In 1890 the conditions on almost every Indian Reservation were so bad, with starvation and hunger, so a revolt was very near. At that time a rumour was spread all over USA about a Paiute indian who´s name was Wovoka, who via a vision sad he was Messias who had come to the earth to save the indians. Representatives from tribes all over USA came to Nevada to meet Wovoka and learn the s.c. Ghost Dance and sing the songs. In the beginning of October 1890 chief Kicking Bear visited Sitting Bull in Standing Rock. He told about the visit he and his brother in law Short Bull had done with Wovoka in Nevada. They also told about the large numbers of indians that had been there and referred to Wovoka as being Christ, and about the Ghost Dance they had learnt. They also told about the prophecy who said that in the next spring when the grass is high, the earth will be covered with new materia, which will bury all white people. The earth will becovered with good grass, streaming water and trees. The large herds of buffalo and wild horses will return and all indians that will dance the Ghost Dance will be taken to heaven while the new earth is created. After that they will be placed on Earth again together with the spirits of their ancestors, and only indians will live on the earth.

The new religion spread on all the Sioux Reservations. Big Foots band, who mostly consisted of women having lost their men in battles with Custer, Miles and Crook, dansed until they fell down on the ground, hoping that their dead men should return on earth. Sitting Bull doubted that the dead should return on earth. He was´nt personal against the Ghost Dance; but he had heard that the indian agents became nervous by the situation and to some reservations they ordered soldiers to come . He did´nt want more soldiers to come to kill more people from his tribe. Kicking Bear insured him that if the dancers weared their Ghost Dance shirts on, painted with magic symbols, no bullits from soldiers could kill them. Sitting Bull agreed to Kicking Bear and remaind on the Standing Rock Reservation to learn the Ghost Dance. This started a chain of events which lead to the death of Sitting Bull on the 15th of December 1890.

By about that time, the Ghost Dance and the Sioux were front page news, which attracted Buffalo Bill, who used this as an opportunity to gain huge publicity for his Wild West Show. He persuaded General Miles to give him an order to arrest Sitting Bull. When he arrived at Ft. Yates, he was met with McLaughlin and his militia who took Bill to the Officers’ Club in an attempt to get him drunk. Cody was a fly in the ointment, and they didn’t want any interference with the plan to kill Sitting Bull. The government and certainly the army, never forgave Sitting Bull for wiping out Custer. Also, Sitting Bull made them look like cold-blooded killers.
In spite of their best efforts, Cody kept his feet and head, and was on the road the next morning at about 11:00 o’clock, with eight newspaper men and a wagon load of candy, bound for the Grand River and Sitting Bull. However, McLaughlin had Cody’s order rescinded and removed him from the Reservation. In the mean time, Sitting Bull was trying to get a pass to go to Pine Ridge, which, of course, McLaughlin would never allow.

Sitting Bull wrote a letter, which in part says:
“All the Indians pray to God for life, and try to find a good road, and do nothing wrong in their life. This is what we want, to pray to God. But you did not believe us. You should say nothing against our religion, for we said nothing against yours. You pray to God, so do all of us Indians. You think I am a fool, and you gather up some of the wise men among my people on your side, and you let the white people back East know what you think. I know that, but I do not object; I over look that, because I am foolish enough to pray to God. Therefore, you don’t like me, because you think I am a fool, and you imagine that, if I were not here, all the Indians would become civilized, and that, because I am here, all the Indians are fools. When you were here in my camp, you gave me good words about my prayers, but today you take it all back again. And there is something else I want you to know. I am obliged to go to Pine Ridge Agency and investigate this Ghost Dance religion. The policeman told me you intend to take all our ponies, and guns, too. So I wish you would let me know about that. Please answer soon."
Sitting Bull

Another message reached McLaughlin that afternoon: a military order for the arrest of Sitting Bull. The military could have arrested Sitting Bull, but McLaughlin didn’t want that. He wanted the Indian police to carry out the order. Lieutenant Bull Head and Sergeant Shave Head were only too eager to arrest Sitting Bull. On December l5, l890, Bull Head, Shave Head, Red Tomahawk, and others came in the night to Sitting Bull’s cabin. They manhandled him while he was telling them to allow him to get dressed. The military police tried to force him outdoors half dressed. There was a scuffle. Soon people started to arrive. Shave Head and Red Tomahawk grabbed Sitting Bull and were hanging on to him. Then through the crowd came Catch-the-Bear, Strikes-the-Kettle, Brave Thunder, Spotted Horn Bull, and Blackbird, all itching for a fight for anyone foolish enough to lay hands on the great Chief. Catch-the-Bear slammed a Cartridge into his Winchester and was growing for Bullhead. Sitting Bull , who had been reluctantly going along, yelled to take action. Catch-the-Bear fired, hitting Bullhead in the leg. Bull Head and Red Tomahawk both fired at Sitting Bull, killing him instantly. There was a bloody fight. Bull Head was mortally wounded. The Indian police took him inside Sitting Bull’s cabin. While moving the bed, they found Crow Foot, Sitting Bull’s son, hiding under the bed. The boy begged for his life, but Red Tomahawk slapped him in the face with his rifle butt and pushed him out the door where he shot Crow Foot. Shortly, thereafter, the military arrived and began firing on the Indian Police and anyone else who looked like they might be causing a problem.

McLaughlin and the U.S. Government accomplished their goal: Sitting Bull was dead, the Indians were blamed for killing him, the military looked like the good guys, the Ghost Dancers were frightened and on the run, and most of all, the settlers received guns and ammunition to defend themselves against the hordes of savages who were gearing up to attack them.
Later, a relative of the Indian Police began to mutilate Sitting Bull’s body. Friends and relatives of Sitting Bull fled when they saw the troops coming. Sitting Bull’s warriors had been killed, 7 in all. The Indian Police threw Sitting Bull’s body into a wagon like a dog, and loaded the dead Indian police on top. The caravan was brought to the new station on Oak Creek, present day town of McLaughlin.

The Indian Police were buried with much pomp and circumstance in the Roman Catholic cemetery with a granite shaft to commemorate their burial. Sitting Bull was dumped into a pine box, the military poured 5 gallons of chloride of lime on his body, which they buried in the corner of the military cemetery, buried like a felon.

The New York Herald had this to say:
“It is stated today that there was a quiet understanding between the officers of the Indian and military departments that it would be impossible to bring Sitting Bull to Standing Rock alive, and that if brought in, nobody would knew precisely what to do with him. He would, though under arrest, still be a source of great annoyance, and his followers would continue their dances and threats against neighboring settlers. There was, therefore, cruel as it may seem, a complete understanding from the Commanding Officer to the Indian Police that the slightest attempt to rescue the old medicine man should be a signal to sent Sitting Bull to the happy hunting ground.”

The friends and relatives of Sitting Bull had their houses ransacked, their horses and cattle stolen. They fled in fear of their lives, and with good reason, and headed toward the Pine Ridge Agency. On the way, they met up with the Oglala Pine Ridge ghost dancers. It was at this time that the massacre at Wounded Knee took place, December, l890.

So this was the death and burial of one of the greatest men that ever lived. However, just as Hitler didn’t kill all the Jews in Europe, so the U.S. Government didn’t kill all the Indians in America, but they gave it their best shot. This is America's shameful secret, which it has never been honest about. The U.S. assassinated the great Indian leaders, the U.S. tried to assassinate the Lakota culture as well, without ever fully understanding it.

Like any great person, Sitting Bull’s words speak to all people, all races. The petty murderers are dead now. They are not remembered because there is nothing memorable or significant about their lives. They had nothing important to say. Yet Sitting Bull’s words are as profound today, as when he spoke them over 100 years ago.

I leave you with a quote from Sitting Bull: “Behold, the spring has come. The earth has received the embraces of the sun. Soon we shall see the results of that love. All of nature is awake and has a place in the sun. Therefore, we yield to our neighbors, Even our animal neighbors, The same right to inhabit this land. But now another race of people have come. They build many things and leave behind much refuse. They make many laws which the rich may break, But the poor may not. They are like a spring freshet That overflows its banks. We cannot contain them But we do not sell our land, our Mother.”

Big Foot
?? - 1890

Bigfoots Lakota name was Si Tanka ,"Spotted Elk." He was a son of Lone Horn and became a Minneconjou Sioux chief after his father died in 1874. As a division of the Teton Sioux, the Minneconjoues lived together with the Hunkpapas in the northwest of South Dakota. Spotted Elk was a good hunter and horseman. He had many good horses which he had stolen from the Crow tribe or other enemies. He is most ly known for his diplomatic and political skill and it is told that he was a good negotiater. After the Sioux wars in Black Hills 1876-77 the Minneconjoues were placed on the Cheyenne River Reservation in South Dakota. Spotted Elk tried to live his life like the whites and he even started to plant corn according to the advices from the governement. He travelled to Washington D.C. and wanted a missionary school to be built on the Cheyenne River Reservation. The Indian Bureau supported him but as time went by it became forgotten.

Big Foot and his people lived on the Cheyenne River Reservation in present-day South Dakota and were among the most enthusiastic believers in the Ghost Dance ceremony when it arrived among the Lakota in the spring of 1890. The hunger and misery that had followed the final break-up of their great reservation in 1889 made the Lakota keenly receptive to the Ghost Dance message of messianic renewal, and the movement swept rapidly through their encampments, causing local Indian Agents to react with alarm. Some effectively suppressed the dancers, others called for troops to restore order.

At the Standing Rock reservation, where Sitting Bull was suspected of encouraging the Ghost Dance in order to provoke an uprising, the crisis led to bloodshed when Indian police sent to arrest the aging holy man killed him in a confrontation with his followers. Fearful of reprisals, many from Sitting Bull's band fled south, where they found a haven with Big Foot.

Big Foot decided to lead his people away from the possibility of further violence at neighboring Standing Rock and headed farther south toward the reservation at Pine Ridge, hoping to find safety there. Increasingly ill with pneumonia, he had no intention of fighting and was flying a white flag when soldiers patrolling for roving bands caught up with him on December 28, 1890. That night Big Foot and his people camped near Wounded Knee Creek, surrounded on all sides by soldiers.

The next morning, the soldiers set up several large Hotchkiss guns on a hill overlooking the camp and began confiscating the Indians' weapons. When a gun accidentally went off, they opened fire, and within a few minutes, some 370 Lakota lay dead, many of them cut down by the deadly Hotchkiss guns as they sought shelter against a creek bank. The soldiers even pursued fleeing women and children, shooting some as far as two miles from the site of the original confrontation.