The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-06-05
SITTING BULL WAS SHREWD POLITICIAN Did Not Shine as a Fight ing Man BUILT UP A MACHINE Sat in His Lodge and Became Medi- cine Man and Won Power by
 Favors He Was Able
 to Bestow
BUILT UP A MACHINE

History has shed false light around Sitting Bull the Sioux Indian chieftain. It has made of him a war rior. a red Mars, who led his naked savages with the dash of a Murat and evaded disastrous battles with all the ingenuity of Fabius. But that is not the real Sitting Bull. says the Kansas City Star. It is a red and yellow and vivid .impressionism; 1t should be drab in monochrome. Sitting Bull was a politician.
 Sitting Bull began his career as fighter. It is recorded that while boy of 10 he killed a bison. When only IA he and five or six grown companions murdered three Crow Indians For this heroic exploit the young Indian, then known as Jumping Badger was renamed Sitting Bull, after his father. And henceforth he remained true to the change; from a jumper he became a sitter.
 When about legal age, as the white man reckons it. Sitting Bull retired from warlike arts and began making medicine" He entered politics. He was astute enough to see that the med fcine men had all the power in his tribe. while the warriors took all the risks, seeming we'll paid by few brief days of glory. He was now, one might say. a wardman in the Sioux invisible government
 Powerful Medicine Man
 Sitting Bull soon rose to be the most powerful of the medicine men. He was tall -visaged man. the ideal In- dian in physiognomy. The tribal pa- tronage became his. He lasted prayed and performed mysterious rites to in- crease his hold on the nation. Instead of sewer contract, he gave his favor ites the privilege of stealing horses. Supporters were brought into the line through superstition, thus keeping all the money, and it's equivalent in the organization Urea sury.
 But 1t must not be conc ed ed that Sit ting Bull was without ability. He rep resented the tribe in its dealings with the government. and showed qualities approaching real statesmanship. He obtained a treaty that gave the Sioux Indians more liberty than any others 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 fol- lowers were at war he prayed and fore- cast victory. If victory came .'his medicine" was the cause; If defeat, the warriors 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 formidable array of 1ieutenants to performs his various tasks. There was Gall, really magnificent warrior, man who fought with all the bravery and coolness of the Norsemen; Running Antelope. an orator of silver tongued persuasiveness; Crazy Horse, a satellite who made small medicine" around the campfires, all about Sitting Bulls great ness, and Rain -the-Face, "a fighter and implacable enemy of the white man. The organization became despot- fc in Its power: but Sitting Bull, far sighter politician. was careful not to check in the reins too much. nor was he chary with such favors and privi- leges as Indians enjoy.
 White Mans Greed
 Until gold was discovered in the Black Hills Sitting Bull was on friend ly terms with the whites. Under the treaty made In 1868 no white man could enter the Sioux territory without the consent of the Indians So they had plenty of hunting and fishing ground and no occasion to raid and slay any except memb CTS of other Indian tribes But with the discovery of gold white