7 Sitting Bull 7for his courage and wisdom, Sitting Bull was made princi-
pal chief of the entire Sioux nation about 1867.
In 1868 the Sioux accepted peace with the U.S. govern-
ment on the basis of the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie,
which guaranteed the Sioux a reservation in what is now
southwestern South Dakota. But when gold was discov-
ered in the Black Hills in the mid-1870s, a rush of white
prospectors invaded lands guaranteed to the Indians by
the treaty. Late in 1875 those Sioux who had been resist-
ing the whites’ incursions were ordered to return to their
reservations by Jan. 31, 1876, or be considered hostile to the
United States. Even had Sitting Bull been willing to com-
ply, he could not possibly have moved his village 240 miles
(390 km) in the bitter cold by the specified time.
In March General George Crook took the field against
the hostiles, and Sitting Bull responded by summoning the
Sioux, Cheyenne, and certain Arapaho to his camp in
Montana Territory. There on June 17, Crook’s troops were
forced to retreat in the Battle of the Rosebud. The Indian
chiefs then moved their encampment into the valley of
the Little Bighorn River. At this point Sitting Bull per-
formed the Sun Dance, and when he emerged from a trance
induced by self-torture, he reported that he had seen sol-
diers falling into his camp like grasshoppers from the sky.
His prophecy was fulfilled on June 25, when Lieutenant
Colonel George Armstrong Custer rode into the valley, and
he and all the men under his immediate command were
annihilated in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.
Strong public reaction among whites to the Battle of
the Little Bighorn resulted in stepped-up military action.
The Sioux emerged the victors in their battles with U.S.
troops, but while they might win battle after battle, they
could never win the war. They depended on the buffalo
for their livelihood, and the buffalo, under the steady
encroachment of whites, were rapidly becoming extinct.