Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-09-14
u. WHITMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor,
WHO "SITTING BULL"IS.


He nayE his Name ts charles ia
Sobs and that he ~ Graduate of
A correspondent of the New
York World, writing from Fort
Walsh, Cypress Hills, British
Northwest Territories, says:
Sitting Bull and his band are
still lying between Cactus Plain
and Wood Mountain, closely
watched by Major Walsh and the
mounted police. The Sioux chief
knows all about the commission
that is coming to meet him, but is
reticent as to the probable upshot.
lie knows he cannot be seized and
taken back to American soil, and
this knowledge is his strength. He
will not accept any penal condi-
tions, nor will he hand himself
over to the commission without
satisfactory guarantees of his fu-
ture. Although, as l wrote the
World some weeks ago, the Sioux
have utterly failed in tamperlng
with the loyalty of the Indian tribes
on this side of the line, their efforts
with the Northern Montana tribes
have, it is feared, been attended
with some success; and great un-
easiness prevails at Fort Benton
and the region about. Sitting Bull,
however, will not say what he in
tends to do, further than that he
will not see the commission if he be
in the same mind then that he is
now, and that after that he will be
guided solely by circumstances,
His followers are excited by Jo-
seph'S success, and are also cogni.
zant of the fact that trouble is
feared from the tribes in the Okan-
agan district of British Columbia
just across the line. The Fort
Benton people seem to think that
general Indian war is imminent.
but the police here have reason to
believe that this threatening aspect
of affairs will not long continue.
The Gros VeDtres, Bloods and Pie
gans and the 0kanagan sayages are
aulky enough, but the police believe
the British Columbian Commits
Sioners will succeed in 'pacifying
the last-named and that the others
will be quietly subdued without as
much as display of force.
The mystery that has hitherto
Shrouded the person of the great
Sioux warrior has been removed.
In conversation after dinner with
one of the police officers the other
day, he said that he was native Of
Fort Garry, and an Alumnus of st.
Johns college there statements
which he himself afterward con-
lirmed. Several old traders who
have had a look at him declare that
they remember him well as Charlie
Jacobs, d half-breed, who attended
the college in its infancy thirty
years ago, This young Jacobs was
of 0bjibway birth, and was a re-
markably intelligent lad, with am
bition to become a "big Injun,"
He disappeared from Fort Garry
about 1853. When asked by the
police officer if he recollected any
thing about Fort Garry, Sitting
Bull laughed heartily, and said he
knew the principal people there,
among others Donald 4. Smith, the
Hudson Bay factor; James Suther-
land, and Father Vary, now a mis-
sionary at the Sanlt. lie was also
we'll acquainted with the late james
Ross, chief justice of the Riel-
Lepine government in lS69-'70!
indeed, he says they were boys to-
gether. Ross was half-breed,
who, after graduating at st. Johns
college, went to Toronto University,
where he was gold medallSt. Sit
ting Bull says his father, Henry
Jacobs, was at one time employed
as interpreter by Father Proulx on
Manitonlin Island, but whether the
old gentleman is dead or not be
does not know. Sitting Bull is
thoroughly familiar with French
and English and several Indian
languages. He is about forty-two
Or forty-three years of age, u me-
dium-sized, athletio.bRilt man, of
Il II t...s.. Al