Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War (2010)

Dennis C. Pope seeks to elucidate a little known time in the life of Sitting Bull in Sitting Bull: Prisoner of War. Concentrating on the years 1881 to 1883, what scholars have up to now either ignored or glossed over, Pope addresses Sitting Bull’s surrender and his imprisonment at Fort Buford, Fort Yates, and Fort Randall. Using newspapers, government documents, and manuscripts, Pope provides Sitting Bull’s words and his interactions with the American government, particularly the Army, and those civilians who sought to interview and befriend the aging chief. Arguing that Sitting Bull “learne[ed] how to deal with the white men who now controlled his life and his people,” Pope lets the evidence illustrate what Sitting Bull learned during his imprisonment, principally his using letters, interviews with reporters and the ethnographer Alice Fletcher, and direct negotiations with the Army until he got what he desired for the Hunkpapa. Pope ultimately concludes that “Sitting Bull remained faithful to his heritage until the end of his life” and that he “continued to exemplify the virtues of generosity and courage and to fight for what he thought was best for his people.” This book provides a focused examination on Sitting Bull at this time of his life and brings together the primary sources that had been scattered in various places on the Internet and in government archives. One weakness occurs when Pope attempts to provide Sitting Bull’s own thoughts after his surrender at Fort Buford in 1881. Pope speculates, for example, that “Sitting Bull’s thoughts were not just for himself and his family, but of his band as well.” Pope adds that Sitting Bull was “honor-bound to look after them. As much as he detested the fact that the old free days were gone forever and that reservation life was now inevitable, he intended to look after his people in the best way possible. Would the whites let him?” These passages seem unnecessary and interfere with Pope’s writing of history. ( )

Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War is a solid historiography on a late chapter in the life of the famous Sioux tribal chief. The author, Dennis Pope, begins the book by setting the stage by giving the reader a short history of the Lakotas and its tenuous relationship with the US Gov't.
The story is that of the existence of Sitting Bull and his family from the time of his surrender at Fort Buford in North Dakota, through the hopscotching down to Fort Randall.
I thought the writer chose a good topic for a book (of which he spoke in the Preface), through his writing he seemed to know his subject well (which I have sadly found is not always the case), and utilized an extensive amount of sources to a good extent.
The only issue I had with the book was with the narrative. I put a lot of credence in the delivery of the story and found Mr. Pope's narrative to be stiff and dry and at times tough to march through. Do not get me wrong it was not written poorly, for me it just did not have the flow like the great writers of history have a knack for doing.
Would I recommend it? Yes and no. I would not recommend it to someone who is not a die hard history buff, it is not written for them. I would however recommend it to someone who has an interest in the subject and would like more insight into the life of a true American icon/legend who was a victim of America's Manifest Destiny of the Gilded Age. ( )

This brief book describes the life of Sitting Bull during the 20 months he spent in custody of the U.S. military at Fort Randall, a period that has not been covered in any detail by earlier biographies..

After the Battle of Little Big Horn, Sitting Bull led his people into Canada, but starvation eventually convinced them to return to the Dakotas to surrender. Most of the Hunkpapa Sioux were sent to the Standing Rock reservation, but Sitting Bull and his immediate family were isolated at Fort Randall, due to fear that he would incite an uprising if allowed to join the rest of his tribe.

The author apparently completed much of his research online, which explains the curious lack of any sense of the geography of the area. This is a minor deficiency, though, as the focus is on Sitting Bull's adjustment to his newly constrained circumstances. Although the story is told through the observations of the whites who encountered him, Sitting Bull's adaptability and his concern for his people are evident. For the first time in his life, he was unable to travel, unable to hunt, and unable to lead his people. As he became quite a celebrity and had many white visitors, Sitting Bull began charging for autographs - one of the few ways in which he could continue to provide for his family.

This book revealed enough of Sitting Bull's personality to make me want to read a more comprehensive biography. ( )

Sitting Bull: Prisoner of War by Dennis C. Pope is a surprisingly solid little volume that does an excellent job of capturing a kind of historical moment in time: the two years that Sitting Bull was held as prisoner of war before being assigned to a reservation where he spent the next seven years pf his life before being murdered by Indian police.
I say surprising because my expectation were initially not very high given the size of the book, and I was at first put off by the author’s early tendency to speak from the mind of the chief. Fortunately, Pope abandons this technique almost immediately after introducing it and the rest of the narrative is very focused and well-written.
Prior to reading this book, it never would have occurred to me that there is a great perspective in focusing upon this period of Sitting Bull’s prisoner status. The proud chief, who only a few years prior had helped beat Custer and put the United States cavalry to the run, had been reduced with his band to rags and near starvation after some time of refuge in Canada. As a prisoner, he recognizes that the world has changed and does what he can to encourage the assimilation of his people – especially the children – into the white man’s ways, even while quietly clinging to his role as leader of his people, a role that will be gradually diminished over time.
Pope writing style is spare yet interesting and articulate. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the twilight years of the American Indian in the late nineteenth century. ( )

An eye opening multifaceted/factual account of a sometimes misunderstood American icon. This work covers the period of Sitting Bull's surrender to American forces in July of 1881 till his release from custody in 1883. A time period not well investigated by other Sitting Bull biographers. Mr. Pope combs through the available documentation and first-person accounts and synthesizes a straightforward readable narrative that dispels many misunderstood accounts of events sometimes perpetuated by TV and movies. At times the reading may seem a bit routine in its clear and accurate statement of the facts, but with patience the reader gleams a more deeper understanding of Chief Sitting Bull's state of mind at the time, as well as the context of the time period of his incarceration. The book illuminates the human side of Sitting Bull and the people connected to him in this unsettling time of change in American history. This work also gives a great case history exploring the complexity and issues regarding the treatment of Native Americans in the 1880's. I recommend this for those interested in Native American and/or American Western history. ( )

Covers the neglected period of Sitting Bull's life from his surrender at Fort Buford to his transfer to the Standing Rock Reservation, a period of about two years. According to Pope, once Sitting Bull surrendered, he accepted that his people needed to change their way of life and become settled farmers, he requested assistance in achieving this from anyone who would listen, as well as quite a few who wouldn't. I think popular culture has distorted the image of Sitting Bull, who is primarily remembered for the fight at the Little Big Horn. Pope does an excellent job of documenting the events of this short time span and provides an interesting view of the end of the last nomadic Plains Indians.

I received this book as an ARC from the LT Early Reader Program. ( )

For anyone interested in a brief slice of Sitting Bull's life, this would be a pretty good read. It focuses on his 2 years as a prisoner of the United States and really drives home the "stranger in a strange land" theme. Sitting Bull was clearly not interested in adopting white culture, mores and lifestyles. However, this isn't really news to anyone with a working knowledge of the man. The sources are all secondary (or even, at times, tertiary--what a friend of a friend hard, etc). However, if if don't know much about Sitting Bull or that period in history, this is a good, quick read with solid, if not new, information--engagingly written. ( )

Whether cast in terms of manifest destiny or, more crudely, "the Indian problem," at its core the conflict between white and Native Americans was a clash of cultures. While not necessarily the centerpiece, Dakota Territory was frequently a stage upon which it played out. Despite the fact it focuses on a narrow slice of the life of Lakota war chief Sitting Bull, Dennis C. Pope's Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War is infused with one of the fundamental differences between the Plains Indians and white society.

Pope's book looks at the period when Sitting Bull was essentially a prisoner of war. Sitting Bull was one of the Lakota Sioux's leading warriors and war chiefs after the discovery of gold in the Black Hills led to continued violations of the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which had guaranteed the Black Hills and much of western South Dakota and eastern Montana and Wyoming to the Sioux in perpetuity. His resistance to abandoning traditional plains life led other groups to band with him and his vision of soldiers falling from the sky helped inspire the defeat of Custer's Seventh Calvary in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Within a year, Sitting Bull led his band to Canada to escape the U.S. military. By 1881, though, things had become so dire for the band that Sitting Bull surrendered.

Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War focuses on the roughly two years that followed that surrender. Although initially transferred to Fort Yates near the Standing Rock Agency in what is now south central North Dakota where many of his band's friends and relatives were located, the government feared he might lead another uprising. As a result, he and his band were taken by steamer down the Missouri River to Fort Thompson in what is now southeastern South Dakota. Isolated from family and friends, Sitting Bull and his people were, for all intents and purposes, prisoners.

Pope uses a quite readable narrative history approach to this period, something not always easy when dealing with a topic that is not only more than 100 years old but one in which the central figure's ideas and thoughts are communicated through others. In limiting the book to the period from Sitting Bull's surrender on July 19, 1881, until he and his band were allowed to rejoin the rest of his tribe at Standing Rock in May 1883, Pope brings a unique period in the warrior's life into sharp focus. Moreover, this focus reveals that although survival required the Lakota to adapt, Sitting Bull's core beliefs never changed.

Throughout his life, Sitting Bull believed no one could sell Indian land. As far as he was concerned, "treaty Indians" had exceeded their authority and their acts did not bind him. He surrendered only in order to save his band. When he did so, he offered to be placed on a reservation on the Little Missouri but wanted the right to cross back and forth into Canada whenever he wished. "This is my country, and I don't wish to be compelled to give it up," he said in surrendering. Instead, he was sent to Fort Randall, where he was more under the supervision of the War Department than the Interior Department, which was normally in charge of Indian affairs.

Despite his status, Sitting Bull possessed a type of celebrity status. From surrender to Fort Randall, social events were held at which prominent citizens and military personnel and their families could meet Sitting Bull. Even though he did not agree with the white man's ways, he understood the tools of attempting to survive in it. As a result, he would often charge for autographs or photographs. While attempting to "endure the peace" he also sought out a balance for others of his tribe to make sure they survived while he sought to maintain traditional values. For example, even though he let one of his children be among a handful taken to a boarding school away from Fort Randall, he told anyone who asked or listened that the land belonged to the Sioux and that he and his people were suffering an injustice.

Pope relies on newspaper and other contemporary accounts and government documents to show how Sitting Bull personally refused to concede tradition even if he and his people had lost control of their fate. Sitting Bull's views were such that he personally questioned what good, if any, white society offered. He told one newspaper correspondent:

The life of white men is slavery. They are prisoners in towns or farms. The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food, that is as good as the right to move in open country, and live in our own fashion.

Reality, though, meant his people had to give up that freedom. But even when Sitting Bull agreed to "[b]e a white man and go to farming" at Standing Rock, he told newspaper reporters that the Sioux owned the land and he could go where he pleased. By then in his early fifties, Sitting Bull was simply stating the principle that guided his entire life. The fact his people may have lost the clash of cultures did not mean that he had to abandon his basic beliefs, something Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War shows he did not do even when within the control and custody of the U.S. government.

(Originally posted at A Progressive on the Prairie.)

The importance of historical data is not self-evident. It takes a well trained historian to sort the data, put it in context, and explain both what the data means and how that historian came his or her conclusion about the data. The best way to do this is to create a narrative that uses the available data, and while relating the narrative explain what meaning the content of the narrative has for us today.

There are other metrics to judge historical works. We look for the depth of the research, and monitor the citations in the body of the work. We note explanations of bias by the historian. We gauge the validity of the analysis and interpretation the historian has employed in order to create his or her account.

Dennis Pope’s Sitting Bull: Prisoner of War is, by most metrics an able account of Sitting Bull’s captivity at Forts Yates and Randall in the Dakota Territory. Pope does an excellent job of relaying the details of camp life for Sitting Bull’s band, and expressing Sitting Bull’s attempts to a) free himself and his people from captivity and b) acquire the necessary supplies and skills to become farmers like the whites on whose behalf the army imprisons him.

For shear data, Pope’s account is indispensible. Sitting Bull: Prisoner of War is extremely well researched and full of detailed information about daily life for the Hunkpapa band of Sioux in captivity.

But Pope’s work exists inside a context that Pope himself did not create. Sitting Bull: Prisoner of War is part of a larger set of works that address the life and time of Sitting Bull, works like Robert Utley’s Lance and the Shield and Stanley Vestal’s Sitting Bull, Champion of the Sioux. These other works do Pope the service of providing the meaning for the information he imparts in Sitting Bull: Prisoner of War.

In short Pope neither tells a full story nor imparts its meaning. This does not mean that Sitting Bull: Prisoner of War is not an excellent work of History. But it does make the book drier than it needs to be and it leaves the reader wondering why the detailed information contained therein is so important.

Call it a companion work and enjoy it for the detailed knowledge you’ll gain. ( )

Very interesting book on a great Sioux chief. Dennis Pope does a good job of describing life for Sitting Bull while he was incarcerated at Fort Randall. ( )

An interesting read of the last years of Sitting Bull, one of the last great Sioux chiefs of the plains Indians. The book also includes some very good notes on each chapter. ( )

Dennis Pope's "Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War" looks at the life of the Indian Chief while he was incarcerated by the US Government at Fort Randall in the Dakota Territory from 1881 to 1883. In his introduction, Pope stated that he intentionally chose a period of Sitting Bull's life that had not been studied extensively, but in his opinion warranted it. While written in a very readable style, the book, I think, would be of more interest to the student of Sitting Bull and this era of American history, than to the casual reader. A good selection of photos. ( )

Dennis Pope does a good job of putting you into Sitting Bull's life for some two years after his surrender in 1881. I was impressed with Sitting Bull's intelligence and his care for his people. Even though he did not believe in the white man's ways, he understood the politics behind them. Loved this quote from Pope's book. The white man had many things that we wanted, but we could see that they did not have the one thing we like best - freedom. ( )

This is a good book telling the last chapter in the life of a once proud and free man, Sitting Bull, who has realized his culture cannot survive and must take up the white peoples ways. Racked by confusion about what is going to happen to him, I think this book shows that he has the best interest of his people in the foremost of his mind. It told the lengths that some of his admirers went to to help him. I felt this book was well researched and put together to tell this story. I wish his death would have been examines a little more in depth.. but over all an enjoyable read.. ( )

This is a concise, readable account for the general reader of the months Sitting Bull, his family, and his closest followers spent as official prisoners of war at Ft. Randall, near Yankton, South Dakota, following their surrender to the US Army in 1881. It serves as a nice complement to the full biography written by well-known historian Robert Utley (The Lance and the Shield) and the lesser known biography recently published by Ernie LaPointe, Sitting Bull’s great grandson (Sitting Bull: His Life and Legacy).

Pope writes chronologically and paints a good picture of the mundane routine of day to day life for Sitting Bull at the fort, a time filled with uncertainty that had to be depressing and one of the most uneventful periods of his life. Confined as he was to the surrounding area of the post, for the first time in his life he was unable to hunt, unable to ride, unable to feed or clothe himself; indeed, he was dependent on the US government for his very survival. These were not the things any self-respecting nomadic warrior could ever envision nor find easy to accept.

But in this trying time we see Sitting Bull’s leadership style and genius as he works tirelessly for the welfare of his people and never gives up lobbying the commander of the fort (who is sympathetic) and other US officials for a return to the Standing Rock reservation where the rest of his people have been placed.

Pope also does a good job interpreting the available primary sources to give us a realistic and plausible portrait of other aspects of Sitting Bull’s personality and thinking: his pride, his generosity, his religious nature, and his stubborn unwillingness to give up his traditional Lakota beliefs, despite the changes already affecting his people, and with more drastic changes he knows are yet to come.

The final noteworthy aspect of this book is the development of Sitting Bull’s relationships with white people, not only the soldiers at Ft. Randall, but also the visitors who were permitted to interview him, including local religious leaders, newspaper reporters and foreign correspondents (Rudolf Cronau). He comes to understand he will have to adapt and somehow manage to co-exist with these people, who he doesn’t want to admit defeated him. We see how astute an observer he is and how quickly he learns what is most important in white culture. The best and perhaps most symbolic measure of his understanding of the white man’s ways takes place each time he asks payment for his autograph. In true Lakota fashion, he then takes what he’s earned and gives it away to help his people. (Generosity is a primary value in traditional Lakota culture.)

While there isn’t much that I found new or revealing in this book, it was still a worthwhile read, particularly if one has more than a passing interest in Native American history and culture. Hats off to the South Dakota Historical Society Press for publishing it. ( )

This is an account of Sitting Bull's confinement at Fort Randall in the Dakota Territory from 1881 to 1883. Why this brief period of history?
The author chose a time frame that was generally skimmed over in previous biographies of Sitting Bull. And this book does make me want to read more on the subject. It is not even
close to providing a complete picture of the man.

Yet, I would recommend this book with the caveat that the reader try other works about the Lakota chief first. There is a great deal of material covering the Hunkpapa children being sent away to boarding school and the unsuccessful attempts to convert Sitting Bull's clan to Christianity. Written in a politically neutral style. ( )

Pope does a wonderful job making this brief, but important portion of Sitting Bull's life quite fascinating. Even though the topic isn't perhaps as exciting as other 'major' portions of Sitting Bull's life, Pope does a great job in keeping the meetings, emotions and daily life events of this period highly readable and very worthwhile. I am not very well read on Sitting Bull myself but I am certainly more interested in reading more about this man and his place in American history after reading Pope's book. A worthy edition to any American history library. ( )

Though the American Civil War is my primary interest, I was glad I was sent a copy of Sitting Bull to review. I thought the author did a credible job showing the human side of Sitting Bull, from his breaking down and sobbing when his infant daughter died to his constant demands to be released from captivity at Ft Randall so he could join the rest of his people at Standing Rock and learn how to be "civilized". After reading this book I came away with a better understanding and appreciation for Sitting Bull as he went from one of the premier light cavalry leaders our continent has known, to leading the life as a gentlman farmer controlled by the US Government. ( )

Although I have read other works on the life and times of Sitting Bull, I wondered how my amateur knowledge would prepare me for delving into this detailed study of a limited, and formerly under-researched, period of his life. I was very pleased that Pope’s prologue set the scene very nicely, and provided an introduction that allowed me to be mentally well-positioned before I began reading Chapter One.

I liked the “voice” of this author. During the time I spent reading Sitting Bull : Prisoner of War, I felt that I was listening to Pope as if he were sitting in the room with me. And, a map! I love maps, especially in history books, and there is a simple but useful one depicting the Dakota Territory (1881) from Fort Buford to Fort Randall.

I found the vast amount of research and myriad primary source materials that Pope used to provide background for his book to be most impressive. In addition, I appreciated the author’s open acknowledgement of the many librarians, archivists, and historians who facilitated his research. His thanks were offered not in a simple list of names, but in a brief narrative at the end of the book. As a retired (now volunteer) librarian myself, I know that it sometimes “takes a village” to sift through research materials relevant to a given topic. This is particularly true when one is seeking information to uncover the history of an otherwise under-researched period or topic. However, it is the author who is tasked with putting all the research together in a cohesive way. I thought Pope did a wonderful job in having the tenacity and drive to use the information available to him in a meaningful way by writing this well-researched, educational yet enjoyable, piece.

In closing, I have long believed Sitting Bull to be a larger-than-life fellow, and in the past I have enjoyed learning about his life and times. This story did much to expand my knowledge of the man, and reflect more on the unfortunate cultural circumstances of that period in our American History. I recommend this book. ( )

The Dakota Territory in the 1870s was a place of turmoil. Settlers moving west needed room to expand, the Black Hills were discovered to be rich with mineral resources, and the vast buffalo herds were being hunted to near extinction. The Lakota Sioux found themselves under considerable pressure to give up their traditional nomadic life and take up the ways of whites - moving to reservations and learning farming to support themselves. Throughout the decade, the US Army forced this transition to reservation life by military means while the Lakota and other groups of Native Americans fought to maintain their way of life. In spite of decisive battles such as Little Bighorn, the military advantage lay with the US, and one by one, groups were captured and forced onto reservations.

After the Battle of Little Bighorn, the Hunkpapas - a Lakota Sioux clan led by Sitting Bull - escaped across the border into Canada, where they were given shelter for a time. In 1881, after nearly starving over a rough winter, Sitting Bull led his people back into the Dakota Territory to surrender to the US Army. While they eventually were settled onto a reservation with other Sioux, this group of nearly 200 were held for some 18 months while the government decided what to do with them.

Sitting Bull is an iconic character from US history. He was considered a warrior chief by his people, a coward and a troublemaker by his enemies, and something of a mystery by sympathetic whites. He was misunderstood and misrepresented in the press, and for a time was a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. He was a proud man who wanted the respect of the Great Father in Washington, DC. And he was a well-loved and respected leader whose priority was on the protection of his people even as he realized that life was changing and that the old ways could not last.

There's been at least one good biography of Sitting Bull - The Lance and Shield by Robert Utley comes to mind, for instance. But these biographies fail to provide much on the 18 months while Sitting Bull was held by the Army. Dennis Pope's Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War, aims to fill that gap, and fill it nicely, it does. Pope's work is well researched and presents an interesting picture of life in an interesting time and place.

I think I liked best Pope's portrayal of Sitting Bull's interactions with the white culture and the various white people who represented that culture - from the soldiers that both guarded and supported the Hunkpapas to the self-serving translator provided by the government, and especially the sympathetic missionaries and Radicals that fought for their release to the reservation. Sitting Bull was very good at the politics of providing for his family and his people through these relationships.

Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War, provides a good insight into this very unique character in a little known time of his life. It makes a very good supplement to a fuller biography of Sitting Bull, but also stands alone pretty well for those interested in this period. ( )

This is a curious book; I'm glad to have received an Early Reviewer copy. The book includes virtually no information about the author, a retired photographic print shop owner in Wales with a life-long fascination with Sitting Bull. He notes (in the acknowledgments section) that without the Internet, the book could not have been written; in fact, in an interview with a local Welsh paper (the South Wales Echo), Pope shares that much of his archival research was conducted remotely and digitally. The book recounts the two year period, June 1881 through June 1883, when Sitting Bull and his band were kept by the US Army as prisoners of war at Fort Randall. The author's non-academic status comes through in a couple ways. The research and citations are meticulous; writing the book was clearly a labor of love, and much of that joy comes through in the reading. At the same time, Pope appears to take his sources mostly at face value, rarely weighing them against each other or discussing how we should interpret them today in light of differences in our worldviews.

The book will be useful for anyone deeply interested in Sitting Bull or the Sioux generally, although Robert Utley's Last Days of the Sioux Nation (1963) and the Lance and the Shield (1994) are probably a better place to start. The various people who interacted with Sitting Bull at Ft. Randall make for a lively parade of characters, from the sympathetic ethnologist Alice Fletcher to the sketchy and underhanded interpreter 'Fish' Allison. Despite Pope's efforts to imagine what Sitting Bull may have thought or felt during his captivity, the chief himself remains somewhat inaccessible, portrayed through others' descriptions of his actions and conversations with them. Judging from Sitting Bull's reluctance to be interviewed by journalists during his captivity, this is perhaps the impression he wished to leave. ( )