Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument - Sitting Bull (U.S. National Park Service)

During his youth he became an accomplished hunter and warrior. He rose to prominence within his tribe as both a political and spiritual leader. He became a champion of traditional Lakota culture. He is often characterized as a spiritual leader whose wisdom and eloquence was able to transform people to act together in resisting the encroaching westward expansion. During the winter and spring of 1876, open warfare broke out between the combined Lakota and Cheyenne and the Federal military forces. Sitting Bull was a leading voice in combating the U.S Army’s invasion of what he saw as Lakota way of life. The premiere battle of this struggle on the northern plains was the Battle of the Little Bighorn. After Custer’s defeat, he, along with his followers, fled north to Canada. In 1881, he returned to the United States to surrender. Sitting Bull was killed by Indian police on the Standing Rock Reservation in South Dakota on December 15, 1890.