Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1876-08-05
THE INDIAN SITTING BULL.
A Correspondent Tells us who he Is--PecT
Iiarities of the Indians.


The Chicago Tribune correspondent
says he has learned almost complete
history of this hostile warrior, Sitting
Bull. He is a Teton-Sioux and only
thirty-five years of age. Captain Nc.
Garry, of the steamer Benton, tells me
he has known Sitting Bull about the
upper Missouri trading posts for many
years. His principal bartering place
was at Fort Peck, though of late years
he and his band have followed the buf-
falo north on the Souris and Pembina
rivers, and have bartered their robes and
tongues for guns and ammunition with
the French half-b. eds of Manitoba.
Sitting Bull was convert and friend of
Father de Smet, who taught him to read
and write French. He has always scorned
to learn English, but is a fair French
scholar. In the Dakota language he is
also versed, and declared to be a greater
orator than Little Pheasant, chief of the
Yanktonnais. Captain McGarry says he
knows that Sitting Bull has read the
French history of Napoleon's wars, and
believes that he has modelled his general
ship after the little Corsican corporal.
Sitting Bull has never accepted an over,
ture of peace, the report that he gave in
his adhesion to SulIy to the contrary
Notwithstanding. He has always been
an unrelenting and vindictive savage, to
the Americans what Schamyl was to
the Russian. Father de Smet kept
the Teton-Sioux from the warpath until
1868. He then left the upper Missouri
and Sitting Bull became a chief. Nc
organized effort was made to array the
Sioux nation against the whites until
after the Minnesota massacre of 1868,
when the Sioux were driven west of the
Missouri into the bad lands and noun.
tains of Dakota. Sitting Bull aspired
to the leadership, but Red Cloud Spot.
ted Tail, Little Pheasant and the Ogalalla
Sitting Bull chiefs repudiated him.
From that time he has been q malcon.
tent, and at war with the chiefs of the
Sioux nation, though he has by his per.
suasive arts Of oratory seduced many
hundreds of their young braves into his
ranks. He is also largely REINFORCED by
young braves from the Crees and Assini
boius of Manitoba. Every summer fol
five years he has been up north among
these tribes, and now they are fockine
to his standard. If these reports are tc
be believed, and I have no reason tc
question them, when he next makes 6
stand against the Federal troops he will
have in the neighborhood of 5000 war
riors, every one armed with repeating
rifles. A great deal is expected from
Sitting Bulls inability to take care Of
the wounded already on his hands, and
which is sacred duty among the In
dians. If he has not sent his wounded
north among his Manitoba friends, he
will do so before he hazards another
fight. The telegraphing report of Cap
tain Smith, who brought Reno'swounde6
down, that Terry had found the biers Of
nine chiefs killed in the engagement
with Custer is mistake. They were
the remains of sub-chiefs and braves
killed by Custer when he was with
Stanley in 1871. The Sioux custom is
to carry off their dead braves to Sc.
cluded valley, and after their customary
mourning period has expired, to lay out
the dead braves on platform high
enough to be beyond the reach Of
wolves or coyotes.