a true American hero: Sitting Bull
I am astounded and angered at Fox News’ recent denigration of the choice of our President to include Sitting Bull in a children’s book of American heroes. Evidently, Fox news wants to brand Sitting Bull, one of the greatest Indian chiefs of all time, as “someone who killed a US general”. All I have to say is: MY GOD. Are we going to rewrite textbooks and burn other books that told the tru(er) story of what we really did to the Indian people in America? Really? Are we going to turn into a fascist state so we can feel good about how Sitting Bull died? Are we going to shame ourselves by once again denigrating his memory– one of the greatest leaders of the Indian people of all time, and one who still is considered a spiritual leader among Indian peoples? Wow. I thought we were beyond this reality, but we are not. Below are some comments I wrote while this realization fell upon me:
Sitting Bull is the Indian chief of all Indian leaders. He has always been my favorite Indian leader since I read a number of books, in my 40s, about Native Americans and their history in the US. He was the last to bring in his starving, freezing people to a reservation before they all died. He had taken them up into Canada at the last. He was a true leader, really a spiritual leader to his people. After coming in, there was a brief skirmish while they were all lined up in front of cavalry who stood over them with guns on the reservation, a shot was fired, and Sitting Bull finally died, an old man in captivity, gunned down while standing there unarmed.
What astounds me about news like this is the realization that people’s hate and lust for power could, even in 2010, lead to history books being rewritten, great heroes becoming known to children as someone who “killed a US general”. Amazing. I really thought we were beyond that, but we are not. Living through the 70s when we had a new rash of “cowboy & Indian” movies where they tried to show the history from the Indian viewpoint, I find it astounding that we could once again go backwards away from this realization. Some of those movies were:
Little Big Man
A Man Called Horse
Return of a Man called Horse
Soldier Blue
what was the recent one about the Indian in the army who helped raise the US flag in WWII and they became heroes? He died a drunk. That film showed prejudice and ignorance about Indian people during the 40s-50s. I’ve shown a number of films in my classes, documentaries. Some of those are:
Matters of Race: We’re Still Here
Spirit of the Dawn
Books I read, on my own, as an adult:
Black Elk Speaks
The Life of Sitting Bull
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee
and others…….
Who do these people think they are? How do they sleep at night? It is well known how US soldiers lined up Indian peoples, took away their guns, then simply gunned down all the men, women and children standing there defenceless. This happened many times. The people who gave these orders were not heroes, they were murderers. Wounded Knee was the last time this happened in a major way. The “Battle” of Wounded Knee was a massacre such as I just described. It was a retaliation on some of those who had beat Custer at Little Big Horn. One Indian group was trying to make it to another group they were going to join with, to escape living on the reservation, I believe. It was families, moving, as nomads, trying to reach another group of tribes. They were detained, weapons taken from them, and then gunned down. This is well documented.
This photo is in the Smithsonian Institution. I wonder if his photo is there because he killed an American general. I think not. I located it on the web connected to this webpage: http://www.pkwy.k12.mo.us/intra/professional/student_work/west_web3/lanceswoundedkneefinal.htm
This website seems to be an online report from a K12 student. Even this young student knew the real history of Wounded Knee.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Doctor Grandma 
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