Did you know that Sitting Bull wasn't always called Sitting Bull? As  a child he was called
hunk-es-ni, or Slow. They called him this because he was circumspect at everything he did.
Slow soon out grew his name at age ten when he killed his first buffalo.

Slow's father gave him a coup stick made of bone. The Sioux believe that the greatest
honor a warrior can earn was to strike an enemy with his hand, his weapon, or his coup
stick. Slow's chance came. When the warriors had to chase after some trespassing Crows, enemy of the Sioux, Slow painted his horse and snuck along with them. Once he caught up he charged at one of the Crows, struck him with his coup stick, then rode away safely out of the Crow's range.
 

After this happened, Slow's father, Sitting Bull, decided it was time for his son to be recognized. He decided that from now on Slow would have his name, Ta-tan-ka Yo-tan-ka, or Sitting Bull. His father found a new name, Jumping Bull.

In time, Sitting Bull became the chief of the Hunkpapas, a member of the Sioux. In
the 1860's his people began to feel the heat of the white man. They slowly closed in on them.
Sitting Bull feared there would be an attack by the white man.

In 1866 army troops built a fort in the Hunkpapa's territory. Sitting Bull took this as
a threat. By 1868 the government decided to make a treaty. They gave a big piece of
Dakota as a reservation for the Sioux and their allies.

After many years of the government trying to persuade Sitting Bull to live on a reservation they finally decided to arrest him because he was a threat to peace. In 1890, Forty-three members of the Indian Police were sent tout to arrest Sitting Bull. They had a big problem after they arrested him. There were 150 of Sitting Bulls followers waiting. Police tried to clear a path through the angry mob Sergeant Red Tomahawki. Shot Sitting Bull in the back of the head. By the end of the shooting, six policemen and eight of Sitting Bull's followers, (including his Seventeen year old son, Crowfoot) were dead or badly wounded. Sitting Bull wasn't even sixty when he died that day. the "slow" boy's courageous and excitement filled story was over.

To Biography of Red Cloud

Jesse

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