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Overview
Sitting Bull's name is still the best known of any American Indian leader, but his life and legacy have been shrouded with misinformation and half-truths. In Sitting Bull, Bill Yenne follows the history of this remarkable man from his headstrong youth and first contact with encroaching settlers, through his ascension as the spiritual and military leader of the Lakota, friendship with a Swiss-American widow from New York, negotiations with the U.S. military and government, to his death at the hands of the Indian police on the eve of Wounded Knee. In Sitting Bull, we find a man whose life spanned the destruction of his peoples' culture, and whose greatest legacy was to help ensure their survival in the face of an uncertain future.Synopsis
Sitting Bull's name is still the best known of any American Indian leader, but his life and legacy have been shrouded with misinformation and half-truths. In Sitting Bull, Bill Yenne follows the history of this remarkable man from his headstrong youth and first contact with encroaching settlers, through his ascension as the spiritual and military leader of the Lakota, friendship with a Swiss-American widow from New York, negotiations with the U.S. military and government, to his death at the hands of the Indian police on the eve of Wounded Knee. In Sitting Bull, we find a man whose life spanned the destruction of his peoples' culture, and whose greatest legacy was to help ensure their survival in the face of an uncertain future.
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.
In this stirring biography, Yenne, author of numerous books on the history of the American West (Indian Wars, On the Trail of Lewis and Clark, etc.), captures the extraordinary life of Plains Indian leader Sitting Bull while providing new insight into the nomadic culture of the Lakota. Born in 1831, Sitting Bull witnessed the downfall of his people's way of life nearly from start to finish-despite some clashes, "the Lakota supremacy on the northern Plains remained essentially unchallenged" until the 1850s. Yenne describes how hostilities increased after the 1849 California gold rush, and were exacerbated by the opening of the railroad; conflicts and broken treaties would harden many Lakota against the colonists, including Sitting Bull. A high point is Yenne's account of how celebrity journalism created the myth of Custer's Last Stand, casting the general as hero and Sitting Bull as the villain, and how the US cavalry's defeat was used to justify forcing Indians off their land and onto reservations. The last half of the book describes Sitting Bull's unsuccessful attempts to defend the Lakota's land and culture through negotiation and peaceful resistance, alongside a dismal record of government betrayal and neglect. In this remarkable, tragic portrait, Sitting Bull emerges as a thoughtful, passionate and very human figure. 60 illustrations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly
Starred Review.In this stirring biography, Yenne, author of numerous books on the history of the American West (Indian Wars, On the Trail of Lewis and Clark, etc.), captures the extraordinary life of Plains Indian leader Sitting Bull while providing new insight into the nomadic culture of the Lakota. Born in 1831, Sitting Bull witnessed the downfall of his people's way of life nearly from start to finish-despite some clashes, "the Lakota supremacy on the northern Plains remained essentially unchallenged" until the 1850s. Yenne describes how hostilities increased after the 1849 California gold rush, and were exacerbated by the opening of the railroad; conflicts and broken treaties would harden many Lakota against the colonists, including Sitting Bull. A high point is Yenne's account of how celebrity journalism created the myth of Custer's Last Stand, casting the general as hero and Sitting Bull as the villain, and how the US cavalry's defeat was used to justify forcing Indians off their land and onto reservations. The last half of the book describes Sitting Bull's unsuccessful attempts to defend the Lakota's land and culture through negotiation and peaceful resistance, alongside a dismal record of government betrayal and neglect. In this remarkable, tragic portrait, Sitting Bull emerges as a thoughtful, passionate and very human figure. 60 illustrations.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.