Red Cloud (Lakota: Maȟpíya Lúta), (1822 – December 10, 1909) was a war leader and a chief of the Oglala Lakota (Sioux). He led as a chief from 1868 to 1909. One of the most capable Native American opponents the United States Army faced, he led a successful campaign in 1866–1868 known as Red Cloud's War over control of the Powder River Country in northeastern Wyoming and southern Montana.

After signing the Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868), he led his people in the important transition to reservation life. Some of his US opponents mistakenly thought of him as overall chief of the Sioux. The large tribe had several major divisions and was highly decentralized. Bands among the Oglala and other divisions operated independently, even though some individual leaders such as Red Cloud were renowned as warriors and highly respected as leaders.

Early life[link]

Red Cloud was born close to the forks of the Platte River, near the modern-day city of North Platte, Nebraska. His mother, Walks As She Thinks, was an Oglala Lakota and his father, Lone Man, was a Brulé Lakota chief. These were two of the major seven Lakota divisions.

As was traditional among the matrilineal Lakota, in which the children belonged to the mother's clan and people, Red Cloud was mentored as a boy by his maternal uncle, Old Chief Smoke (1774–1864). Old Chief Smoke played a prominent, major role in the boy's early-mid life and brought him in to the Smoke household when his parents died around 1825. At a young age, Red Cloud fought against neighboring Pawnee and Crow, gaining much war experience.

Red Cloud's War[link]

Red Cloud's War was the name the US Army gave to a series of conflicts fought with American Indian Plains tribes in the Wyoming and Montana territories. The battles were waged between the Northern Cheyenne, allied with Lakota and Arapaho bands, against the United States Army between 1866 and 1868. In December 1866, the Native American allies attacked and defeated a United States unit in what the whites would call the Fetterman Massacre (or the Battle of the Hundred Slain); it was the event on the Plains to that point with the highest US fatalities.^[1]

Red Cloud

Captain William J. Fetterman was sent from Fort Phil Kearny with two civilians and 79 cavalry and infantrymen to chase away a small Indian war party that had attacked a wood party days before. Captain Frederick Brown accompanied Fetterman; the two were confident in their troops and anxious to go to battle with the Indians. They disobeyed orders to stay behind the Lodge Trail Ridge and pursued a small decoy band of warriors, led by an Indian on an apparently injured horse. The decoy was the prominent warrior Crazy Horse. Fetterman and his troops followed the decoy into an ambush by more than 2,000 Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho. Combined Indian forces suffered only 14 casualties, while they killed the entire 81-man US detachment.

Following this battle, a US peace commission toured the Plains in 1867 to gather information to help bring about peace among the tribes and with the US. Finding that the American Indians had been provoked by white encroachment and competition for resources, the commission recommended assigning definite territories to the Plains tribes. The Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho bands, and others settled for peace with the US under the Treaty of Fort Laramie. The US agreed to abandon its forts and withdraw completely from Lakota territory.

Treaty of 1868[link]

The treaty established the Great Sioux Reservation, covering the territory of West River, west of the Missouri River in present-day Nebraska (which had been admitted as a state in 1867), and including parts of South Dakota. Uneasy relations between the expanding United States and the natives continued. In 1870, Red Cloud visited Washington D.C., and met with Commissioner of Indian Affairs Ely S. Parker (a Seneca and U.S. Army General) and President Ulysses S. Grant.

In 1871, the government established the Red Cloud Agency on the Platte River, downstream from Fort Laramie. As outlined in the Treaty of 1868, the agency staff were responsible for issuing weekly rations to the Oglala, as well as providing the annually distributed supply of cash and annuity goods. The agent and Washington officials would determine how much of the annuity was to be paid in cash or goods, and sometimes the supplies were late, in poor condition, inadequate in amount, or never arrived at all. Red Cloud took his band to the agency (a predecessor of the Indian reservation) and tried to help them in the transition to a different way of life. In the fall of 1873, the agency was removed to the upper White River in northwestern Nebraska.

Great Sioux War of 1876–1877[link]

Red Cloud settled at the agency with his band by the fall of 1873. He soon became embroiled in a controversy with the new Indian agent, Dr. John J. Saville.

In 1874, General George Armstrong Custer led a reconnaissance mission into Sioux territory that reported gold in the Black Hills, an area held sacred by the local Indians. Formerly, the Army tried to keep miners out but did not succeed; the threat of violence grew. In May 1875, Sioux delegations headed by Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and Lone Horn traveled to Washington, D.C. in an attempt to persuade President Grant to honor existing treaties and stem the flow of miners into their lands. The Indians met on various occasions with Grant, Secretary of the Interior Delano, and Commissioner of Indian Affairs Smith. He told them on May 27 that Congress was ready to resolve the matter by paying the tribes $25,000 for their land and resettling them into Indian Territory. The delegates refused to sign such a treaty, with Spotted Tail saying about the proposal:

“When I was here before, the President gave me my country, and I put my stake down in a good place, and there I want to stay.... You speak of another country, but it is not my country; it does not concern me, and I want nothing to do with it. I was not born there.... If it is such a good country, you ought to send the white men now in our country there and let us alone.�^[2]

Red Cloud, close-up in his war bonnet

Seated, L to R: Yellow Bear, Jack Red Cloud, Big Road, Little Wound, Black Crow; Standing, L to R: Red Bear, Young Man Afraid of his Horse, Good Voice, Ring Thunder, Iron Crow, White Tail, Young Spotted Tail, ca. 1860-1880

Although Red Cloud was unsuccessful in finding a peaceful solution, he did not take part in the Lakota war of 1876-1877, which was led by Tȟašúŋke Witkó (Crazy Horse) and Tȟatȟáŋka �yotake (Sitting Bull).

In the fall of 1877, the Red Cloud Agency was removed to the upper Missouri River. The following year it was removed to the forks of the White River, in present-day South Dakota, where it was renamed the Pine Ridge Reservation.

His last days[link]

Red Cloud became an important leader of the Lakota as they transitioned from the freedom of the plains to the confinement of the reservation system. His trip to Washington, DC had convinced him of the number and power of European Americans, and he believed the Oglala had to seek peace.

Red Cloud continued fighting for his people, even after being forced onto the reservation. In 1887 Red Cloud opposed the Dawes Act, which broke up communal tribal holdings, and allocated 160-acre plots of land to heads of families on tribal rolls for subsistence farming. The US declared additional communal tribal lands as excess, and sold it to emigrant settlers. In 1889 Red Cloud opposed a treaty to sell more of the Sioux land. Due to his steadfastness and that of Sitting Bull, government agents obtained the necessary signatures for approval through subterfuge, such as using the signatures of children. He negotiated strongly with Indian Agents such as Dr. Valentine McGillycuddy.

He outlived all the other major Sioux leaders of the Indian Wars. He died in 1909 at the age of 87 on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where he was buried.

Legacy and honors[link]

Announcements of the death and recognition of Red Cloud's achievements was printed in major newspapers across the country. As had been typical of the US perception during Red Cloud's prominence in war, the article in The New York Times mistakenly described him as leader of all the Sioux bands and tribes, but noted his abilities as a leader and diplomat. While he was a prominent leader, the Lakota were highly decentralized and never had one overall leader, especially of the major divisions, such as Oglala and Brulé.^[3][4][5]

Red Cloud was among the Indians photographed by Edward S. Curtis. In 2000, he was posthumously selected for induction into the Nebraska Hall of Fame. He has been honored by the United States Postal Service with a 10¢ Great Americans series postage stamp.

Note: Red Cloud descendants have continued to be chosen as traditional chiefs of the Lakota Sioux:

• Jack Red Cloud, 1909–1928 (included as a younger man in photo to the right)
• James Red Cloud, 1928–1960
• Charles Red Cloud (his brother), 1960–1979, and
• Oliver Red Cloud, 1979–present.

Oliver Red Cloud (90 years old), is the fourth-generation direct descendant of Chief Red Cloud. Oliver is a chief of the Oglala Lakota Sioux people and Speaker of the traditional Lakota Sioux Nation. He is the Chairman of the "Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council".

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Red Cloud

• "Red Cloud", New Perspectives on The West, PBS, 2001
• "Red Cloud". Chief of the Oglala Lakota. Find a Grave. Oct 25, 2002. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6878358. Retrieved Aug 18, 2011. 
• Red Cloud - bronze sculpture
• "Chief Red Cloud's Great-Great Grandson on Native American Issues", video interview by Democracy Now!

Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull in 1882
Tribe	Hunkpapa Lakota
Born	c. 1831[1] Grand River, South Dakota
Died	December 15, 1890(1890-12-15) (aged 58-59) Grand River, South Dakota, Standing Rock Indian Reservation
Native name	Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka (born Hoka Psice)
Known for	Battle of Little Big Horn, resistance to USA
Cause of death	Shot by Indian Police
Resting place	South Dakota
Religious beliefs	Lakota, Roman Catholic (later in life)
Spouse(s)	Light Hair Four Robes Snow-on-Her Seen-by-her-Nation Scarlet Woman
Children	One Bull (adopted son) Crow Foot (son) Many Horses (daughter) Walks Looking (daughter) (adopted daughter)
Parents	Jumping Bull (father) Her-Holy-Door (mother)
Relatives	Big Foot (half brother) White Bull (nephew)
Signature

Sitting Bull (Lakota: TÈŸatȟáŋka Ã�yotake in Standard Lakota Orthography,^[2] also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; c. 1831 â€“ December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies. Born near the Grand River in Dakota Territory, he was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him and prevent him from supporting the Ghost Dance movement.

He had a premonition of defeating the cavalry, which motivated his Native American people to a major victory at the Battle of the Little Bighorn against Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry on June 25, 1876. Months after the battle, Sitting Bull and his group left the United States to Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan, where he remained until 1881, at which time he surrendered to U.S. forces. A small remnant of his band under Chief Waŋblí Ǧí decided to stay at Wood Mountain. After his return to the United States, he briefly toured as a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, earning $50 a week.

After working as a performer, Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency in South Dakota. Because of fears that he would use his influence to support the Ghost Dance movement, Indian Service agent James McLaughlin at Fort Yates ordered his arrest. During an ensuing struggle between Sitting Bull's followers and the agency police, Sitting Bull was shot in the side and head by Standing Rock policemen Lieutenant Bull Head (Tatankapah) and Red Tomahawk (Marcelus Chankpidutah) after the police were fired upon by Sitting Bull's supporters. His body was taken to nearby Fort Yates for burial, but in 1953, his remains were possibly exhumed and reburied near Mobridge, South Dakota, by his Lakota family, who wanted his body to be nearer to his birthplace.

Early life[link]

Sitting Bull

By many accounts, Sitting Bull was born in a teepee and was raised to be a warrior near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Dakota Territory. His great-grandson Ernie LaPointe contends that family tradition says he was born at the Yellowstone River near present-day Miles City, Montana.^[3] He was named Jumping Badger at birth.^[4] In traditional Lakota fashion, he was later given one of his father's names, Tȟatȟaŋka Iyotȟaŋka, translated as "Sitting Bull", due to a leadership role in a battle between the Lakota and Crow people.

In the Dakota War of 1862, several bands of the Sioux killed 600 settlers and soldiers in south-central Minnesota in response to poor treatment by the government and in an effort to drive the whites away. Despite being embroiled in the American Civil War, the United States Army retaliated in 1863 and 1864, even against bands which had not been involved in the hostilities.^[5] In 1864, two brigades of about 2200 soldiers under Brigadier General Alfred Sully attacked a village. The defenders were led by Sitting Bull, Gall and Inkpaduta.^[5] The Sioux were driven out, but skirmishing continued into August.

In September, Sitting Bull and about 100 Hunkpapa Sioux came across a small party near what is now Marmarth, North Dakota. They had been left behind by a wagon train commanded by Captain James L. Fisk to effect some repairs to an overturned wagon. When he led an attack, Sitting Bull was shot in the left hip by a soldier.^[5] The bullet exited out through the small of his back, and the wound was not too serious.^[6]

Red Cloud's War[link]

Sitting Bull led numerous war parties against Fort Berthold, Fort Stevenson, and Fort Buford and their environs from 1865 through 1868.^[7] Although Red Cloud was a leader of the Oglala Sioux, his leadership and attacks against forts in the Powder River Country of Montana were supported by Sitting Bull's guerrilla attacks on emigrant parties and smaller forts throughout the upper Missouri River region.

By early 1868, the U.S. government desired a peaceful settlement to Red Cloud's War. It agreed to Red Cloud's demands that Forts Phil Kearny and C.F. Smith be abandoned. Chief Gall of the Hunkpapas (among other representatives of the Hunkpapas, Blackfeet, and Yankton Sioux) signed a form of the Treaty of Fort Laramie on July 2, 1868 at Fort Rice (near Bismarck, North Dakota).^[8] Sitting Bull did not agree to the treaty. He continued his hit-and-run attacks on forts in the upper Missouri area throughout the late 1860s and early 1870s.^[9]

The events of 1867–1868 mark a historically debated period of Sitting Bull's life. According to historian Stanley Vestal, who conducted interviews with surviving Hunkpapa in 1930, Sitting Bull was made "Supreme Chief of the whole Sioux Nation" at this time. Later historians and ethnologists have refuted this concept of authority, as the Lakota society was highly decentralised. Lakota bands and their chiefs made individual decisions.

The Great Sioux War of 1876[link]

Sitting Bull's band of Hunkpapa continued to attack migrating parties and forts in the late 1860s. When in 1871 the Northern Pacific Railway conducted a survey for a route across the northern plains directly through Hunkpapa lands, it encountered stiff Sioux resistance.^[10] The same railway people returned the following year accompanied by federal troops. Sitting Bull and the Hunkpapa attacked the survey party, which was forced to turn back.^[11] In 1873, the military accompaniment for the surveyors was increased again, but Sitting Bull's forces resisted the survey "most vigorously."^[12]

The Panic of 1873 forced the Northern Pacific Railway's backers (such as Jay Cooke) into bankruptcy. This halted construction of the railroad through Sioux territory. After the discovery and new wealth from gold in California, other men became interested in the potential for gold mining in the Black Hills. In 1874, Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer led a military expedition from Fort Abraham Lincoln near Bismarck, to explore the Black Hills for gold and to determine a suitable location for a military fort in the Hills.^[13] Custer's announcement of gold in the Black Hills triggered the Black Hills Gold Rush. Tensions increased between the Sioux and European Americans' seeking to move into the Black Hills.^[14]

Although Sitting Bull did not attack Custer's expedition in 1874, the US government was increasingly pressured to open the Black Hills to mining and settlement. It was alarmed at reports of Sioux depredations (encouraged by Sitting Bull). In November 1875, the government ordered all Sioux bands outside the Great Sioux Reservation to move onto the reservation, knowing full well that not all would comply. As of February 1, 1876, the Interior Department certified as "hostile" those bands who continued to live off the reservation.^[15] This certification allowed the military to pursue Sitting Bull and Lakota bands as "hostiles".

According to the historian Margot Liberty, many Lakota bands allied with the Cheyenne during the Plains Wars because they thought the other nation was under attack by the US. Given this connection, she suggests the major war should have been called "The Great Cheyenne War". Since 1860, the Northern Cheyenne had led several battles among the Plains Indians. Before 1876, the US Army had destroyed seven Cheyenne camps, more than those of any other nation.^[16]

However, other historians such as Robert Utley^[17] and Jerome Greene^[18][19] also use Lakota oral testimony as the basis for their conclusions that the Lakota coalition, of which Sitting Bull was the ostensible head, was the primary target of the federal government's pacification campaign.

Battle of the Little Bighorn[link]

Little Bighorn battlefield

During the period 1868–1876, Sitting Bull developed into the most important of Native American chiefs. After the Laramie Treaty of 1868 and the creation of the Great Sioux Reservation, many traditional Sioux warriors, such as Red Cloud of the Oglala and Spotted Tail of the Brulé, moved to reside permanently on the reservations. They were largely dependent for subsistence on the US Indian agencies. Many other chiefs, including members of Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa band such as Gall, at times lived temporarily at the agencies. They needed the supplies at a time when white encroachment and the depletion of buffalo herds reduced their resources and challenged Native American independence.

In 1875, the Northern Cheyenne, Hunkpapa, Oglala, Sans Arc, and Minneconjou camped together for a Sun Dance, with both the Cheyenne medicine man White Bull or Ice and Sitting Bull in association. This ceremonial alliance preceded their fighting together in 1876.^[16] Sitting Bull had a major revelation.

At the climactic moment, "Sitting Bull intoned, 'The Great Spirit has given our enemies to us. We are to destroy them. We do not know who they are. They may be soldiers.' Ice too observed, 'No one then knew who the enemy were – of what tribe.'...They were soon to find out."(Utley 1992: 122–24)

Sitting Bull's refusal to adopt any dependence on the white man meant that at times he and his small band of warriors lived isolated on the Plains. When Native Americans were threatened by the United States, numerous members from various Sioux bands and other tribes, such as the North Cheyenne, came to Sitting Bull's camp. His reputation for "strong medicine" developed as he continued to evade the European Americans.

After the January 1st ultimatum of 1876, when the US Army began to track down Sioux and others living off the reservation as hostiles, Native Americans gathered at Sitting Bull's camp. The chief took an active role in encouraging this "unity camp". He sent scouts to the reservations to recruit warriors, and told the Hunkpapa to share supplies with those Native Americans who joined them. An example of his generosity was Sitting Bull's taking care of Wooden Leg's Northern Cheyenne tribe. They had been impoverished by Captain Reynold's March 17, 1876 attack and fled to Sitting Bull's camp for safety.^[16]

The Hunkpapa chief provided resources to sustain the new recruits. Over the course of the first half of 1876, Sitting Bull's camp continually expanded, as natives joined him for safety in numbers. His leadership had attracted the warriors and families of an extensive village, estimated at more than 10,000 people. General Custer came across this large camp on June 25, 1876. Sitting Bull did not take a direct military role in the ensuing battle; as a head chief, he was charged with defensive responsibilities.

Custer’s 7th Cavalry advance party of General Alfred Howe Terry’s column attacked Cheyenne and Lakota tribes at their camp on the Little Big Horn River on June 25, 1876. The U.S. Army did not realize how large the camp was. More than 2,000 Native Americans had left their reservations to follow Sitting Bull. Inspired by a vision of Sitting Bull’s, in which he saw U.S. soldiers being killed as they entered the tribe’s camp, the Cheyenne and Lakota fought back. Custer's badly outnumbered troops lost ground quickly and were forced to retreat. The tribes led a counter-attack against the soldiers on a nearby ridge, ultimately annihilating most of them.

The Native Americans' victory celebrations were short-lived. Public shock and outrage at Custer's death and defeat, and the government's knowledge about the remaining Sioux, led them to assign thousands more soldiers to the area. Over the next year, the new American military forces pursued the Lakota, forcing many of the Native Americans to surrender. Sitting Bull refused to surrender and in May 1877 led his band across the border into Saskatchewan, Canada. He remained in exile for many years near Wood Mountain, refusing a pardon and the chance to return.^[20]

Surrender[link]

Hunger and cold eventually forced Sitting Bull, his family, and nearly 200 other Sioux in his band to return to the United States and surrender on July 19, 1881. Sitting Bull had his young son Crow Foot surrender his rifle to the commanding officer of Fort Buford. He told the soldiers that he wished to regard them and the white race as friends. Two weeks later, the Army transferred Sitting Bull and his band to Fort Yates, the military post located adjacent to the Standing Rock Agency, which straddles the present-day boundary of North and South Dakota.

Sitting Bull and his band of 185 people were kept separate from the other Hunkpapa gathered at the agency. Army officials were concerned that the famed chief would stir up trouble among the recently surrendered northern bands. On August 26, 1881, he was visited by the census taker William T. Selwyn, who counted twelve people in the Hunkpapa leader's immediate family. Forty-one families, totaling 195 people, were recorded in Sitting Bull's band.^[21]

The military decided to transfer him and his band to Fort Randall, to be held as prisoners of war. Loaded onto a steamboat, the band of 172 people was sent down the Missouri River to Fort Randall (near present-day Pickstown, South Dakota on the southern border of the state). There they spent the next 20 months. They were allowed to return north to the Standing Rock Agency in May 1883.

Wild West Show participation[link]

In 1884, Sitting Bull was allowed to leave the reservation to join Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West show as a Show Indian. He earned about $50 a week for riding once around the arena, where he was a popular attraction. Although it is rumored that he cursed his audiences in his native tongue during the show, the historian Utley contends that he did not.^[22] Historians have reported that Sitting Bull gave speeches about his desire for education for the young, and reconciling relations between the Sioux and whites.^[23] The historian Edward Lazarus wrote that Sitting Bull reportedly cursed his audience in Lakota in 1884, during an opening address celebrating the completion of the Northern Pacific Railway.^[24]

Sitting Bull stayed with the show for four months before returning home. During that time, audiences began to consider him a celebrity and a romanticized warrior. He earned a small fortune by charging for his autograph and picture, although he often gave his money away to the homeless and beggars.^[25] In 1883, Sitting Bull embraced the Roman Catholic faith and was baptized by a French-speaking Jesuit priest.^[26][27]

Death and burial[link]

"Wild scene", "Squaws death chant heard in every direction"

Monument at Sitting Bull's grave, Mobridge, South Dakota, 2003

Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency after working in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In 1890, James McLaughlin, the U.S. Indian Agent at Fort Yates on Standing Rock Agency, feared that the Lakota leader was about to flee the reservation with the Ghost Dancers, so he ordered the police to arrest him.^[28] On 14 December 1890, McLaughlin drafted a letter to Lt. Bullhead that included instructions and a plan to capture the chief. The plan called for the arrest to take place at dawn on December 15, and advised the use of a light spring wagon to facilitate the chief's removal before his followers could rally. Bullhead decided against using the wagon. He intended to have the police officers force Sitting Bull to mount a horse immediately after the arrest.^[29]

Around 5:30 a.m. on December 15, 39 police officers and four volunteers approached Sitting Bull's house. They surrounded the house, knocked and entered. Bullhead told Sitting Bull that he was under arrest and led him outside.^[30] The camp awakened and men converged at the house of their chief. As Bullhead ordered Sitting Bull to mount a horse, he explained that the Indian Affairs agent needed to see him and then he could return to his house. Sitting Bull refused to comply and the police used force on him. The Sioux in the village were enraged. A Sioux known as Catch-the-Bear shouldered his rifle and shot Bullhead who, in return, fired his revolver into the chest of Sitting Bull.^[31] Another police officer, Red Tomahawk, shot Sitting Bull in the head, and the chief dropped to the ground. He died between 12 and 1 p.m.

A close-quarters fight erupted, and within minutes several men were dead. Six policemen were killed immediately and two more died shortly after the fight. Sitting Bull and seven of his supporters lay dead, along with two horses.^[32]

Sitting Bull's body was taken to Fort Yates to be placed in a coffin (made by the Army carpenter)^[33] and for burial. In 1953 Lakota family members exhumed what they believed to be his remains, to be reinterred near Mobridge, South Dakota, his birthplace.^[34][35]

Legacy[link]

Sitting Bull, 1882

Following Sitting Bull's death, his cabin on the Grand River was taken to Chicago to become part of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition. The cabin was exhibited along with Native American dances.^[36]

Sitting Bull was the subject of, or a featured character in, many Hollywood motion pictures and documentaries. Among them are:

• Sitting Bull: The Hostile Sioux Indian Chief (1914),
• Sitting Bull at the Spirit Lake Massacre (1927),
• Sitting Bull (1954),
• Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson (1976), and
• Into the West (2005)
• Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (2007).

As time passed, Sitting Bull became a symbol and archetype of Native American resistance movements as well as a figure celebrated by his former enemies:

• On September 14, 1989, the United States Postal Service released a Great Americans series 28¢ postage stamp featuring a likeness of Sitting Bull.^[37]
• On March 6, 1996, Standing Rock College was renamed Sitting Bull College in his honor. Sitting Bull College serves as an institution of higher education on Sitting Bull's home of Standing Rock in North Dakota and South Dakota.
• The American historian Gary Clayton Anderson of the University of Oklahoma published Sitting Bull and the Paradox of Lakota Nationhood a revisionist examination of the Lakota medicine man. Anderson stresses the Little Big Horn not so much as a mishap by Custer but in light of past succeses the Lakota Nation and the merits of Sitting Bull himself.^[38]
• Legoland Billund, the first Legoland park, contains a Lego sculpture of Sitting Bull, the largest sculpture in the park.
• Sitting Bull is featured as the leader for the Native American Civilization in the computer game Civilization IV.^[39]
• Sitting Bull is lionized as one of 13 great Americans in President Barack Obama's children's book, Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.^[40]
• In August 2011, a research team led by Eske Willerslev, an ancient DNA expert at the University of Copenhagen, announced their intention to sequence the genome of Sitting Bull, with the approval of his descendents using a hair sample obtained during his lifetime.^[41]

Gallery[link]

• 

  Sitting Bull's grave at Fort Yates, ca. 1906

• 

  Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill in 1885

• 

  Sitting Bull in Pierre, South Dakota on his way to Standing Rock Agency from Fort Randall

• 

  Sitting Bull (Tatonka-I-Yatanka), a Hunkpapa Sioux, 1885

See also[link]

• Black Elk
• Henry Mabb
• Catherine Weldon

Footnotes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Sitting Bull

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Sitting Bull

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Sitting Bull.

• Sitting Bull's ledger drawings, Smithsonian Institution
• American Public Media Speaking of Faith interview of Ernie LaPointe entitled "Tatanaka Iyotake: Reimagining Sitting Bull"
• PBS The West article on Sitting Bull
• The Sitting Bull Monument Foundation in Mobridge, South Dakota
• "Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart", feature length documentary film on the life of Sitting Bull
• Historica’s Heritage Minute video docudrama about Sitting Bull. (Adobe Flash Player)
• Kuzriel Meir (Jan 01, 2001). "Sitting Bull". Sioux Indian Leader. Find a Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=955. Retrieved Aug 18, 2011. 
•  "Sitting Bull". Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1900. 

Erik Truffaz
Background information
Birth name	Erik Truffaz
Born	c. 1960
Origin	Switzerland
Genres	Jazz fusion Acid jazz Post bop
Occupations	Trumpeter
Instruments	Trumpet
Years active	1990s–present
Labels	Blue Note Records (current) EMI
Associated acts	Erik Truffaz Ladyland Quartet Matt Penman Thor Madsen
Website	Official Website

Erik Truffaz (born 1960 in Switzerland) is a Swiss-born French jazz trumpeter, infusing elements of hip hop, rock and roll and dance music into his compositions. He signed with the French EMI label in 1996. Truffaz gained international attention with his second album on Blue Note, The Dawn, produced together with Pat Muller, Marcello Giuliani and Mark Erbetta. Since then they have produced many Blue Note albums together such as Bending New Corners, which became a Silver Album in France. The 2007 release Arkhangelsk is a mixture of pop songs, French chanson, and jazz-groove. In 2007 he and Ed Harcourt appeared in a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon.

Discography[link]

• Nina Valéria (1994)
• Out of a Dream (1997)
• The Dawn (1998)
• Bending New Corners (1999)
• The Mask (2000)
• Mantis (2001)
• ReVisité (2001)
• Magrouni (2002)
• Tales Of The Lighthouse (2002)
• The Walk of the Giant Turtle (2003)
• Saloua (2005)
• Face-à-face (2CD Live + DVD) (2006)
• Arkhangelsk (2007)
• Benares (2008)
• Mexico (2008)
• Paris (2008)
• In between (2010)

External links[link]

• Official site
• A documentary about the recording of Erik Truffaz's album 'Arkhangelsk' featuring Nya, Christophe & Ed Harcourt.

This article about a French musician is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

This article about a jazz trumpeter is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Ed Harcourt
Background information
Birth name	Edward Henry Richard Harcourt-Smith
Born	(1977-08-14) 14 August 1977 (age 34)
Origin	Wimbledon, London, England
Genres	Singer-songwriter, chamber pop
Occupations	Singer, writer, producer
Instruments	Piano, guitar, bass guitar, drums
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Heavenly Records (2000–2007) Piano Wolf Recordings (2009–present)
Website	http://www.edharcourt.com

Ed Harcourt (born Edward Henry Richard Harcourt-Smith, 14 August 1977, Wimbledon, London, England^[1]) is an English singer-songwriter. To date, he has released five studio albums, two EPs, and thirteen singles. His debut album, Here Be Monsters, was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Prize.^[2] His music is influenced by Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and Jeff Buckley, among others.^[1][3]

Personal life[link]

Born the third son of a British Army officer, his family home is the manor house of Wootton, East Sussex. He is a great-nephew of the food author Elizabeth David and of Nicholas Ridley, Baron Ridley of Liddesdale, and a great-grand nephew of the one-time mayor of Eastbourne, Roland Gwynne. His brother is noted paleo-anthropologist William Harcourt-Smith. He is married to the singer and musician Gita Harcourt-Smith, née Langley, singer and songwriter in The Langley Sisters. Together, the couple have one child, a daughter named Roxy.^[4]

Musical career[link]

Before going solo, Harcourt played the bass and keyboards for Snug, a band formed in the mid-1990s by Harcourt, James Deane, Ed Groves, and Johnny Lewsley at school.^[5] The band recorded two albums and a handful of singles together before dissolving.

In 2000, Harcourt recorded his debut mini-album Maplewood EP straight to a 4-track recorder at his grandmother's house in Sussex.^[6] After signing with Heavenly Records and releasing Maplewood in November 2000, Harcourt recorded his debut studio album Here Be Monsters with producers Gil Norton and Tim Holmes.^[6] The album was released in June 2001, and charted on the UK Albums Chart at #84.^[7] One month after its release, the album was nominated for the 2001 Mercury Prize.^[2]

Following the non-album single release of the Brian Wilson cover "Still I Dream of It" in October 2002, Harcourt recorded and released his second album From Every Sphere in February 2003. The album became his highest-charting release in the UK, peaking at #39.^[7] The album also performed moderately well across Europe, peaking at #6 in Sweden,^[8] #25 in Norway,^[9] and #103 in France.^[10] From Every Sphere also yielded his highest-charting single to date, "All of Your Days Will Be Blessed," at #35.^[7] A second single, "Watching the Sun Come Up," was less successful, peaking at #79.^[7] After a steady schedule of tour dates in the UK, Harcourt's third album, Strangers, was released in September 2004. The album peaked at #57 in the UK and at #7 in Sweden, and produced the singles "This One's for You," "Born in the '70s," and "Loneliness."^[7][8]

Through 2005 Harcourt played some live dates with a side-project he called Wild Boar.^[11] In August 2005 the B-sides and rarities compilation Elephant's Graveyard was released as a digital download.

Harcourt's fourth album The Beautiful Lie was released in June 2006 to warm critical reception, with Allmusic hailing the album as "an invigorating and frequently gorgeous affair, essential for old fans and a good place to start for newcomers."^[12] The album was not as successful on the UK charts, peaking at #97. The Beautiful Lie was co-produced with Jari Haapalainen, and features contributions from The Magic Numbers, who sing backing vocals on "Revolution in the Heart"; Graham Coxon, who plays guitar on first single "Visit from the Dead Dog"; and Ed's wife Gita, who plays violin throughout and sings duet vocals on the track "Braille." Harcourt recorded several tracks with the French jazz trumpeteer Erik Truffaz for his album Arkhangelsk, released in early 2007. Harcourt also performed live with Truffaz's group to promote the album. They also did a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon. In October 2007, Harcourt released the compilation album Until Tomorrow Then: The Best of Ed Harcourt, collecting material from the first seven years of his solo recording career.

After Harcourt's contract with Heavenly/EMI ended, Harcourt signed with Dovecote Records in the United States to release The Beautiful Lie stateside, as well as his new EP Russian Roulette in May 2009.^[13] Also in 2009, Harcourt composed the original music for the soundtrack to the Donnie Darko sequel S. Darko.^[14] In early 2010, he wrote a song called "Isabel" for the SOS Children's Villages Emergency Relief Fund in Haiti.^[15]

Harcourt's fifth studio album Lustre was released on 14 June 2010, the first on Ed's own record label Piano Wolf Recordings (distributed by Essential Music Marketing). Ed stated on his official MySpace blog that he recorded the album with producer Ryan Hadlock in Snohomish County, Washington, saying of Lustre: "It's got horns, violins, howling, mellophones, the Langley sisters, barks, whistles, hell I even sung down by a creek in the middle of the night."^[16]

Harcourt announced on his Facebook that he is due to release two new albums, one of which was written over the course of a month-long hiatus and recorded solo in the space of 6 hours. This album will be entitled Back Into The Woods and he is currently seeking a label to release it.^[17] It is still unknown when the second album will be released and what it will be titled.

Live[link]

Ed Harcourt at The Barfly Club, Camden, August 2005.

Harcourt has opened for many artists over the years including R.E.M., Snow Patrol, Wilco, Beth Orton, The Divine Comedy, Supergrass, Norah Jones, Brian Jonestown Massacre, and Neil Finn. Bands and artists who have supported him on his own tours include Magnet, The Magic Numbers, The Tiny, Sondre Lerche, Regina Spektor and Feist. Harcourt performed with Patti Smith and her band as well as Marianne Faithful during the 2005 Meltdown Festival.^[18]

Harcourt opened for The Gutter Twins on their European tour in 2008, as well as joining the group on stage to play guitar on some songs, most notably on their appearance on Later... with Jools Holland, performing the single "Idle Hands."^[19]

References in popular culture[link]

In the video game "Silent Hill: Downpour", his songs "Here Be Monsters" is played in the "Surprise" ending and "From Every Sphere" in WLMN FM radio.^[20] .

Discography[link]

• Here Be Monsters (25 June 2001)
• From Every Sphere (17 February 2003)
• Strangers (13 September 2004)
• Elephant's Graveyard (compilation) (8 August 2005)
• The Beautiful Lie (5 June 2006)
• Until Tomorrow Then: The Best of Ed Harcourt (15 October 2007)
• Lustre (14 June 2010)
• Back Into The Woods (2012)

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ed Harcourt

• Ed Harcourt's official website
• Official Myspace profile

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} allmusic ((( Ed Harcourt > Biography )))
2. ^ ^{a b} BBC News - MUSIC - Mercury Music Prize: The nominees (2001)
3. ^ Ed Harcourt - Maplewood - CD Universe
4. ^ New Material: Ed Harcourt, Russian Roulette | Audioholic Media
5. ^ Snug on MySpace
6. ^ ^{a b} Ed Harcourt - The Guardian interview
7. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Ed Harcourt". Chart Stats. http://www.chartstats.com/artistinfo.php?id=9773. Retrieved 2010-06-08. 
8. ^ ^{a b} "Discography Ed Harcourt". swedishcharts.com. http://swedishcharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Ed+Harcourt. Retrieved 2010-06-08. 
9. ^ "Discography Ed Harcourt". norwegiancharts.com. http://norwegiancharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Ed+Harcourt. Retrieved 2010-06-08. 
10. ^ "Discographie Ed Harcourt" (in French). lescharts.com. http://lescharts.com/showinterpret.asp?interpret=Ed+Harcourt. Retrieved 2010-06-08. 
11. ^ "Ed Harcourt Introduces New Band". gigwise.com. http://www.gigwise.com/news/4136/ed-harcourt-introduces-new-band. Retrieved 2010-11-27. 
12. ^ allmusic ((( The Beautiful Lie > Overview )))
13. ^ Russian Roulette EP Music - Dovecote Records Music - Online Store
14. ^ S. Darko (2009) - Full cast and crew
15. ^ Supernanas.org - Haiti Relief
16. ^ Last night in Bear Creek Studios - Ed Harcourt's MySpace blog (dated 16 July 2009)
17. ^ Facebook announcement of "Back Into The Woods"
18. ^ Patti Smith's Meltdown 2005
19. ^ YouTube - The Gutter Twins "Idle Hands" live on Jools Holland
20. ^ Silent Hill: Downpour Endings Guide

Pigeon John is an American hip hop rapper raised in Hawthorne, California and based in Los Angeles, California.

Biography[link]

Pigeon John is a Los Angeles area rapper who has recorded four studio albums as a solo artist, as well as several others as a member of the groups like L.A. Symphony and Brainwash Projects. Pigeon John has been featured as a collaborator on numerous other recordings with various artists. He is currently signed to Quannum Projects and has performed on several U.S. tours including Cali Comm Tour and has been featured in publications including Entertainment Weekly, VIBE, SPIN Magazine and LA Weekly. In 2006, Pigeon John was featured in an interview on National Public Radio.

In 2007, Pigeon John made his way to The Breakdown, an internet show on ItsHipHop.Tv where he conducted part of the interview on the toilet.

He was^[1][2][3] married to author Harmony Dust and has one daughter, Johnny Ella.

Early life[link]

John Kenneth Dunkin (later changed to Dust) was born in Omaha, Nebraska, USA and moved to the Los Angeles County city of Inglewood, California at the age of five years old. Being a mixed-race child (half black and half white), John felt out of place in predominantly white Omaha and predominantly black Inglewood. John's mother eventually moved her family from Inglewood to the nearby city of Hawthorne, California, where John attended Hawthorne High School. He currently resides with his wife Harmony in the Los Angeles suburb of Northridge, California.

Pigeon John was an avid skateboarder and would often listen to a variety of music on the radio while skateboarding, especially on the legendary Los Angeles hip-hop radio station KDAY. Early on, John was influenced by an eclectic range of artists including Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Phil Collins, and Madonna. It was when he was only twelve years old he wrote his first rap titled "Inglewood Skater's Dream."

As a teenager, Pigeon John began performing his raps on open mic nights at the famous Good Life Cafe. The Good Life Cafe is a health food restaurant that provided a place for many underground hip-hop artists to display their talent, including Jurassic 5, The Black Eyed Peas, and Freestyle Fellowship. Pigeon John's first recorded performance (credited as MC Pigeon) was a collaboration titled "Judge Not" with the artist LPG, from their 1995 album, The Earthworm.

He claimed that his nickname was provided by Jesus who was driving around Inglewood, California: "He hopped out and handed me a dead pigeon. He whispered 'Please have a good time, you're really bumming me out.' I watched him sink back into the cushioned seats and drive, quickly away. And that's when it happened, the pigeon started shaking violently and became awake, picked up and flew away. I don't think I had a choice....its was 'pigeon' or die."^[4]

He later explained that he was discussing his need for a "rap name" with a friend when the friend suggested "Chicken John," taken from the character Chicken George in Roots. The friend's mom then interjected that John didn't look like a chicken; he looked like a pigeon and should be called Pigeon John.^[5]

Music career[link]

Brainwash Projects

In the early 1990s, Pigeon John and his childhood friend B-Twice formed the hip-hop duo Brainwash Projects.^[6] Brainwash Projects contributed the single "Muchas Muchachas" to the Christian rap compilation "Sanktifunctafyd" released by N-Soul Records in 1995. Brainwash Projects eventually released a record titled The Rise And Fall Of Brainwash Projects on the independent label Jackson Rubio.^[7] One reviewer characterized The Rise and Fall as "pure, uncut, holy hip-hop" but gave mixed reviews of its beats and lyrics.^[8]

LA Symphony & Rootbeer

Pigeon John and B-Twice, and now KarateE! Mouse, eventually met other like-minded young rappers and formed the hip-hop musical collective known as L.A. Symphony. Members of the L.A. Symphony have at one time or another also included members of The Halieyoos Fishermen (Sharlok Poems, Trendi M.C., and J-Beits aka Great Jason), The Eternals (Cookbook & Uno Mas), Coy (Paul "Coy" Allen), and rapper/producer Flynn Adam Atkins. Pigeon John, B-Twice, and Great Jason have since left L.A. Symphony to pursue solo careers and other projects, but are still considered part of the L.A. Symphony crew. Pigeon John and Flynn formed a side project called Rootbeer. Rootbeer has released one e.p. in early 2009 called "Pink Limousine." The e.p. consists of five tracks including "Chimpanzee", "Girlies", "Pink Limousine", "Under Control", and "So Good." Years before, in 1999, Flynn and Pigeon's first song as the group, Root Beer, was "The Inevitable Return of the Pretty Boy Virgins".^[9]

Solo career

Between 1997 and 2000, Pigeon John recorded the songs that became his first solo album, Pigeon John Is Clueless. The album was released in 2001 by The Telephone Company and then re-released in 2002 by The Telephone Company/Syntax Records with 3 new tracks and new artwork. He was also responsible for the compilation project, Coalition: the Hip-Hop Alliance, in which he was the executive producer. It featured some of the most diverse artists from all over the U.S., including his alma mater group, LA Symphony, CampQuest, Relentless, Royal Ruckus, New Breed, MG! the Visionary, 4th Avenue Jones, John Reuben, Sackcloth Fashion, Decimal and Count Bass D. Pigeon John then signed to Basement Records and released Pigeon John Is Dating Your Sister (2003) and Pigeon John Sings the Blues (2005). In 2005, Lyrics Born saw Pigeon John on the Cali Comm Tour and brought him into Quannum Projects. That same year, Pigeon John's single "Deception" was featured on a series of Nestle Crunch commercials.^[10] In 2006, after signing to Quannum, Pigeon John released his fourth solo album, And the Summertime Pool Party. The album has received positive reviews from many sources, including LA Weekly, Entertainment Weekly and VIBE.^{[11][12][13][14]} In 2007 he did a Take-Away Show video session shot by Vincent Moon. A sample of "Weight of the World" is used in the Current TV show infoMania. He also had his song "Higher" featured on the NBA Live 2007 soundtrack. "Calculator Watch" is featured on the Hip Hope Hits 2009 compilation.

A new album, entitled Dragon Slayer, hit physical and digital retail October 12, 2010.^[15] With the aid of General Elektriks' Herve Salters, he produced the whole record, including, for the first time, sampling original instrumentation rather than flipping samples from records. "It's a whole new venture. It becomes bigger than being a writer, and you have to be an editor, in book-form. Working with Herve Salters makes my music feel new to me. It's been a great process, I love it."^[16] His first single from the album, "The Bomb", was featured in a Volkswagen television commercial in early October (in which the computer-manipulated likenesses of Gene Kelly and Donald O'Connor perform a seated dance in the backseat of a Jetta to illustrate the large amount of leg room available).^[17]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Guest appearances[link]

He also had his song higher which came out in 2006 featured on the nba live 2007 soundtrack.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Allmusic Biography: Pigeon John
• Official Website
• Official MySpace page
• LA Weekly Article
• NPR Interview
• Pigeon John Videos
• Pigeon John's Vlaze.com profile page with videos
• Pigeon John Interview with Art of Rhyme