Leaving His Native Land
Sitting Bull had been considering crossing into Canada as a fall-back position if staying in the Plains became untenable, and in February 1877 he announced his intention to do just that. The pain of leaving his native land and moving across the border was eased somewhat by the Lakotas’ historical association with the British and Canadians. They had been allies of the British during the French and Indian War, which culminated with the Treaty of Paris in 1763 and the awarding of New France (i. e., France’s Canadian possessions) to Great Britain and Spain. That loyalty had persisted through the American Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. Sitting Bull still possessed the medals that his grandfather had received from King George III. In addition, some of Sitting Bull’s closest associates, including his cousin Black Moon, already had made that journey north. Others who would precede him into Canada included his uncle Four Horns, who arrived in March.
Sitting Bull and his by now small village of about 15 tipis crossed the Missouri River from Fort Peck, where they barely escaped with their lives from a flash flood caused by melting ice. At a council of chiefs 60 miles northwest of Fort Peck, Sitting Bull announced his intention of continuing to Canada and watching from there to see what happened to those who turned themselves in to the agencies. He was determined not to surrender his weapons and horses;
If that was forced upon others, he vowed to remain north of the border. In early May 1877, Sitting Bull, whose assemblage had grown to about 135 lodges (totaling some 1,000 people), crossed the chanku wakan, the sacred road (also known as the Medicine Line or the Big Road) into Canada.
Major Walsh of the Mounted Police
Waiting to meet Sitting Bull were the Northwest Mounted Police, who had been formed just three years earlier. Especially anticipating Sitting Bull’s arrival was the courageous, highly skilled, and thoroughly honorable Major James M. Walsh, commander of Fort Walsh. Inspector Walsh, known as “White Forehead” to Canadian Indians, decided to pay the new arrivals a visit. With scout Louis Lavalie translating, Walsh explained that the new arrivals were on British soil and must obey British laws.
Walsh added that he intended to enforce the law in regard to everyone and that each person living in Canada was entitled to justice. If Sitting Bull and his people obeyed the law, the police would protect them. And, he assured Sitting Bull, there was no danger from U. S. soldiers, who were not permitted to cross the line into Canada. For the first time in many years, Sitting Bull would not have to worry about a surprise attack. At the same time, his people would not be permitted to cross the border to the United States to fight or steal and then return.
And live in peace Sitting Bull generally did during his stay in Canada, albeit not always easily. Walsh proved a fair and sympathetic official who believed that the Lakotas had been treated badly by the U. S. government. He would be the first white man who truly functioned as an advocate for Sitting Bull.
Unfortunately, Walsh was himself limited by the position of his government toward Sitting Bull. The Canadian government would not force Sitting Bull to leave, but it very much hoped that he would voluntarily accede to the U. S. demand to return and live on a reservation. To facilitate that decision, Canadian officials tried to persuade the U. S. government to drop its demand for unconditional surrender and permit Sitting Bull and his people to retain their horses and guns. The United States alternated between desiring Sitting Bull’s return and hoping that Canada would declare Sitting Bull’s people Canadian Indians and, therefore, assume permanent responsibility for them. The presence of Sitting Bull on Canadian soil proved a continuing irritant to diplomacy between the two countries.
The Threat of Starvation
By 1880, with the buffalo disappearing and hunger growing, Sitting Bull increasingly faced great pressure to return to the United States and surrender. He could readily see the suffering of his people, but he also knew what surrender would mean—if not death for himself, then at least the end of the Lakota way of life and, to a great extent, the end of the Lakotas themselves.
Complicating matters for Sitting Bull was the loss of his friend Walsh. Because he was perceived as too sympathetic to the Lakotas, Walsh was transferred to Fort Qu’Appelle, 140 miles northeast; he had earlier shifted from Fort Walsh to Wood Mountain Post to be closer to Sitting Bull. His sympathetic ear was replaced at Wood Mountain by Inspector Lief N. F. Crozier. Both Crozier and Lieutenant Colonel Acheson G. Irvine, who was installed as commissioner of the Northwest Mounted Police in the fall, began to pressure Sitting Bull to return to the United States.
By late 1880, Sitting Bull was vacillating—first agreeing to return, then changing his mind. January 1881 found Sitting Bull’s people with so little to eat that they bartered almost all of their remaining 150 buffalo robes to traders at Wood Mountain for food. Commissioner Irvine stressed that they would receive neither a reservation nor food in Canada. Under duress, more of Sitting Bull’s people gave in and headed south.
The Surrender
On July 12, 1881, Sitting Bull began his own reluctant journey to surrender. Of the many prominent chiefs who once had ridden with Sitting Bull, by the summer of 1881 only Four Horns, ever faithful to his nephew, remained by his side. Sitting Bull’s followers now numbered fewer than 200. No one, however, was certain that he would not change his mind, so a train of six wagons laden with supplies set out from Fort Buford to meet him and his companions. On July 16, the two parties met, and the Lakotas hungrily devoured the food. In addition, Captain Walter Clifford, in a small party of seven, rode out to meet Sitting Bull and reassured the chief that his daughter, Many Horses, who had earlier returned to the United States, was fine. Clifford commented regarding Sitting Bull, with unusual perception and sympathy, that “nothing but nakedness and starvation has driven this man to submission, and that not on his own account but for the sake of his children, of whom he is very fond.”15
As the travelers made their way south, they passed the site of an old buffalo hunt. Stretching far into the distance lay buffalo bones, skulls, and partly mummified legs. Sitting Bull surely understood the significance of the scene— how quickly the connecting thread between past, present, and future had been broken. He could well have seen himself and his way of life there among the grass and flowers growing up around the bones. On July 19, 1881, Sitting Bull and the others in his party entered the parade grounds at Fort Buford. Sitting Bull dismounted and shook hands with Major David Brotherton, the Fort Buford commander, who agreed to postpone the formal surrender until the next day.
On July 20, 1881, at 11:00 a. m., the man who had gathered together a mighty army and handed the U. S. military an overwhelming defeat at Little Bighorn surrendered. Sitting Bull, his son Crow Foot beside him, sat next to Major Brotherton in the major’s office. Sitting Bull laid his fine Winchester
Rifle on the office floor between his feet. When it came time for Sitting Bull to speak, he sat quietly for several minutes, then motioned for Crow Foot to hand the rifle to Brotherton. “I wish it to be remembered,” Sitting Bull said, at least according to a St. Paul Pioneer Press reporter, “that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle.” Brotherton later donated the rifle to the Smithsonian Institution.16
World History
