise details of Custer's fight are largely conjectural since none of the men who went forward with Custer's battalion the five companies under his immediate command survived the battle. Later accounts from surviving Indians are conflicting and unclear. While the gunfire heard on the bluffs by Reno and Benteen's men was probably from Custer's fight, the soldiers on Reno Hill were unaware of what had happened to Custer until General Terry's arrival on June They were reportedly stunned by the news. When the army examined the Custer battle site, soldiers could not determine fully what had transpired.
Custer's force of roughly men had been engaged by the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne about 3.
Battle of the Little Bighorn - Wikipedia
Evidence of organized resistance included apparent breastworks made of dead horses on Custer Hill. The troops found most of Custer's dead stripped of their clothing, ritually mutilated, and in an advanced state of decomposition, making identification of many impossible. Custer was found with shots to the left chest and left temple.
Either wound would have been fatal, though he appeared to have bled from only the chest wound, meaning his head wound may have been delivered postmortem. Some Lakota oral histories assert that Custer committed suicide to avoid capture and subsequent torture, though this is usually discounted since the wounds were inconsistent with his known right-handedness. Other native accounts note several soldiers committing suicide near the end of the battle.
There the United States erected a tall memorial obelisk inscribed with the names of the 7th Cavalry's casualties. Several days after the battle, Curley , Custer's Crow scout who had left Custer near Medicine Tail Coulee a drainage which led to the river , recounted the battle, reporting that Custer had attacked the village after attempting to cross the river. He was driven back, retreating toward the hill where his body was found. According to Pretty Shield , the wife of Goes-Ahead another Crow scout for the 7th Cavalry , Custer was killed while crossing the river: Edward Settle Godfrey , Custer did not attempt to ford the river and the nearest that he came to the river or village was his final position on the ridge.
Cheyenne oral tradition credits Buffalo Calf Road Woman with striking the blow that knocked Custer off his horse before he died. Having isolated Reno's force and driven them away from the encampment, the bulk of the native warriors were free to pursue Custer. The route taken by Custer to his "Last Stand" remains a subject of debate. One possibility is that after ordering Reno to charge, Custer continued down Reno Creek to within about a half-mile m of the Little Bighorn, but then turned north and climbed up the bluffs, reaching the same spot to which Reno would soon retreat.
From this point on the other side of the river, he could see Reno charging the village. Riding north along the bluffs, Custer could have descended into Medicine Tail Coulee. Some historians believe that part of Custer's force descended the coulee, going west to the river and attempting unsuccessfully to cross into the village. According to some accounts, a small contingent of Indian sharpshooters effectively opposed this crossing. White Cow Bull claimed to have shot a leader wearing a buckskin jacket off his horse in the river.
While no other Indian account supports this claim, if White Bull did shoot a buckskin-clad leader off his horse, some historians have argued that Custer may have been seriously wounded by him. Some Indian accounts claim that besides wounding one of the leaders of this advance, a soldier carrying a company guidon was also hit. Reports of an attempted fording of the river at Medicine Tail Coulee might explain Custer's purpose for Reno's attack, that is, a coordinated "hammer-and-anvil" maneuver, with Reno's holding the Indians at bay at the southern end of the camp, while Custer drove them against Reno's line from the north.
Other historians have noted that if Custer did attempt to cross the river near Medicine Tail Coulee, he may have believed it was the north end of the Indian camp, although it was only the middle. Some Indian accounts, however, place the Northern Cheyenne encampment and the north end of the overall village to the left and south of the opposite side of the crossing. Edward Curtis , the famed ethnologist and photographer of the Native American Indians, made a detailed personal study of the battle, interviewing many of those who had fought or taken part in it.
He also visited the Lakota country and interviewed Red Hawk , "whose recollection of the fight seemed to be particularly clear". Finally, Curtis visited the country of the Arikara and interviewed the scouts of that tribe who had been with Custer's command. However, "the Indians had now discovered him and were gathered closely on the opposite side".
This was the beginning of their attack on Custer who was forced to turn and head for the hill where he would make his famous "last stand". Thus, wrote Curtis, "Custer made no attack, the whole movement being a retreat". Other historians claim that Custer never approached the river, but rather continued north across the coulee and up the other side, where he gradually came under attack. According to this theory, by the time Custer realized he was badly outnumbered, it was too late to break back to the south where Reno and Benteen could have provided assistance.
Two men from the 7th Cavalry, the young Crow scout Ashishishe known in English as Curley and the trooper Peter Thompson , claimed to have seen Custer engage the Indians. The accuracy of their recollections remains controversial; accounts by battle participants and assessments by historians almost universally discredit Thompson's claim. Archaeological evidence and reassessment of Indian testimony has led to a new interpretation of the battle.
In the s, battlefield investigators discovered hundreds of. Some historians believe Custer divided his detachment into two and possibly three battalions, retaining personal command of one while presumably delegating Captain George W. Yates to command the second.
Evidence from the s supports the theory that at least one of the companies made a feint attack southeast from Nye-Cartwright Ridge straight down the center of the "V" formed by the intersection at the crossing of Medicine Tail Coulee on the right and Calhoun Coulee on the left. The intent may have been to relieve pressure on Reno's detachment according to the Crow scout Curley, possibly viewed by both Mitch Bouyer and Custer by withdrawing the skirmish line into the timber on the edge of the Little Bighorn River.
That they might have come southeast, from the center of Nye-Cartwright Ridge, seems to be supported by Northern Cheyenne accounts of seeing the approach of the distinctly white-colored horses of Company E, known as the Grey Horse Company. Its approach was seen by Indians at that end of the village. Behind them, a second company, further up on the heights, would have provided long-range cover fire. Warriors could have been drawn to the feint attack, forcing the battalion back towards the heights, up the north fork drainage, away from the troops providing cover fire above.
The covering company would have moved towards a reunion, delivering heavy volley fire and leaving the trail of expended cartridges discovered 50 years later. In the end, the hilltop to which Custer had moved was probably too small to accommodate all of the survivors and wounded. Fire from the southeast made it impossible for Custer's men to secure a defensive position all around Last Stand Hill where the soldiers put up their most dogged defense.
According to Lakota accounts, far more of their casualties occurred in the attack on Last Stand Hill than anywhere else. The extent of the soldiers' resistance indicated they had few doubts about their prospects for survival. According to Cheyenne and Sioux testimony, the command structure rapidly broke down, although smaller "last stands" were apparently made by several groups. Custer's remaining companies E, F, and half of C were soon killed. By almost all accounts, the Lakota annihilated Custer's force within an hour of engagement.
Many of these men threw down their weapons while Cheyenne and Sioux warriors rode them down, " counting coup " with lances, coup sticks, and quirts. Some Native accounts recalled this segment of the fight as a "buffalo run. I went over the battlefield carefully with a view to determine how the battle was fought. I arrived at the conclusion I [hold] now — that it was a rout, a panic, until the last man was killed….
There was no line formed on the battlefield. You can take a handful of corn and scatter [the kernels] over the floor, and make just such lines. The only approach to a line was where 5 or 6 [dead] horses found at equal distances, like skirmishers [part of Lt. That was the only approach to a line on the field.
There were more than 20 [troopers] killed [in one group]; there were [more often] four or five at one place, all within a space of 20 to 30 yards [of each other]…I counted 70 dead [cavalry] horses and 2 Indian ponies. I think, in all probability, that the men turned their horses loose without any orders to do so. Many orders might have been given, but few obeyed. I think that they were panic stricken; it was a rout, as I said before. But the soldiers weren't ready to die.
We stood there a long time. Both failed Custer and he had to fight it out alone. Recent archaeological work [85] at the battlefield indicates that officers on Custer Hill restored some tactical control. E Company rushed off Custer Hill toward the Little Bighorn River but failed to reach it, which resulted in the total destruction of that company.
The remainder of the battle took on the nature of a running fight. Modern archaeology and historical Indian accounts indicate that Custer's force may have been divided into three groups, with the Indians' attempting to prevent them from effectively reuniting. Indian accounts describe warriors including women running up from the village to wave blankets in order to scare off the soldiers' horses.
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Army doctrine would have called for one man in four to be a horseholder behind the skirmish lines and, in extreme cases, one man in eight. Later, the troops would have bunched together in defensive positions and are alleged to have shot their remaining horses as cover.
As individual troopers were wounded or killed, initial defensive positions would have been abandoned as untenable. Under threat of attack, the first U. A couple of years after the battle, markers were placed where men were believed to have fallen, so the placement of troops has been roughly construed. Modern documentaries suggest that there may not have been a "Last Stand" as traditionally portrayed in popular culture. Instead, archaeologists suggest that, in the end, Custer's troops were not surrounded but rather overwhelmed by a single charge. This scenario corresponds to several Indian accounts stating Crazy Horse's charge swarmed the resistance, with the surviving soldiers fleeing in panic.
At least 28 bodies the most common number associated with burial witness testimony , including that of scout Mitch Bouyer , were discovered in or near that gulch, their deaths possibly the battle's final actions. Although the marker for Mitch Bouyer has been accounted for as being accurate through archaeological and forensic testing, [88] it is some 65 yards away from Deep Ravine. Other archaeological explorations done in Deep Ravine [89] have found no human remains associated with the battle.
According to Indian accounts, about 40 men made a desperate stand around Custer on Custer Hill, delivering volley fire. The fight continued until dark approximately 9: Reno credited Benteen's luck with repulsing a severe attack on the portion of the perimeter held by Companies H and M. One of the regiment's three surgeons had been with Custer's column, while another, Dr.
DeWolf, had been killed during Reno's retreat. News of the defeat arrived in the East as the U. Custer's wife, Elisabeth Bacon Custer, in particular, guarded and promoted the ideal of him as the gallant hero, attacking any who cast an ill light on his reputation. The Battle of the Little Bighorn had far-reaching consequences for the Natives. It was the beginning of the end of the 'Indian' Wars and has even been referred to as "the Indians" last stand" [97] in the area. Within 48 hours of the battle, the large encampment on the Little Bighorn broke up into smaller groups because there was not enough game and grass to sustain a large congregation of people and horses.
Oglala Sioux Black Elk recounted the exodus this way: My two younger brothers and I rode in a pony-drag, and my mother put some young pups in with us. They were always trying to crawl out and I was always putting them back in, so I didn't sleep much. The scattered Sioux and Cheyenne feasted and celebrated during July with no threat from soldiers. After their celebrations, many of the Natives returned to the reservation. Soon the number of warriors amounted to only about Crook and Terry finally took the field against the Natives forces in August.
Miles took command of the effort in October In May , Sitting Bull escaped to Canada. Ownership of the Black Hills , which had been a focal point of the conflict, was determined by an ultimatum issued by the Manypenny Commission , according to which the Sioux were required to cede the land to the United States if they wanted the government to continue supplying rations to the reservations.
Native History: Sitting Bull Shot By Indian Police, His Legacy Remains
Threatened with forced starvation, the Natives ceded Paha Sapa to the United States, [] but the Sioux never accepted the legitimacy of the transaction. They lobbied Congress to create a forum to decide their claim and subsequently litigated for 40 years; the United States Supreme Court in the decision United States v. Sioux Nation of Indians acknowledged [note 6] that the United States had taken the Black Hills without just compensation.
The Sioux refused the money subsequently offered and continue to insist on their right to occupy the land.
Modern-day accounts include Arapaho warriors in the battle, but the five Arapaho men who were at the encampments were there only by accident. While on a hunting trip they came close to the village by the river and were captured and almost killed by the Lakota who believed the hunters were scouts for the U. Two Moon, a Northern Cheyenne leader, interceded to save their lives. Lieutenant Colonel George A. First Lieutenant Edward Gustave Mathey. Estimates of Native American casualties have differed widely, from as few as 36 dead from Native American listings of the dead by name to as many as Wood in that the Native Americans suffered dead and wounded during the battle.
McChesney the same numbers but in a series of drawings done by Red Horse to illustrate the battle, he drew only sixty figures representing Lakota and Cheyenne casualties. Of those sixty figures only thirty some are portrayed with a conventional Plains Indian method of indicating death. In the last years, historians have been able to identify multiple Indian names pertaining to the same individual, which has greatly reduced previously inflated numbers.
Today a list of positively known casualties exists that lists 99 names, attributed and consolidated to 31 identified warriors.
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Six unnamed Native American women and four unnamed children are known to have been killed at the beginning of the battle during Reno's charge. Among them were two wives and three children of the Hunkpapa Leader Pizi Gall. The 7th Cavalry suffered 52 percent casualties: Every soldier of the five companies with Custer was killed except for some Crow scouts and several troopers that had left that column before the battle or as the battle was starting.
In , the army awarded 24 Medals of Honor to participants in the fight on the bluffs for bravery, most for risking their lives to carry water from the river up the hill to the wounded. Indian accounts spoke of soldiers' panic-driven flight and suicide by those unwilling to fall captive to the Indians. While such stories were gathered by Thomas Bailey Marquis in a book in the s, it was not published until because of the unpopularity of such assertions.
Beginning in July, the 7th Cavalry was assigned new officers [] [note 7] and recruiting efforts began to fill the depleted ranks. As a tribal leader Sitting Bull helped extend the Sioux hunting grounds westward into what had been the territory of the Shoshone , Crow , Assiniboin , and other Indian tribes. His first skirmish with white soldiers occurred in June during the U.
For the next five years he was in frequent hostile contact with the army, which was invading the Sioux hunting grounds and bringing ruin to the Indian economy. In he became principal chief of the northern hunting Sioux, with Crazy Horse , leader of the Oglala Sioux, as his vice-chief. Respected for his courage and wisdom, Sitting Bull was made principal chief of the entire Sioux nation about In the Sioux accepted peace with the U.
But when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in the mids, a rush of white prospectors invaded lands guaranteed to the Indians by the treaty. Even had Sitting Bull been willing to comply, he could not possibly have moved his village miles km in the bitter cold by the specified time. The Indian chiefs then moved their encampment into the valley of the Little Bighorn River. At this point Sitting Bull performed the Sun Dance , and when he emerged from a trance induced by self-torture, he reported that he had seen soldiers falling into his camp like grasshoppers from the sky.
His prophecy was fulfilled on June 25, when Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer rode into the valley and he and all the men under his immediate command were annihilated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Strong public reaction among whites to the Battle of the Little Bighorn resulted in stepped-up military action.
The Sioux emerged the victors in their battles with U. They depended on the buffalo for their livelihood, and the buffalo, under the steady encroachment of whites, were rapidly becoming extinct. Hunger led more and more Sioux to surrender, and in May Sitting Bull led his remaining followers across the border into Canada.
But the Canadian government could not acknowledge responsibility for feeding a people whose reservation was south of the border, and after four years, during which his following dwindled steadily, famine forced Sitting Bull to surrender. After he lived at the Standing Rock Agency, where he vainly opposed the sale of tribal lands.
The Ghost Dance movement augmented the unrest already stirred among the Sioux by hunger and disease. As a precaution, Indian police and soldiers were sent to arrest the chief. It was "Hunkeshnee", which means "Slow", referring to his inability to run fast, or more probably to the fact that he seldom appeared on foot. In their boyish games he was wont to take the part of the "old man", but this does not mean that he was not active and brave.
It is told that after a buffalo hunt the boys were enjoying a mimic hunt with the calves that had been left behind. A large calf turned viciously on Sitting Bull, whose pony had thrown him, but the alert youth got hold of both ears and struggled until the calf was pushed back into a buffalo wallow in a sitting posture. He made it sit down! It is a mistake to suppose that Sitting Bull, or any other Indian warrior, was of a murderous disposition. It is true that savage warfare had grown more and more harsh and cruel since the coming of white traders among them, bringing guns, knives, and whisky.
Yet it was still regarded largely as a sort of game, undertaken in order to develop the manly qualities of their youth. It was the degree of risk which brought honor, rather than the number slain, and a brave must mourn thirty days, with blackened face and loosened hair, for the enemy whose life he had taken. While the spoils of war were allowed, this did not extend to territorial aggrandizement, nor was there any wish to overthrow another nation and enslave its people.
It was a point of honor in the old days to treat a captive with kindness. The common impression that the Indian is naturally cruel and revengeful is entirely opposed to his philosophy and training. The revengeful tendency of the Indian was aroused by the white man. These men lifted their hands against the white man, while their fathers held theirs out to him with gifts.
Remember that there were councils which gave their decisions in accordance with the highest ideal of human justice before there were any cities on this continent; before there were bridges to span the Mississippi; before this network of railroads was dreamed of! There were primitive communities upon the very spot where Chicago or New York City now stands, where men were as children, innocent of all the crimes now committed there daily and nightly.
True morality is more easily maintained in connection with the simple life. You must accept the truth that you demoralize any race whom you have subjugated. From this point of view we shall consider Sitting Bull's career. We say he is an untutored man: To be sure, he did not learn his lessons from books. This is second-hand information at best. All that he learned he verified for himself and put into daily practice.
In personal appearance he was rather commonplace and made no immediate impression, but as he talked he seemed to take hold of his hearers more and more.
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He was bull-headed; quick to grasp a situation, and not readily induced to change his mind. He was not suspicious until he was forced to be so. All his meaner traits were inevitably developed by the events of his later career. Sitting Bull's history has been written many times by newspaper men and army officers, but I find no account of him which is entirely correct. I met him personally in , and since his death I have gone thoroughly into the details of his life with his relatives and contemporaries. It has often been said that he was a physical coward and not a warrior.
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Judge of this for yourselves from the deed which first gave him fame in his own tribe, when he was about twenty-eight years old. In an attack upon a band of Crow Indians, one of the enemy took his stand, after the rest had fled, in a deep ditch from which it seemed impossible to dislodge him. The situation had already cost the lives of several warriors, but they could not let him go to repeat such a boast over the Sioux! He raced his horse to the brim of the ditch and struck at the enemy with his coup-staff, thus compelling him to expose himself to the fire of the others while shooting his assailant.
But the Crow merely poked his empty gun into his face and dodged back under cover. Then Sitting Bull stopped; he saw that no one had followed him, and he also perceived that the enemy had no more ammunition left. He rode deliberately up to the barrier and threw his loaded gun over it; then he went back to his party and told them what he thought of them. I will strike him again with my coup-staff to count the first feather; who will count the second?
Sitting Bull was severely wounded by his own gun in the hands of the enemy, who was killed by those that came after him. This is a record that so far as I know was never made by any other warrior.
Battle of the Little Bighorn
The second incident that made him well known was his taking of a boy captive in battle with the Assiniboines. He saved this boy's life and adopted him as his brother. Hohay, as he was called, was devoted to Sitting Bull and helped much in later years to spread his fame. Sitting Bull was a born diplomat, a ready speaker, and in middle life he ceased to go upon the warpath, to become the councilor of his people. From this time on, this man represented him in all important battles, and upon every brave deed done was wont to exclaim aloud: When Sitting Bull was a boy, there was no thought of trouble with the whites.
He was acquainted with many of the early traders, Picotte, Choteau, Primeau, Larpenteur, and others, and liked them, as did most of his people in those days. All the early records show this friendly attitude of the Sioux, and the great fur companies for a century and a half depended upon them for the bulk of their trade. It was not until the middle of the last century that they woke up all of a sudden to the danger threatening their very existence.
Yet at that time many of the old chiefs had been already depraved by the whisky and other vices of the whites, and in the vicinity of the forts and trading posts at Sioux City, Saint Paul, and Cheyenne, there was general demoralization. The drunkards and hangers-on were ready to sell almost anything they had for the favor of the trader. The better and stronger element held aloof. They would not have anything of the white man except his hatchet, gun, and knife.
They utterly refused to cede their lands; and as for the rest, they were willing to let him alone as long as he did not interfere with their life and customs, which was not long. It was not, however, the Unkpapa band of Sioux, Sitting Bull's band, which first took up arms against the whites; and this was not because they had come less in contact with them, for they dwelt on the Missouri River, the natural highway of trade.
As early as , the Ogallalas and Brules had trouble with the soldiers near Fort Laramie; and again in Inkpaduta massacred several families of settlers at Spirit Lake, Iowa. Finally, in , the Minnesota Sioux, goaded by many wrongs, arose and murdered many of the settlers, afterward fleeing into the country of the Unkpapas and appealing to them for help, urging that all Indians should make common cause against the invader.
This brought Sitting Bull face to face with a question which was not yet fully matured in his own mind; but having satisfied himself of the justice of their cause, he joined forces with the renegades during the summer of , and from this time on he was an acknowledged leader. In and he met the Canadian half-breed, Louis Riel, instigator of two rebellions, who had come across the line for safety; and in fact at this time he harbored a number of outlaws and fugitives from justice.