William Sitting Bull Explained

Birth Name:Runs-Away-From-Him
William Sitting Bull
Birth Date:1878
Birth Place:Southern Manitoba, Canada or northeastern Montana, US
Death Date:8 December 1909 (aged 31)
Death Place:Wanblee, South Dakota, US
Occupation:circus performer, farmer
Spouse:Scout Woman (died 1931)
Children:Nancy Sitting Bull (1903-1959) Rosa Sitting Bull (1906-1907)
Father:Sitting Bull
Mother:Four-Robes-Woman

William Sitting Bull (– 8 December 1909) was a son of Sitting Bull.

Biography

William Sitting Bull was a natural son of Sitting Bull, his mother was Four-Robes-Woman. He was born in what is today southern Manitoba, Canada, or in northeastern Montana in the United States. His native name was Runs-Away-From-Him (Lakota: Nakicipa). He was a twin; his brother was Left-Arrow-In-Him who died in childhood.

After his father's surrender with 186 members of his family and followers to the United States on July 19, 1881,[1] the band was detained as prisoners of war for two years at Fort Randall in Dakota Territory. They were allowed in May 1883 to rejoin the rest of the Hunkpapa Lakota band at Standing Rock Reservation. After the murder of his father on December 15, 1890, the surviving immediate family relocated in early 1891 to Pine Ridge Indian Reservation settling in the White Clay district.

In 1901 William Sitting Bull joined Colonel Frederick T. Cummins' Indian Congress & Wild West and in 1904 Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Circus. On April 7, 1904, while traveling to New York City, he was seriously injured in a train collision near Maywood, Illinois. The following month, he contracted tuberculosis and was sent home. After recovery, he rejoined the circus and toured many U.S. cities as well as Europe. William Sitting Bull, being touted the natural and only surviving son of Sitting Bull was the star attraction on the show's reenactments of Custer's Last Stand of the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

In 1902, he married Scout Woman, an Oglala Lakota from Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. The couple had two daughters, Nancy Sitting Bull born in 1903 and Rosa Sitting Bull born in 1906. Rosa died in infancy.

In May 1908, William Sitting Bull, his mother, his wife and daughter petitioned with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to be permitted to return to live at Standing Rock Indian Reservation. The request was denied on the fear that his presence and connection to his late father would create a disturbing element at that reservation.

William Sitting Bull died at his cabin near Wanblee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on December 8, 1909, and was buried at the nearby Presbyterian cemetery. In 1953, his surviving daughter Nancy Kicking Bear, together with two cousins, were instrumental in the removal of their grandfather's remains at his neglected grave at Fort Yates and reburial at the present grave site at the Sitting Bull Monument on Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Mobridge, South Dakota. There are numerous living descendants of William Sitting Bull today.

Notes and References

  1. Sitting Bull Surrender Census, the Lakotas at Standing Rock Agency, 1881 by Ephriam D. Dickson III, South Dakota Historical Society Press, Pierre SD, 2010