July 2019 44 Sitting Bull continued from page 43 That same horse would play a poignant role at the end of the great chief's life, at the time he was murdered. While he admired many things about the white world, he never understood the poverty, why beggars and the destitute were not taken care of, as they would have been had they lived in the Sioux world. Whatever money he earned from the autographs and photograph sales that he did not send back to his people, he gladly gave to the many children, the newsboys and the hobos he met - whatever else was left he saved for feasting with his friends back at Standing Rock, much to the disgust of Agent McLaughlin, who in his mind had nixed any possibility of the chief's future appearances with the Wild West show even though the chief wanted to return the following year and Cody did want him back. Now he was back in the world of the reservation, in the world of Indian agent McLaughlin, the world of destitution and tribal internecine fighting, and while he remained a strong advocate for the rights of his people, continuously sparring with McLaughlin, his power had been undercut significantly by the machinations of McLaughlin and the other chiefs who were jealous of him. He would go out on solitary walks to the nearby Little Missouri. On one such walk, sometime after his departure from the Wild West show, he had another one of his visions, a most momentous one. "Soon after he returned to his cabin on the Grand River he had another one of his mystical visions about the future. In 1876, one had warned him that white men were pursuing the Sioux. Another had predicted that Custer's soldiers at the Little Bighorn would fall into the village upside down. His new vision was equally clear. Wandering alone near his home one morning, he watched a meadowlark flutter down onto a hillock. Then the bird spoke to him saying, "Your own people, Lakotas, will kill you." Sitting Bull had faith in his visions; they had always proven true in the past" (Ward, Geoffrey C., The West, Little, Brown and Company, 1996, p. 376). While it can be said that the events of the Ghost Dance accelerated the violence that ended the life of Sitting Bull, the initial catalyst was the 1887 Dawes Act, and the subsequent Sioux Act of 1888 which on the surface seemed most beneficial to Native Americans as every family that signed on to it would receive 160 acres of land, with the promise of eventual citizenship for the applicant (at the time Native Americans were still not citizens in their own country). The catch was what would be done with the nine million acres of surplus land, with greedy white exploiters ready to move in, seizing the land by any means possible, including violence. Aware of the ramifications of the Sioux Act, McLaughlin, who while both a government employee and someone quite hostile personally to Sitting Bull, immediately recognized the injustice of the act and readily agreed to send a quite anxious Sioux delegation to Washington to argue against the land grabs. Sitting Bull could be included, but the leaders of the delegation would be the progressive, pro-accommodation faction led by Chiefs John Grass and Gall, who had broken with Sitting Bull and were favoring closer ties with the whites. Gall was treated with honors, even dining on oysters with Little Bighorn survivor Colonel Edward Godfrey while Sitting Bull was treated as a pariah. When the time came to finally meet with President Cleveland, Sitting Bull argued the case for retention of the Sioux land, but to no avail. He would shake hands with Cleveland but the President, not known for a friendly feeling towards Native Americans (he had just sent Geronimo and the Apache tribe to exile in Florida) remained unmoved. When confronted by a reporter who asked him what he thought about the Indians losing their land, a visibly angry Sitting Bull practically shouted back at him: "Indians! There are no Indians left but me" (Ward, The West, p.394)! By this time (late 1888- early 1889) Sitting Bull had once more become disenchanted with white people. The respect and admiration shown by Cody, Annie Oakley and the many whites who had befriended him during the Wild West shows were by now a distant memory. He no longer trusted nor believed any of the promises made to WICKENBURG Arizona Ranch style home with amazing views in Wickenburg Country Club! There is a pool, spa, small horse set up with turn out and barn. The home boosts 2 master suites, one with it’s own private entrance! 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She would paint his picture, urging him to resist the Dawes Act and the subsequent land grab, and he reciprocated in her adoration with an apparent intent to marry her and make her a third wife to the two already living with him. But Weldon refused, and with good reason, as she had witnessed with growing alarm a change in the Chief's demeanor - a prelude to the final tragedy to come - and it was not long in coming. Around the same time Catherine Weldon first arrived at Standing Rock, a Paiute medicine man in Nevada named Wovoka (white name Jack Wilson) had a vision of a great Indian renewal, one in which the buffalo would come back to life, and all Indian land would be restored to them, all suffering at the hands of whites would cease. This purification, Wovoka insisted, would not be accomplished through violence but through a warped combination of Christian beliefs and Indian rituals, and through a dance which would bring back the Great Spirits. The Sioux were the tribe most susceptible to the call and yearning of what would be known as the "Ghost Dance" as their rations had just been cut in half and their surplus land seemingly was stolen away from them. The Sioux emissaries who had met with Wovoka now came to see their old medicine man, who, while somewhat discredited, was still a very powerful voice in Sioux circles. That old medicine man was none other than Sitting Bull, and while he was dismissive of the aura and quixotic goals of the Ghost Dance, he nonetheless refused to discourage those who did want to "dance" and more importantly was sympathetic if not supportive of those who did participate. By the late fall of 1890, Sitting Bull's interest, if not open support of the Ghost Dance movement not only alarmed both Mary Collins, who was said to bang away ferociously on her piano playing the hymn "Nearer My God to Thee" in an overt but failed attempt to draw Sitting Bull away from the Ghost Dance movement, but Catherine Weldon, who despite spurning Sitting Bull's marriage proposal was still in love with him, cavecreeksaddlery_andy Andy & Tina Incardona 623-258-0207 7100 E. Cave Creek Rd., Ste. 135 Cave Creek, AZ 85331 Tuesday - Friday 9:00 to 6:00 Saturday 10:00 to 5:00 CaveCreekFarrierSupply@gmail.com Lieutenant Bull Head's shot alone would not have killed Sitting Bull.