Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-12-19
OPINIONS ON SITTING BULL,

OPINIONS ON lTTlNG BULL.
Chicago Times: Sitting Bull, if the
stories about him are to be believed, was
an assassin and a coward. One of his
first exploits was the killing of his own
brother, who stood between him and the
leadership of the Uncapapa Sioux. Fol-
lowing this he has held tho headship of
the Sioux nation rather by his craft and
impudence than by any other qualities.
Such chiefs as Rain-in-the-Face and
others, who were at any rate fighters,
despised him. So far indeed did this
feeling run that the story of his proven
cowardice in the Custer massacre is re-
,, called by the names the Indians gave his
sons. One of them is called "The-One-
that Was-Taken," and the other "The
One-that-W as-Left," because Sitting
Bull left the village that Custer had at
tackled in such a wild panic that he only
carried off one of his children with him.
Still, coward or brave, the chieftain's
death is a most serious episode in the
story of the present dangeroussconditio n
of affairs in Dakota. While most of the
Indians disliked Sitting Bull, he was fol.
lowed blindly by the Uncapapassand his
death may be the firebrand that will set
the northwest ablaze. The Indians are
in a most menacing frame of mind at
best, and this killing, Justify it how we
may, comes at a very serious time. It
may easily be followed by desperate re-
taliations and by the final breaking of
the Sioux nation.
Sentimentalists who have never seen
the noble red man at close range will cry
out against the attempted arrest, but
after all it is difficult to blame the gov
eminent for it. Unless something is
| speedily done in the Standing Rock
country we will have an Indian war on
our hands. There is no better policy
than to strike at the ringleaders, and this
is all that has been done. It may be that
Sitting Bulls death will save many lives,
white and red, and after all his was not
a character to be admired or respected.
He stood in the road of manifest desti-
ny and he has been crushed. The law
of the survival of the fttest may not be
broken for all the sentimentalists in
New England.
~
Pioneer Press: This old rascal and
murderer has been the head center of all
troubles among the Sioux. He was a
conspirator by nature, and has never
been satisfied unless Matching some plot
to stir up his followers to hostility. He
was as ~bloodthirsty as he was crafty /;
and this very quality, with the renown
that he o by the Custer massacre
and the %lenience of the government, has
made him a great figure in his tribe.
There is little doubt that he had pre-
pared for an uprising in the spring, and
that his plans were precipitated by the
outbreak of fanaticism which found ex-
preston in the ghost dances.
Xxx
Minneapolis Journal: The killing of
Sitting Bull may not, as the federal au-
thorities seem inclined to believe, be
followed by a speedy subsistence of the
Indian unrest, but 1t is hardly possible
to find another leader of such influence
among the elder Indians of the northern
reservations, and the kids who are the
mainstay of the the hostile aggregation
in the Bad Lands will be caught in the
constructing folds of Miles military cor
don, and that will end the movement.
**x
Sitting Bull, the most vicious and dan
gerous remaining chieftain of the Indian
race, has filled the measure of his career,
dying by the unerring bullet of a loyal
Indian police officer, and there is a thrill
of satisfaction throughout the entire
land that he has met the fate he invited
and can 10 longer fire the savage heart
with mutinous purposes. From his
youth to the end Of his ffty-eight years
his career has been of a cruel, villainous
type, without a redeeming feature. By
instinct and habit he was a coward, but
by his intellectual superiority among his
people he possessed a power that
he used with all the mendacity of his
develish nature. With the demise of
this crafty old brute the Indian friction
ought to be easy of solution. With hon.
est dealing and generous treatment the
tribes in the northwest can be brought
to respect the pale faces and to enter
upon q condition of standardization.
They should not be trusted with fire.
arms or tire-water, but care should be
exercised that they are comfortably fed
and clothed. Gradually prejudices will
disappear and peacefulness characterize
the conduct of the inhabitants Of the
plains.
~
st Paul Dispatch: Whatever may be
the immediate result Of the death Of Sit
ting Bull, the ultimate result must be
entirely gratifying. His death means
the removal of the most dangerous indi.
llvidual Indian with whom the, govern