MOST OF SITTING BULL'S BONES STILL IN NORTH DAKOTA

SHALLOW INDIAN GRAVES ARE FOUND THROUGHOUT THE STATE

(Con't from Part 1)

In Bismarck last Thursday an Indian was reported to have sold a 'Sitting Bull bone' for $4 and he reported that 'lots of Indians have been picking up bones left in the grave.'

He said that there were many small bones left, although this later was denied by Miles, who said the grave was 'cleaned' and at least partially filled in.

Gullible buyers are likely to be taken in for some time to come on the basis of this 'bullish' market, however.  The plains of North Dakota abound with Indian remains, buried in such shallow graves that a strong breeze uncovers them during dry seasons.

Some skeletons which dropped from primitive platform burial poles and trees are covered only with erosion drift.

Indian burials were usually on high ground, near camps which were chosen because of their defensive location and proximity to wood and water.  They may be found along most North Dakota rivers, including the Red, Maple and Cheyenne.

Historical researchers are convinced the Indians or their ancestors have been in what is now North Dakota as long as 50,000 years.  Crude Indian implements found in the state in large quantities date back to the Stone Age.

Some of the skeletons found on high plateaus in the western part of the state have been fairly well preserved in their entirety due to the acidity.

If eager curiosity seekers continue buying bones proffered as genuine Sitting Bull items it will not be the first time promoters have capitalized on his 'publicity fame.'

Among historians it is well known that some 60 or 70 persons claim to own the old chief's gun.  Try to argue with them that they haven't got the genuine article.

For years, an Indian abetted by an unscrupulous white man sold 'the buckskin shirt worn by Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn' at a fancy figure.  The two had trunks filled with garments.

To those who had studied North Dakota history, it is difficult to share in the clamor that has arisen over Sitting Bull.  Many actually greater Indian leaders of frontier times are virtually forgotten and their graves hardly known by citizens generally.

Among them are Chiefs Gall, John Grass, Crow Flies High, Son-of-the-Star, Running Antelope, White Shield and Old Dog.  Another who made many a headline in the Indian fighting days was Rain In The Face.

Sitting Bull, however, received the widest publicity, first as a steadfastly unappeased opponent of the aggrandizement of the Whites and civilization and secondly, through his Wild West show tour with W.F. (Buffalo Bill) Cody.

Sitting Bull's antipathy to the Whites endeared him to some of the Indians.  The Army, the Indian Service, the newspapers and the public generally, viewed him as a potential leader of a new uprising.

The press kept up a stream of publicity in 1890 when he endorsed and participated in a "Messiah" craze on the Sioux reservation, particularly at his Grand River camp, 40 miles southwest of Fort Yates.

There were many avid readers, with memories of the Custer fight 14 years before and of Sitting Bull's final surrender at Fort Buford only nine years previously.

Countless others had seen Sitting Bull during his tour with Cody.  Anything he did was 'live news'.

When he accepted the statement of a visiting Indian from the southwest that a new "Messiah" would soon appear before the Indians, that the White men would be driven out and the Indians restored to their happy hunting grounds, some of his tribesmen agreed with him.

Those who did believe, prepared for the coming by donning white shirts, which they thought would stop White men's bullets.  They pounded the tom tom and went into a marathon dance.

A newspaperman named Culver from the Chicago Herald hazarded a journey to Sitting Bull's camp and took several photographs of the ghost dance with a small camera, the only ones taken of that spectacle.

He like most others who saw the participants, reported that they were 'crazed.'

It was this odd behavior and certain threats which were played up by the newspapers of the day.  They stirred governmental circles and Maj. McLaughlin, agency superintendent, and finally the Army, resulting in the attempt to arrest Sitting Bull at 5:30 a.m. Dec. 15, 1890.

In the melee that followed the Indian leader was slain and ever since that day some newspapers and magazines have continued to re-hash the story of his life.

As mentioned before, there are many other famed Indian leaders whose memories North Dakotans may honor.  Some of their graves are marked by the graves are seldom visited except by the Indians.

The ones I have visited seem to have suffered more from vandalism than solicitude.  In some cases bullets have splattered them, obliterating lettering.  In one case, an embedded Indian peace pipe made of redstone had been chiseled out.

Let's turn our attention to a grave that South Dakota has neglected. It is that of Sakakawea, the Indian woman who ccompanied Lewis and Clark as a 'guide' in 1805.

Many North and South Dakota historians believe that she is buried at the site of Fort Manual Lisa, a trading fort established in about 1812, along the Missouri near Kennel, S.D. about 20 miles south of Fort Yates.

John Lutting, one of Lisa's traders, wrote in his journal at Fort Manual Lisa Dec. 20,1812, of the death of "the Shoshone squaw of Charbonneau" at that place on the date mentioned.

The stockade of the fort was carefully reconstructed some years ago and may still be seen on the precise spot.

That would be a good spot for South Dakotans to resume their Indian grave digging."

[Also pictured is a photo with caption, "The memory of two venerated Arikara (Ree) Indian chiefs, White Shield and Son-of-the-Star is honored by this ornate monument erected by fellow tribesmen near old Fort Berthold.  Son-of-the Star was head of the Arikaras during the trying times with the Sioux in 1876.  His reputation for gentleness and a sense of justice stood high with Red and White leaders.  The two graves are considered sacred by the Arikaras.  They will be moved because of the
spread of water behind the Garrison Dam."]