McLaughlin is best known for having ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull on December 15, 1890. He had been warned by Lt. Bull Head that the chief was preparing to go to the Pine Ridge Reservation, where the Ghost Dance movement was strong. McLaughlin and other U.S. officials feared this would inspire resistance among the Lakota; they worried that the Ghost Dance was a kind of pre-war dance. McLaughlin partially blamed Caroline Weldon, an Indian Rights Activist from Brooklyn, N.Y., who had befriended Sitting Bull, for having influenced the chief into open defiance. As agency police attempted the arrest of Sitting Bull at his camp by the Grand River, a confrontation with his followers erupted. The chief was shot and killed, along with several Lakota and several agency police. The Lakota were outraged when they learned of the respected chief's murder. Rising tensions among the people led to the Army-Lakota confrontation on Pine Ridge at Wounded Knee two weeks later, resulting in the Army massacre of many Lakota.