The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1927-09-09

was killed, and he gave to a mission
airy who had been adopted into his
tribe complete account of how he
planned the battle which ended so dis
astrously for the soldiers. This in
volved placing dummy figures in front
of the lodges in the village to deceive
the soldiers. After thus setting the
stage he retired to the hills with his
warriors, having first sent the women
and children to a place of safety. Be-
fore the soldiers could recover from
the surprise at finding the village de-
serted, Sitting Bull fell upon them
from the rear and destroyed most of
them.
co Sitting Bull visited West Point
In 1859, there met Cadet Custer, and
such warm friendship sprang up be-
tween the red man and white that Sit
ting Bull made Custer his blood
brother" Accordingly. the day before
the Battle of the Little Big Horn, Sit
ting Bull called council, told his war
rfors that they were to fight Custer
the next day, but that since Custer
was his blood brother" they were
not to harm him. And then the cav
airy leader foiled the Indians kind
purpose by committing suicide when
he saw that all was lost!
From the most authoritative sources
Of information available, the patent
absurdities of these statements can be
disposed of as follows:
I'D Sitting Bull was a full-blood
Sioux, born on the Grand river, S. D.,
about 1884, the son of a subchief of
the Hunkpapa, named Four Horns,
who changed his name to Sitting Bull
when he made medicine" in 1857 AS
a boy Sitting Bull (the younger) was
first known as Jumping Badger. When
he was fourteen he accompanied. his
father on the warpath against the
Crows and counted his first coup on
/ the body of fallen enemy. On the
return of the party his father made
feast, gave away many horses and
announced that his son had won the
right to be known by his name.
ca This statement is too ridiculous
on the face of 1t to warrant denial. AS
for his ability to speak French, 1t is
possible that he picked up some words
and phrases from French Canadian trad
ers and others with whom the Sioux
came into contact, but more than that
the story of his linguistic ability is
undoubtedly fictitious.
CD Possible but highly improbab BILE.
Neither of the two cases are sufficient
ly authenticated to be accepted seri-
cidence that two men whose lives he
spared were Masons. There Is said to
be a similarity between some Of the
secret signs of Masonry and some of
the Indian sign language in universal
use among the Plains tribes and a SIM
flarity between some of the Masonic
ceremonies and certain Indian cere-
monials. These similarities may have
been one of the origins of this yarn
90 The part of Sitting Bull at the
Custer battle is at best an equivocal
one. Although his being the son of a
subchief would give him some heredi-
tary right to leadership, he had risen
to prominence among the Sioux as a
medicine man and councillor because
he possessed accuracy of judgment.
knowledge of men, student-like
disposition to observe natural phenom-
ena, and deep insight into affairs
among Indians and such white people
as he came into contact with" Before
the Custer battle he had predicted a
great victory for the Indians. and at
the opening of the fight he retired to
the hills some distance away and was
there during the engagement. But
there was no especial disgrace at