Old West Lifestyle & Stories

Sitting Bull Goes to Canada

After the defeat of Custer in 1876, realizing there would be retaliations, the Indians broke up into smaller bands so they could move faster and not be easily found. But many of the bands were tracked down, and relocated to reservations.

Sitting Bull, in command of the western party, took his people to Montana, and avoided any major confrontations with the army. Four months after Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull met with American commander Nelson Miles. Sitting Bull refused to surrender. So Colonel Miles stepped up his campaign against him and his people.

With the scarcity of buffalo, the cold winter and the army’s constant pressure, Sitting Bull’s people began to suffer. So, on May 5, 1877, Sitting Bull decided to avoid war by going to Canada. The Canadian government, with a more tolerant attitude toward Indians, let them stay in peace. With plenty of buffalo and no harassment from the military, it was a great life. But within a couple of years the young warriors, who had grown up doing battle, became restless. They started making trouble with their neighboring tribes, and the Canadian government started putting pressure on Sitting Bull to leave Canada.

The final straw was the disappearance of Canadian buffalo. With promises that they would have plenty of food, and with most of his people having already returned to America, four years after he had left, and five years after his great victory at Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull returned to the United States leading just 187 Indians, most of who were old and sick.

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