The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (April 2012)

Oral history is the collection and study of historical information about individuals, families, important events, or everyday life using audiotapes, videotapes, or transcriptions of planned interviews. These interviews are conducted with people who participated in or observed past events and whose memories and perceptions of these are to be preserved as an aural record for future generations. Oral history strives to obtain information from different perspectives, and most of these cannot be found in written sources. Oral history also refers to information gathered in this manner and to a written work (published or unpublished) based on such data, often preserved in archives and large libraries.^[1][2][3][4]

The term is sometimes used in a more general sense to refer to any information about past events that people who experienced them tell anybody else,^[5][6] but professional historians usually consider this to be oral tradition. However, as the Columbia Encyclopedia^[1] explains:

Primitive societies have long relied on oral tradition to preserve a record of the past in the absence of written histories. In Western society, the use of oral material goes back to the early Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides, both of whom made extensive use of oral reports from witnesses. The modern concept of oral history was developed in the 1940s by Allan Nevins and his associates at Columbia University.

Oral history in modern times[link]

Oral history has become an international movement in historical research. Oral historians in different countries have approached the collection, analysis, and dissemination of oral history in different modes. However, it should also be noted that there are many ways of creating oral histories and carrying out the study of oral history even within individual national contexts.

In the words of the Columbia Encyclopedia:^[1]

The discipline came into its own in the 1960s and early 70s when inexpensive tape recorders were available to document such rising social movements as civil rights, feminism, and anti–Vietnam War protest. Authors such as Studs Terkel, Alex Haley, and Oscar Lewis have employed oral history in their books, many of which are largely based on interviews. In another important example of the genre, a massive archive covering the oral history of American music has been compiled at the Yale School of Music. By the end of the 20th cent. oral history had become a respected discipline in many colleges and universities. At that time the Italian historian Alessandro Portelli and his associates began to study the role that memory itself, whether accurate or faulty, plays in the themes and structures of oral history. Their published work has since become standard material in the field, and many oral historians now include in their research the study of the subjective memory of the persons they interview.

Oral history in Britain and Northern Ireland[link]

Since the early 1970s, oral history in Britain has grown from being a method in folklore studies (see for example the work of the School of Scottish Studies in the 1950s) to becoming a key component in community histories. Oral history continues to be an important means by which non-academics can actively participate in the compilation and study of history. However, practitioners across a wide range of academic disciplines have also developed the method into a way of recording, understanding, and archiving narrated memories. Influences have included women's history and labour history.

In Britain the Oral History Society has played a key role in facilitating and developing the use of oral history. A more complete account of the history of oral history in Britain and Northern Ireland can be found at "Making Oral History" on the Institute of Historical Research's website.^[7]

During 1998 and 1999, forty BBC local radio stations recorded personal oral histories from a broad cross-section of the population for the series The Century Speaks. The result was 640 half-hour radio documentaries, broadcast in the final weeks of the millennium, and one of the largest single oral history collections in Europe, the Millennium Memory Bank (MMB). The interview based recordings are held by the British Library Sounds' in the oral history collection.^[8]

In one of the largest memory project anywhere, The BBC in 2003-6 invited its audiences to send in recollections of the homefront in the Second World War. It put 47,000 of the recollections online, along with 15,000 photographs.^[9]

Modern oral history in the United States[link]

Elite studies[link]

In 1948, Alan Nevins, a Columbia University historian, established the Columbia Oral History Research Office, with a mission of recording, transcribing, and preserving oral history interviews. In 1967, American oral historians founded the Oral History Association, and British oral historians founded the Oral History Society in 1969. There are now numerous national organizations and an International Oral History Association, which hold workshops and conferences and publish newsletters and journals devoted to oral history theory and practices.

Oral history began with a focus on national leaders,^[10] but has expanded to include groups representing the entire population. Scientists, for example, have been covered in numerous oral history projects. Doel (2003) discusses the use of oral interviews by scholars as primary sources, He lists major oral history projects in the history of science begun after 1950. Oral histories, he concludes, can augment the biographies of scientists and help spotlight how their social origins influenced their research. Doel acknowledges the common concerns historians have regarding the validity of oral history accounts. He identifies studies that used oral histories successfully to provide critical and unique insight into otherwise obscure subjects, such as the role scientists played in shaping US policy after World War II. Interviews furthermore can provide road maps for researching archives, and can even serve as a fail-safe resource when written documents have been lost or destroyed.^[11] Launius (2003) shows the huge size and complexity of the The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) oral history program since 1959. NASA systematically documented its operations through oral histories. They can help to explore broader issues regarding the evolution of a major federal agency. The collection consists primarily of oral histories conducted by scholars working on books about the agency. Since 1996, however, the collection has also included oral histories of senior NASA administrators and officials, astronauts, and project managers, part of a broader project to document the lives of key agency individuals. Launius emphasizes efforts to include such less-well-known groups within the agency as the Astrobiology Program, and to collect the oral histories of women in NASA.^[12]

Folklore roots and ordinary people[link]

Contemporary oral history involves recording or transcribing eyewitness accounts of historical events. Some anthropologists started collecting recordings (at first especially of Native American folklore) on phonograph cylinders in the late 19th century. In the 1930s, the Federal Writers' Project—part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA)—sent out interviewers to collect accounts from various groups, including surviving witnesses of the Civil War, slavery, and other major historical events.^[13] The Library of Congress also began recording traditional American music and folklore onto acetate discs. With the development of audio tape recordings after World War II, the task of oral historians became easier.

In 1946, David P. Boder, a professor of psychology at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, traveled to Europe to record long interviews with "displaced persons"—most of them Holocaust survivors. Using the first device capable of capturing hours of audio—the wire recorder—Boder came back with the first recorded Holocaust testimonials and in all likelihood the first recorded oral histories of significant length.^[14]

Many state and local historical societies have oral history programs. Sinclair Kopp (2002) report on the Oregon Historical Society's program. It began in 1976 with the hiring of Charles Digregorio, who had studied at Columbia with Nevins. Thousands of sound recordings, reel-to-reel tapes, transcriptions, and radio broadcasts have made it one of the largest collections of oral history on the Pacific Coast. In addition to political figures and prominent businessmen, the Oregon Historical Society has done interviews with minorities, women, farmers, and other ordinary citizens, who have contributed extraordinary stories reflecting the state's cultural and social heritage. Hill (2004) encourages oral history projects in high school courses. She demonstrates a lesson plan that encourages the study of local community history through interviews. By studying grassroots activism and the lived experiences of its participants, her high school students came to appreciate how African Americans worked to end Jim Crow laws in the 1950s.

Naison (2005) describes the Bronx African American History Project, an oral community history project developed by the Bronx County Historical Society. Its goal was to document the histories of black working- and middle-class residents of the South Bronx neighborhood of Morrisania in New York City since the 1940s.^[15]

Methods[link]

Historians, folklorists, anthropologists, sociologists, journalists, linguists, and many others employ some form of interviewing in their research. Although multi-disciplinary, oral historians have promoted common ethics and standards of practice, most importantly the attaining of the “informed consent” of those being interviewed. Usually this is achieved through a deed of gift, which also establishes copyright ownership that is critical for publication and archival preservation.

Oral historians generally prefer to ask open-ended questions and avoid leading questions that encourage people to say what they think the interviewer wants them to say. Some interviews are “life reviews”, conducted with people at the end of their careers. Other interviews focus on a specific period or a specific event in people's lives, such as in the case of war veterans or survivors of a hurricane.

Feldstein (2004) considers oral history to be akin to journalism, Both are committed to uncovering truths and compiling narratives about people, places, and events. Felstein says each could benefit from adopting techniques from the other. Journalism could benefit by emulating the exhaustive and nuanced research methodologies used by oral historians. The practice of oral historians could be enhanced by utilizing the more sophisticated interviewing techniques employed by journalists, in particular, the use of adversarial encounters as a tactic for obtaining information from a respondent.^[16]

The first oral history archives focused on interviews with prominent politicians, diplomats, military officers, and business leaders. By the 1960s and '70s, interviewing began to be employed more often when historians investigated history from below. Whatever the field or focus of a project, oral historians attempt to record the memories of many different people when researching a given event. Interviewing a single person provides a single perspective. Individuals may misremember events or distort their account for personal reasons. By interviewing widely, oral historians seek points of agreement among many different sources, and also record the complexity of the issues. The nature of memory—both individual and community—is as much a part of the practice of oral history as are the stories collected.

Legal interpretation and relationship to historical truth[link]

In 1997 the Supreme Court of Canada, in the Delgamuukw v. British Columbia trial, ruled that oral histories were just as important as written testimony. Of oral histories, it said "that they are tangential to the ultimate purpose of the fact-finding process at trial – the determination of the historical truth."

Writers who use oral history have often discussed its relationship to historical truth. Gilda O'Neill writes in Lost Voices, an oral history of East End hop-pickers: "I began to worry. Were the women's, and my, memories true or were they just stories? I realised that I had no 'innocent' sources of evidence - facts. I had, instead, the stories and their tellers' reasons for remembering in their own particular ways.'^[17] Duncan Barrett, one of the co-authors of The Sugar Girls describes some of the perils of relying on oral history accounts: "On two occasions, it became clear that a subject was trying to mislead us about what happened – telling a self-deprecating story in one interview, and then presenting a different, and more flattering, version of events when we tried to follow it up. [...] often our interviewees were keen to persuade us of a certain interpretation of the past, supporting broad, sweeping comments about historical change with specific stories from their lives."^[18] Alessandro Portelli argues that oral history is valuable nevertheless: "it tells us less about events as such than about their meaning [...] the unique and precious element which oral sources force upon the historian [...] is the speaker's subjectivity."^[19]

Organization[link]

National and international organizations promote scholarship in the field. The Oral History Review^[20] is a scholarly journal begun in 1974. H-ORALHIST is an H-Net Discussion Network established in 2006^[21]. It works by email and knits together an international network of researchers interested in creating and using oral history. Its daily email reach 3400 subscribers with discussions of current projects, teaching methods, and the state of historiography in the field. H-ORALHIST is especially interested in methods of teaching oral history to graduate and undergraduate students in diverse settings. H-ORALHIST publishes syllabi, outlines, handouts, bibliographies, tables of contents of journals, guides to term papers, listings of new sources, library catalogs and archives, and reports on new software, datasets, and other materials. H-ORALHIST posts announcements of conferences, fellowships, and jobs. It also carries information about new books and commissions book reviews.

See also[link]

• National Day of Listening
• Oral history preservation
• Oral tradition
• Regional Oral History Office (ROHO), Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley
• Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries
• Southern Oral History Program, University of North Carolina
• StoryCorps

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b c} Article on oral history from the Columbia Encyclopedia
2. ^ Definition of oral history from the Online Dictionary for Library and Information Science
3. ^ Definition of oral history from the American Heritage Dictionary
4. ^ Definition of oral history from the Oxford Online Dictionaries
5. ^ Definition of oral history from the Macmillan Dictionary
6. ^ Definition of oral history from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary
7. ^ "Making Oral History". Institute of Historical Research. http://www.history.ac.uk/makinghistory/resources/articles/oral_history.html. 
8. ^ http://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history
9. ^ See BBC, "WW2 People's War" (2006)
10. ^ Ritchie 2010 considers Senators and other top leaders.
11. ^ Doel, Ronald E. "Oral History of American Science: a Forty-year Review." History of Science 2003 41(4): 349-378.
12. ^ Roger D. Launius, "'We Can Lick Gravity, but Sometimes the Paperwork Is Overwhelming': NASA , Oral History, and the Contemporary Past." Oral History Review 2003 30(2): 111-128.
13. ^ "American Life Histories". WPA Writers' Project 1936–1940. Library of Congress. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html. 
14. ^ Marziali, Carl (26 October 2001). "Mr. Boder Vanishes". This American Life. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/Radio_Episode.aspx?sched=895. 
15. ^ Mark Naison, The Bronx African American History Project." OAH Newsletter 2005 33(3): 1, 14.
16. ^ Mark Feldstein, "Kissing Cousins: Journalism and Oral History." Oral History Review 2004 31(1): 1-22
17. ^ Gilda O'Neill. Lost Voices. Arrow. p. 146. ISBN 978-0-09-949836-0. 
18. ^ "Oral History & Creative Non-Fiction: Telling the Lives of the Sugar Girls". History Workshop Online. 11 March 2012. http://www.historyworkshop.org.uk/oral-history-creative-non-fiction-telling-the-lives-of-the-sugar-girls/. Retrieved 2012-03-11. 
19. ^ Portelli, Alessandro. "The Peculiarities of Oral History". History Workshop Journal No. 12(1) (1981): 96-107. 
20. ^ see home page
21. ^ see homepage

Further reading[link]

• Charlton, Thomas L.; Myers, Lois E.; Sharpless, Rebecca, eds. (2007). History of Oral History: Foundations and Methodology. AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7591-0230-9. 
• Doel, Ronald E. "Oral History of American Science: a Forty-year Review." History of Science 2003 41(4): 349-378. Issn: 0073-2753 Fulltext: Ebsco
• Feldstein, Mark. "Kissing Cousins: Journalism and Oral History." Oral History Review 2004 31(1): 1-22. Issn: 0094-0798 Fulltext: online at History Cooperative, University of California Journals, SwetsWise, and Ebsco
• Grele, Ronald J. et al. Envelopes of Sound: The Art of Oral History Praeger Publishers, 1991 online edition
• Hill, Iris Tillman. "Community Stories: a Curriculum for High School Students." Magazine of History 2004 18(2): 43-45. Issn: 0882-228x Fulltext: in Ebsco
• Hoopes, James. Oral History: An Introduction for Students U of North Carolina Press, 1979. online edition
• Kelin, Daniel, II. To Feel as Our Ancestors Did: Collecting and Performing Oral Histories. Heinemann, 2005. 200 pp.
• Launius, Roger D. "'We Can Lick Gravity, but Sometimes the Paperwork Is Overwhelming': NASA , Oral History, and the Contemporary Past." Oral History Review 2003 30(2): 111-128. Issn: 0094-0798 Fulltext: in University of California Journals, Swetswise and Ebsco
• Leavy, Patricia (2011). Oral History: Understanding Qualitative Research. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-539509-9. 
• Naison, Mark. "The Bronx African American History Project." OAH Newsletter 2005 33(3): 1, 14. Issn: 1059-1125 Fulltext: at Oah Newsletter and Ebsco
• Ritchie, Donald A. (2010). The Oxford Handbook of Oral History. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-533955-0. 
• Sommer, Barbara W.; Quinlan, Mary Kay (2009). The Oral History Manual (2 ed.). AltaMira Press. ISBN 978-0-7591-1157-8. 
• Sinclair, Donna and Kopp, Peter. "Voices of Oregon: Twenty-five Years of Professional Oral History at the Oregon Historical Society." Oregon Historical Quarterly 2002 103(2): 250-263. Issn: 0030-4727
• Stokes, Cynthia (2000). Like It Was: A Complete Guide to Writing Oral History. Teachers & Writers Collaborative. ISBN 978-0-915924-12-7. 
• Tomes, Nancy. "Oral History In The History Of Medicine." Journal of American History 1991 78(2): 607-617. ISSN: 0021-8723 online in Jstor and Ebsco

External links[link]

• From the British Library:

• Food Stories - Food-related oral history recordings from the BL Sound Archive
• Oral history collections and activities, including National Life Stories

• From the US Government:

• Oral History of the US House of Representatives
• US Senate Oral History Project

• From Academia:

• African American Oral History Collection at University of Louisville (Louisville, Kentucky)
• Romano L. Mazzoli Oral History Collection at University of Louisville (Louisville, Kentucky)
• Canadian Military Oral History Collection at University of Victoria, Special Collections
• American Century Oral History Project at St. Andrew's Episcopal School is one of the largest pre-collegiate oral history projects and archives in the US

• Recollections of WWII - directory of oral history collections relating to WWII
• Over 600 oral histories of combat veterans, from the Witness to War Foundation (non-profit)
• In the First Person - index of 2,500+ collections of international oral histories in English
• Oral history in the teaching of US History
• NYC records from Sept. 11 - includes more than 12,000 pages of oral histories as told by 503 firefighters, paramedics, and emergency medical technicians
• The HistoryMakers: African American Video Oral History Archive (non-profit)
• FirstPersonUSA.org - a project of citizen historians concerned with preserving the memories of ordinary Americans
• Voices Through Corridors - Oral History accounts of hospital patients and staff in Walsall

Organizations[link]

• H-ORALHIST is an H-Net Discussion Network (or edited Blog) established in 2006
• Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling - Concordia University
• The Australian Centre for Oral History
• Oral History Association of Australia
• Institut d'histoire du temps présent (French)
• Oral History Centre (Singapore)

Technical[link]

• Digital Audio and Portable Recorders: The Basics by Doug Boyd
• General principles and best practices for oral history
• Dédalo Project - Open software platform for management of intangible cultural heritage and oral history
• Advice on how to conduct oral history interviewing from the East Midlands Oral History Archive
• Testimony software from the Australian Centre for Oral History
• The manual of analogue restoration techniques by Peter Copeland is designed to aid audio engineers and audio archivists, and is available via the British Library Sound Archive

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: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake in Standard Lakota Orthography,^[2] also nicknamed Slon-he or "Slow"; c. 1831 – 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. 

Daniel Kerr
Daniel Kerr at a 2005 Grand Final parade
Personal information
Full name	Daniel Kerr
Date of birth	(1983-05-16) 16 May 1983 (age 29)
Original team	East Fremantle (WAFL)
Draft	18th overall, 2000 National Draft (West Coast)
Height/Weight	178 cm / 80 kg
Position(s)	Midfielder
Club information
Current club	West Coast
Number	4
Playing career1
Years	Club	Games (Goals)
2001–	West Coast	195 (108)
Representative team honours
Years	Team	Games (Goals)
2008	Dream Team	1 (0)
International team honours
2007	Australia	2
1 Playing statistics to end of round 9 of the 2012 season .
Career highlights
AFL Rising Star nominee 2001 West Coast premiership side 2006 All-Australian team 2007

Daniel Matthew Kerr (born 16 May 1983) is an Australian rules footballer, currently listed with the West Coast Eagles in the Australian Football League (AFL). Kerr was recruited from East Fremantle Football Club and made his debut in 2001. He is a hard-running midfielder who is a vital part of the midfield at the Eagles.

Background[link]

Kerr is of Anglo-Indian descent.^[1] His father, Roger Kerr, was born in Calcutta to an Indian mother and played for East Fremantle in the West Australian Football League (WAFL). His sister Samantha Kerr plays for the Australia national women's soccer team, the Matildas, and for Perth Glory in the W-League. Kerr is a second cousin of former Fremantle player Shaun McManus.^{[citation needed]}

Football career[link]

Kerr was selected with the number 18 pick in the 2000 AFL Draft. Kerr is widely known as one of the toughest players in the AFL. In August 2006, the much bigger Fraser Gehrig considered one of the strongest players in the AFL,^[2] tried to palm off a tackle by Kerr, only to have Kerr resist and re-tackle Gehrig, with the result being the umpire rewarding Kerr with a "holding the ball" decision. Similarly, his physical strength was further demonstrated in round one in the 2007 AFL season against the Sydney Swans when he successfully tackled and took down the far bigger Barry Hall in the goalsquare. It is play like this, along with the ability to rip balls out of seemingly impossibly congested packs that have earned Kerr an enormous esteem with West Coast fans, and fans of the game in general. Some commentators of the game such as former Melbourne captain Garry Lyon have agreed that Kerr is an underrated player and is of similar importance to West Coast as their better known superstars such as Chris Judd and Ben Cousins^{[citation needed]}. However with Judd and Cousins having recently departed from the club he is now likely to be regarded as one of, if not the most important player for the team. He also took a spectacular mark against Collingwood in Round 13 of the 2006 AFL season at the Telstra Dome.

In 2003, Kerr won the AFL Goal of the Year and was runner up to team-mate Ben Cousins in the AFL's most prestigious individual award the Brownlow Medal in 2005.^{[citation needed]}

In 2005 Kerr nearly provided one of the biggest upsets in Brownlow Medal history, leading the count towards the later rounds and finishing second to favourite, teammate Ben Cousins. In the following year, he came third in the Brownlow Medal count with 22 votes, however, was ineligible due to a striking charge against Hawthorn's Sam Mitchell in Round 14.

However, Kerr claims that Brownlow night 2006 was something of an epiphany for him, and he realised the folly of his on-field indiscretions.^[3]

Kerr has recently been nicknamed "The People's Champion" as used by Chris Judd in an interview with Dennis Cometti on Perth's Channel Nine news on 2006-09-18. The nickname may have been adapted to Kerr due to his omission from the official 2006 AFL All-Australian team, despite having another stellar season.

In 2006, Kerr was part of the Eagles' 2006 premiership side. He played with broken bones in his foot.^[4]

In 2007, Kerr had another great year with the eagles. He came runner up in the Brownlow Medal for a second time in his career, Jimmy Bartel was the winner.

Kerr representing the Dream Team in the AFL Hall of Fame Tribute Match in 2008

Daniel Kerr recently re-signed with the Eagles after weeks of speculation over his future in the 2009 season.

In round 10 of the 2009 season Kerr was suspended for 1 week for striking Carlton's Marc Murphy. After an appeal by the Eagles the decision was upheld by the AFL tribunal.

In round four, 2010 Kerr seriously injured his hamstring in the West Coast Eagles' win against Essendon, ending his season. His absence was felt on the field as the Eagles would win only three more games for the season.

Off-field controversies[link]

In September 2002 Kerr was involved in a brawl with team mate Ben Cousins at a Perth nightclub during the club's end of season celebrations, in which Cousins punched Kerr in the face. Later the same night, Kerr pushed Cousins down a flight of stairs, breaking his arm.^[5][6]

In 2004 Kerr was charged with forging a prescription. He was given the blank prescription by a person at a party and went to a 24-hour chemist to buy 50 valium tablets. The court fined him a total of $400 and made a spent conviction order. He was also fined $5,000 by the club and was required to complete community service throughout the football season.^[7]

In January 2007 Kerr and his father were charged with assault following a party in Perth. Kerr is understood to have been at a farewell party for his sister's friend in Attadale before trouble erupted shortly after midnight. Reports suggested that Kerr's sister complained about being touched inappropriately by another partygoer and a fight erupted soon after on the street. An 18-year-old man suffered a broken nose and broken tooth and was taken to Fremantle Hospital by a friend for treatment.^[8] Kerr was charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm. He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning bodily harm and was fined $2000 over the attack. His father was also fined after being found guilty of assault.^[9]

On 25 February 2007 Kerr was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct after an altercation with a taxi driver. Kerr was later arrested again while at a training session, and further charged with assault occasioning bodily harm and wilful damage. Police prosecutor Gary Flynn told the court Kerr saw the taxi and jumped screaming and shouting onto the boot. The taxi driver got out of his car and was attacked by Kerr, Sgt Flynn said. Kerr's lawyer John Prior said his client had gone out to dinner and "consumed too much alcohol" and "made a crucial bad judgement call". Kerr pleaded guilty to the charges and was fined.^[10]

On 23 March 2007 information was released that implicated Kerr in drug dealing over the phone. Kerr's conversations with convicted drug dealer Shane Waters relating to a "big bag of horse chaff" were recorded by police phone taps in 2003.^[6][11]

On 3 April 2010 Kerr was ordered by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal to pay $13,125 to teenager Troy Luies, after Luies had filed a claim for the injuries he suffered at the hands of Kerr on 14 January 2007. Assessor William Millar awarded Mr Luies compensation for the assault by Kerr, as payment for his hospital bills, lost pay and for trauma suffered.^[12]

Personal life[link]

Like fellow West Coast Eagles teammate Quinten Lynch, Daniel Kerr also attended Aquinas College in Perth.^[13]

In April 2011, Kerr launched his own website. On the 22nd of June 2011, Daniel and wife Natasha welcomed daughter Lola Violet Kerr.^[14]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Daniel Kerr's profile on the Official AFL Website of the West Coast Eagles Football Club
• Daniel Kerr's statistics from AFL Tables

v t e Australian squad – 2002 International Rules Series Captain: Crawford Bickley Bradley Brown Bruce Clement Cornes Darcy Edwards Francou Johnson Judd Kellaway Kerr Lekkas Ling Milne Montgomery Murphy Neitz Pavlich Primus Scarlett Scott Simpson Tredrea Yze Coach: Lyon

African American

Frederick Douglass · Barack Obama · Rosa Parks Condoleezza Rice · M. L. King, Jr. · Beyoncé Knowles Malcolm X · Oprah Winfrey · Booker T. Washington Michael Jordan · Harriet Tubman · Muhammad Ali
Total population
African American 42,020,743[1] (13.6% of the US population)
Regions with significant populations
Predominantly in the Southern United States and in urban areas within the country
Languages
American English · African American Vernacular English · Gullah language
Religion
Predominantly Protestant; also Roman Catholic, Muslim and agnostic
Related ethnic groups
Other Afro-American peoples of the Americas (especially Anglophones) Americo-Liberians · Sierra Leone Creole people Black Nova Scotians, Foreign-born Afro-Americans, Afro-Latin American view talk edit

African Americans^[2] (also referred to as Black Americans or Afro-Americans, and formerly as American Negroes) are citizens or residents of the United States that have ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa.^[3]

African Americans make up the single largest racial minority in the United States.^[4] Most African Americans are of West and Central African descent and are descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States.^[5][6] However, some immigrants from African, Caribbean, Central American or South American nations, or their descendants, may be identified or self-identify with the term.^[3]