Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake oder: #redlivesmatter

sitting Bull

Heute (oder gestern) vor 139 Jahren, am 20. Juli 1881, kapitulierte Sitting Bull, der Anführer der Sioux, mit einer Handvoll Gefährten in North Dakota vor der US-Armee.

Sitting Bull war Häuptling und Schamane der Hunkpapa–Lakota–Sioux. Als vor allem spiritueller Anführer leistete er jahrelangen Widerstand gegen die US-amerikanische Regierungspolitik.

After the Battle of Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull led his people north to Canada, remaining there until 1881. By the time of his return, the railroad was close to completion; the containment of Indians on their reservations was ongoing; random raids and massacres of various bands that attempted to move to traditional hunting lands had become a feature of Indian life. And well underway was the systematic starvation of the Sioux through the U.S. government’s „Buffalo Harvest“ program.

The buffalo, essential to the survival of the Sioux way of life, were being eradicated from the prairies. Hunters were paid a bounty to kill as many as possible. Huge mountains of buffalo skulls were common features on the prairies of the Dakotas and Montana. The purpose of this program was described by an army officer to reporter John F. Finerty: “Better [to] kill the buffalo than have him feed the Sioux.” The intention was not only to break the spirit of the Sioux Nation but also to force Indians to subsist on handouts from the government.

And it worked. Sitting Bull, on his return to Montana, watched 300 of his tribespeople starve to death during the winter of 1883 at Fort Peck. Neither the medical treatment nor food rations promised by the government were available to prevent this.(GRIID)

1883 soll er zum katholischen Christentum konvertiert sein, blieb jedoch nach Bericht seiner Freundin Mary Collins (1846–1920) ein glühender Gegner der Kirche. [Sympathischer Kerl!]

Ein Mix seiner Worte gibt es auch gesungen. Da das Dokument Sitting Bull speaking to the U.S. Secretary of War & Secretary of the Interior, as recorded by the Northwest Mounted Police, Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan, Canada p. 9 (18 October 1877) auf Wikipedia nicht mehr gibt, habe ich es hier online gestellt.

1890 wurde Sitting Bull von Indianerpolizisten bei einer versuchten Verhaftung erschossen.