The Effect of Sitting Bull's Death on the Lakota Community

After Sitting Bull was killed, his followers fled to chief Bigfoot for refuge. The tired and sickly leader agreed to have his people be escorted to Pine Ridge when stopped by Major Samuel M Whitside near Wounded Knee Creek on Sunday, December 28, 1890. When told that his people were not cooperating, Bigfoot insisted that they had surrendered their firearms. Colonel James W. Forsyth then ordered soldiers to conduct a search and seizure operation. Some of Bigfoot's people were cooperative and some were not. At one point, die-hard dancers resisted and raised their 12-shot Winchester's that had been hidden under blankets they carried. According to an eyewitness who spoke the language, he chanted,