The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1914-04-07
THE NOTED SIOUX CHIEF WAS A
CLEVER POLITICIAN AND
A GREAT WARRIOR.
HIS RISE, DOWNFALL AND DEATH
History Has Shed a False Light
Around Old Indian Who Made IL
Warm For Pale Faces. Whlte
Man Broke Treaty.

Warm For Pale Faces. Whlte
Man Broke Treaty.
History has shed a false light
around Sitting Bull, the Sioux Indlan
chieftain. 1t has made OF MIN
warrior; a red Mars who led his
naked savages with the dash OF a
Murat and evaded disastrous battles
with all the ingenuity of Fablus.
But that is not the real Sitting Bull.
II is a red and yellow and vivid I'M
Dressionism: it should be a drab in
monochrome. Sitting Bull was a
politician.
Sitting Bull began his career as a
fighter. 1t is recorded that while
boy of ten he killed a bison. When
only IA he and five or six grown
companions murdered three Crow In
dams. For this heroic exploit the
young Indian, then known as Jump
ing Badger, was renamed Sitting
Bull. after his father. And hence
forth he remained true to the
change, from a jumper he became
sitter.
When about legal age, as the white
man reckons it, Sitting Bull retired
from war-like arts and began max
ing medicine" He entered politics.
He was astute enough to see that
the medicine men had all the power
in his tribe, while the warriors took
all the risks, seeming well paid by a
few brief days of glory. He was
now, one might say, a Wardman in
the Sioux invisible government.
most powerful of the medicine men.
He was a tall, stern-visaged man, the
ideal Indian in physiognomy. The
tribal patronage became his. He
tasted. prayed and performed mys-
terious rites to increase his mold Oh
the nation. Instead of a sewer con-
tract he gave his favorites the prlTl-
lege of stealing horses.
A Man of Ability.
But it must not be concluded that
Sitting Bull was without ability. He
represented the tribe in its dealings
with the government and showed
qualities approaching real states
manship. He obtained treaty that
gave the Sioux Indians more liberty
than any other in America.
He discarded the titles of chief
and medicine man. He was man,
he said. The ceremonies preceding
battles were conducted by him. He
even made rude plans to govern the
warriors in their fights. But he did
not unsheath his tomahawk. Instead
he retired to the medicine house and
there while his followers were at
war, he prayed and forecasted vic
tory. If victory came his medicine
was the cause; if defeat, the war
riors had listened to the bad spirits
instead of the medicine. Nothing
could be simpler than a system like
that. And Sitting Bull worked it.
Soon Sitting Bull gathered around
him a formidable array of lieuten-
ants to perform his various tasks.
There was Gall, a really magnificent
warrior, a man who fought with all
the bravery and GOODNESS of the
Norsemen; Running Antelope, an or
ator of silver-tongued persuasive
ness; Crazy Horse, a satellite who
made small medicine around the
campfires, and Rain in the Face, a
fighter and implacable enemy of the
white man. The organization became
despetie in its power.
The Broken Treaty.
Until gold was discovered in the
Black Hills Sitting Bull was on very
friendly terms with the whites. I'm
der the treaty made in 1868 no white
man could enter the Sioux territory
without consent OF the Indians. So
they had plenty of hunting and hsh-
ing around and no occasion to raid
and slay any except members of other
Indian tribes. But with the discov-
erv Of gold white men poured into
the Sioux territory. They protested.
The white miners asked the govern
ment to remove them. That was
tried, but Sitting Bull refused to go.
This is what we say to YOU ne
rnn1ind To the Spokesman of q COM