Show V hii 1 I aj A X N W wa AX al au 4 ir L t by ELMO SCOTT WATSON B R 10 A N INDIAN DAY which Is observed on the third friday in september in many states has baa an added touch of interest this year because of the announced plan for honoring a great leader la in a new way sitting bull the Is to be made the subject of a poetry contest to be conducted by pasque petals south dakota poetry magazine CL N herried of aberdeen has baa offered a cash prize for or the best 40 line poem on sitting bull to be submitted to the magazine before december 1 of this year from my viewpoint sitting bull was one of the truly giedt among the many notable sioux of the dakotas Dako taa in spite al agte of the fact that he has been ilsun misunderstood der stood and maligned mt mr berried has ban declared there are many students of history who will confirm mr Berr Herri eds asu estimate so tar far his torys verdict on sitting bull has been handed banded down mainly by white bite men who saw in him only a troublemaker irreconcilable to the tote fate imposed upon his race by the white men under the name of civilization if ever the red man to Is called upon upon to hand down a verdict he be will probably find in the fact that sitting bull was irreconcilable a kind of racial patriotism that can only be admired misguided though it may have been it Is doubtful if the name of any other indian Is so well known to the average american as Is in the name of tw this warrior and tribal leader of the teton division of the great sioux or dakota confederacy and a corollary to that statement la 13 that it Is also doubtful if there have ever been told about any other indian so go many wild tales and if there has ever been included in them so ao much sheer bunk as have hare been told and written about fatanka fatanka Ta tanka buffalo bull sitting here are sc a few of the choice bits of misinformation that have at one time or another been given ont ais m fact act and as such have hav been accepted accept edby by some so called historians 1 sitting bull was wa a halfbreed half breed brood and attar after receiving a good education from french canadian priests pr leata returned t to his people and nd went back to the blanket i ty sitting nuli dull was wa a graduate of west point who gradually drifted back into savage lit life ile he hid had various solid olid acquirement could speak pek french like a parisian was wai a dor student of ft napoleons napoleon campaigns campaign etc to eta to 1 I 8 sitting bull was wa a mason maion know knew the masotto ritual and lodge work as well a the he emblem and on OB at leat least two occasion saved avd uie lives of white whit etui captured by him hh warriors warrior because they word masotto emblem mb lein 4 sitting bull was wa commander in chief of all the ali indians indian at the battle of th the tattle bif H horn orn where gutter custer was killed and he gave to j a missionary who bad been adopted into his tribe a complete account of of how he h planned the battle which ended so 0 o disastrously for or the soldiers this involved placing dummy figures in front 0 of f the lodges in the village tillage to deceive the soldiers after thus thu setting the stage he retired to the hills with his warr warriors iori having first sent ent tb the women and children to a place of safety before the soldiers could recover from the surprise at finding the village de erta seated sitting bull fell upon them from the rear and destroyed most of them 6 5 sitting bull visited west point in 1859 there met cadet custer and such guch a warm friendship sprang up between the red man and white that sitting bull made custer his hi blood brot brother ber accordingly the day before the battle of the little big horn sitting bull called a council told him hi war mors that they were to fight custer the next day but that since custer was him hie blood brother they were war e not to harm harir him and the then the cavalry cave leader foiled the Ind indians kind purpose by committing suicide when he saw flaw that all was wa lobal bostl from the most authoritative sources of information available the patent absurdities of these statements can be disposed dispose d of as follows 1 sitting bitting bull was a full blood sioux born on the grand river 8 D about 1834 the son of a suba blet of the named four horns who changed hla him name to sitting bull when he made medicine in 1857 1867 As am a boy sitting bull the younger was wa a first known as when nhu he was fourteen he be accompanied hl his father on the warpath karpath against th the crow and counted his first coup on the body of a fallen enemy on the return of the party his father made a feast gave away many horses and announced that his son had won the right to b be known by his name 2 this statement la Is too ridiculous on the face of it to warrant denial As an for his hl ability to speak french it Is in possible that he picked up some words and phrases from preach french candian traders and others with whom the sioux came cam into contacts contact but more than that the story of his linguistic ability Is undoubtedly fictitious t possible sible but highly improbable neither of the two cases are ly authenticated to be accepted seriously it may have been more mere coincidence that two men whose lives he spared pared were masons there Is said to be a similarity between some of the secret signs of masonry and some of the indian sign language in universal use among the plains tribes and a similarity between some come of the masonic ceremonies and certain indian cere care moniale mo nials these similar similarities itle may have been one of the origins of thisby this yarn ar n 4 the part of sitting bull at the custer battle Is in at best an equivocal one although his being the son of a subeh lef would give him some mom hereditary right to leadership he had risen jo to prominence among the sioux as a medicine man and A councillor because he be possessed accuracy of judgment knowledge of men a student ilk like disposition to observe natural Ip phenomena and a deep insight into affairs among indians indiana and such white people as an be came into contact with before the custer battle he bad predicted a great victory for the indians indian anti and at the opening of the firlit he retired to tb the hills some distance away and was there during the engagement but there was no special especial disgrace at tacked to aytunc bull ball the medicine olne man doing dolar tola this diplomats and states men 1 of I other nations nation who bring about wars are an usually tar far from the una un As AJI tor for commander in chief of ef the tb indian forces there was none in that battle an indian chloes authority over him hi followers was only nominal and of all the thousands of sioux Off Ocl lala als braio san arc ara and Si basava and northern cheyenne on en the little big born bora that day few sopt possibly bly the member of sitting bulls immediate hand band of would have hair acknowledged his hi ut hority the indian leaders who war prin principally principal cipa t ly responsible tor for the th tactics tactic which resulted ted in the th defeat of f the th seventh cavalry wr wars first and aad foremost gall of the th Hank pap and then crazy horse hone of the and two moons moon of the th northern Ch 5 6 so far an a there 1 to any authentic record the first visit sitting bull vor tr paid to the vast wn wen in idill 1 when he be red cloud ot of the oglala and spotted tall of the ur arnle n Is a went to washington where they aure w re received by president Preil dent grant it if he h visited custer cuiter at wet west point or over err had any contact with that officer it Is ie indeed curious that cutter custer himself in his hl writing mrs mra custer in here hen notably her books boots boot and saddles following the guidon and Ten tenting tint on an the th or any of the accurate and painstaking biographers of the leader of the seventh never neter have mentioned the fact so go this incident can be dismissed as pure pura fiction action as can sitting bulls instruct ioas that austers ousters Ou life should be barci the raster bugter suicide story has been repeatedly disproved by br men man who saw his body soon after the battle in stating that sitting bull was more noted as a medicine man than a war leader it should not be tip gup posed that he was lacking in ability as the latter even though there has been some dispute on this point ool james lith fax agent on oa the abe standing rock reek reservation where bitting bull spent his bis last years hax has always alway maintained that he was a physical coward and others have hare pointed to his bis actions at the ouster battle as an evidence of that fact dr charles A batman astman ED the noted avoux author as the result of his ms investigations among his own tice face hike has recorded several beveral incidents of sitting bulls valor in battle and it Is in reasonable to suppose that doctor eastman bastman could come nearer getting the truth about sitting bull than any white man so a final summing up of fatanka and perhaps some of the entrants in the south dakota poetry contest may voice it in their verse would write him down as a brave warrior in his bis youth at a later period the most moot sagacious and powerful medicine man the sioux ever had and an embittered caged eagle in his last years from the white mans point of view he be was a malcontent from the indians a patriot these were the words of cf sitting bull once when he was being questioned by an importunate port american newspaper man 1 I am ami said he crossing both hands bands upon hl his chest chesl slightly nodding anil and smiling cally a maul man I 1 |