Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-10-27
SITTING BULL.
y. WHITMORE,
Publisher and Proprietor
New York Herald

New York Herald.I
Sitting Bull, it must be remem-
bered, is the one leader among the
Sioux who, after the retreat of 1868
and the pacifcation of the great
chiefs Red Cloud and Spotted Tail,
with their bands, held out implaca-
bly, against the whites and kept his
people to their original habits of
life in the wilderness. He was
never known since that time to ex-
press a solitary friendly word to-
ward the Americans. He regarded
them from first to last with an en-
nifty so deep and terrible that it
was fed by every effort on their part
to conciliate him. 1t was famed
into flames Of hatred by the treach-
erous violation of treaties with
other bands Of Sioux by the United
States government.
SITTING BULLS DIsREsPECT FOR
THE GREAT FATHER.
The Great Father, a name to
conjure with in the cases of other
chiefs, was very inferior being to
Sitting Bull in his own estimation.
In the course of his long career he
had never felt the Great Fathers
power, and did not believe in it.
In many battle he had seen feeble
and disjointed bands of United
States soldiers vanquished with ap-
parent ease by his own soldiers.
He had never known defeat in war,
and began to consider himself in
vincible. The very last achieve
ment of his forces before he retired
to Canada for rest and recupera-
ton was the utter overwhelming
of Custer and the slaughter of his
troops.
EFFECT OF THE CUSTER MASSACRE.
The retreat to the Dominion may
be said to have been rather the tri-
umphant return of conaueror
than the retreat of a defeated chief.
He retired as victor crowned with
laurels and his untutored mind
filled with a hauty disdain of his
adversary. So great at this time
was his renown among the whole
Indian race, so mysterious had he
become because of the fact that no
white man save a few scouts had
ever beheld his countenance, that
romance fairly lourished round his
name. Yet Sitting Bulls real rank
and influence in his tribe are all
misconceived by the whites. The
idea of him as a supreme and re-
lentless warrior, exercising supreme
control over his people, must be re-
placed by a definition more subtle,
but in accordance with actual fact.
SITTING BULLS REAL POSITION IN
HIS TRIBE.
lie has never been either a chief
OR warrior, and yet his influence
over his tribe is stronger than that
which he would exercise in either
of these capacities. That his posi-
tion may be clearly understood you
should comprehend the real and pc
culiar organization Of his people.
NATURE OF INDIAN GOVERNMENT.
al the Indian tribes of the Plains
bear remarkably strong likeness
in their mode of government to the
Arabs and Tartars and other Asiatic
nomads. Abstractly the mode may
be termed patriarchal, but actually |
as it is practically carried out it is
nearly pure republicanism. This
is strictly true in the case of the
bands of the Sioux now with Sit
ting Bull. The several tribes rep
resented among his warriors are the |
Uncpapas, 0gallallas, Minnecon-
jous, Zanzacs, Black Feet, Two
Kettles and Brules. They number
in all, men, women and children
included, some two thousand souls.
There are out of this number eight |
hundred and more warriors. The
camp thus made up acknowledges
no one Indian as its absolute chief
or ruler. Each family has its head,
each band likewise. There is war
lodge in the camp and one warrior
acknowledged as head soldier.
THE HEAD SOLDIER.
This head soldier is not Sitting
Bull, but Long Dog, one Of the