A Native reflection on life, loss, and what still remains
There are names in Native history that are not spoken loudly, but carefully.
Names carried in stories, prayers, and long silences.
Sitting Bull is one of them.
For many Native people, he is not remembered simply as a warrior or a historical figure. He is remembered as a man who understood that survival without spirit is not survival at all.
A child raised by land and vision
Sitting Bull, known in Lakota as Tatanka Iyotake, was born around 1831 among the Hunkpapa Lakota. He grew up in a world where land was not owned, but lived with. Where elders taught that every action carried responsibility, and every vision carried meaning.
From a young age, Sitting Bull was known not for recklessness, but for reflection. He listened more than he spoke. He paid attention to dreams. Among his people, this mattered. Leadership did not begin with command, but with understanding.
He became a spiritual leader long before he became a symbol.
Leadership rooted in responsibility, not power
As settlers moved west and pressure mounted on Native nations to surrender land and identity, Sitting Bull stood firm. He did not do so because he sought conflict, but because he understood consequence.
To give up land was not simply to relocate.
It was to break a relationship with ancestors.
To silence language.
To erase memory.
Sitting Bull believed that identity could not be traded for temporary peace. That once a people forgot who they were, the loss would echo far beyond one generation.
This belief made him dangerous in the eyes of the government. Not because he called for violence, but because people listened to him.
A presence that could not be controlled
In the late 1800s, Sitting Bull’s influence worried authorities. Even when he was not leading battles, his presence alone carried weight. He represented a way of living that could not be neatly contained within reservations or rewritten by policy.
He was watched. Restricted. Isolated.
Yet still, people gathered around him.
Not for orders, but for guidance.
This is often misunderstood. Sitting Bull was not trying to rule. He was trying to protect continuity. To ensure that Lakota ways would survive beyond his lifetime.
December 15, 1890: A moment that broke something open
On December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull was killed during an attempted arrest by Indian police acting under federal pressure.
The tragedy was not only that he died.
It was how he died.
For many Native people, this moment revealed the depth of disruption forced upon Indigenous communities. Leaders turned against leaders. Survival pitted against survival. Trust fractured from within.
His death sent shockwaves across Native nations. Within weeks, the massacre at Wounded Knee followed, sealing a chapter of violence and loss that still lives in collective memory.
December 15 is not a day of celebration.
It is a day of quiet remembering.
What Sitting Bull’s life left behind
Sitting Bull did not live to see justice.
But he left something else behind.
He left an example of leadership that did not bend to fear.
A reminder that spirit is not easily erased.
A lesson that resistance does not always look like force. Sometimes it looks like refusal.
Refusal to forget.
Refusal to disappear.
Refusal to surrender what makes a people whole.
Why this story still matters
Today, Sitting Bull’s story continues to resonate not only among Native people, but among anyone seeking to understand what it means to live with integrity.
His life asks difficult questions:
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What do we protect, even when it costs us?
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What do we carry forward for those not yet born?
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How do we honor history without repeating its harm?
For Native communities, remembering Sitting Bull is not about anger. It is about grounding. About reminding ourselves that survival is an act of intention.
Remembering with respect
Stories like Sitting Bull’s are not meant to divide. They are meant to be carried with care.
When we remember him, we remember:
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The elders who taught without writing
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The leaders who guided without titles
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The strength that lived quietly, but endured
To remember Sitting Bull is to remember that Native history is not finished. It is living. Breathing. Continuing.
Carrying the story forward today
At Empower Native Voice, we believe that stories deserve more than silence. They deserve presence.
Our work is rooted in honoring Native voices, histories, and resilience - not as symbols of the past, but as living expressions of identity today.
👉 Explore designs created to honor Native heritage and strength:
https://empowernativevoice.com/collections/native-heritage
Wearing meaning is one way of remembering.
Listening is another.
Carrying the story forward is how it stays alive.