Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull's name is still the best-known of any American Indian leader, but his life and legacy remain shrouded with misinformation and half-truths. His life spanned the entire clash of cultures and ultimate destruction of the Plains Indian way of life. He was a powerful leader and a respected shaman, but neither title fully captures the enigma of Sitting Bull.Drawing on research into rare contemporary records, and Sitting Bull's own 'hieroglyphic autobiography', this absorbing volume traces his life from a headstrong youth (named Jumping Badger) and first contact with White settlers, through his election as spiritual and military leader of the Lakota Sioux, his role in the major victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, his subsequent flight to Canada and return as a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, to his arrest and untimely death at the hands of the Indian Affairs police on the eve of the Battle of Wounded Knee.The first new biography of Sitting Bull (1831-1890), in over fifteen years, Yenne's work will set a benchmark for all future histories.

Amazon Significant Seven, April 2008: As a celebrated warrior, shaman, and leader of the Lakota tribe, Sitting Bull was both a fascinating and frightening icon to the expanding United States, a 19th-century cross-cultural superstar who was at once a friend to Buffalo Bill and the emblem of Native American resistance in the face of the westward settlement. In Sitting Bull, Bill Yenne has produced a fascinating and exhaustively researched biography, drawing from contemporary sources as well as the iconic leader's own "Hieroglyphic Autobiography" (a series of pictographs depicting pivotal events in his life) to create an informal and relaxed account that still packs an amazing amount of detail. Recounting the exploits of the budding warrior known as Jumping Badger, his misunderstood role in the Battle of Little Big Horn, and his death on the eve of the massacre at Wounded Knee, Sitting Bull cuts through legend to place the Lakota leader square into his own cultural context, spurning the usual wasichu filters or biases. --Jon Foro