History books usually keep things clean. They give you a date, a name, and a tidy reason for why a monumental figure passed away. But when you look into the sitting bull cause of death, it’s not a simple medical report or a clean battlefield casualty. It was a mess. It was a frantic, early-morning confrontation in the freezing cold of December 1890 that ended in a spray of gunfire and the death of perhaps the most iconic Lakota leader to ever live.
He didn't die of old age. He wasn't sick.
Honestly, the whole thing was sparked by a mix of government paranoia and a religious movement called the Ghost Dance that had the U.S. authorities absolutely terrified. They thought Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) was going to lead a massive uprising. So, they sent his own people to get him. That’s the part that really stings when you dive into the archives—it was the "Metal Breasts," the Lakota tribal police, who were tasked with the arrest.
The Ghost Dance and the Growing Tension
By 1890, the Great Sioux Reservation had been carved up. People were starving. Rations were cut. In the midst of this misery, a Paiute prophet named Wovoka started preaching. He said if the Native people danced the Ghost Dance, the white settlers would disappear, the buffalo would return, and the dead would rise. It was a movement of hope born out of total desperation.
Sitting Bull wasn’t necessarily a true believer in the dance’s supernatural claims, but he wasn’t about to stop his people from finding comfort. He allowed Ghost Dancers to gather at his camp on the Grand River. To the Indian Agent James McLaughlin, this was a flashing red light. McLaughlin saw Sitting Bull as the "greatest disturber" of the peace. He wanted him gone. He figured if he could remove the head of the movement, the rest would crumble.
It was a massive miscalculation.
The tension was thick enough to cut with a knife. On December 14, 1890, the order was finalized. McLaughlin decided that the tribal police should make the move at dawn, hoping to catch the leader while the camp was asleep. They wanted to avoid a spectacle. They got the exact opposite.
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What Actually Happened: Sitting Bull Cause of Death Explained
Around 5:30 AM on December 15, 43 tribal police officers surrounded Sitting Bull’s cabin. They burst in, woke him up, and told him he was under arrest. Initially, he was surprisingly calm about it. He reportedly said, "All right, let me get my clothes on and I will go with you."
But things went sideways the moment they stepped outside.
Imagine the scene. It's pitch black, freezing, and suddenly the camp realizes their leader is being hauled away in his underwear. A crowd of about 150 followers gathered instantly. They were angry. They were shouting. One of Sitting Bull’s most loyal followers, Catch-the-Bear, wasn't having it. He pulled out a Winchester and yelled that they weren't taking him.
Sitting Bull started to hesitate. He looked at the crowd, then back at the police. He realized the stakes. He shouted out a command to resist.
The Fatal Sequence of Gunfire
The moment Catch-the-Bear fired his rifle, hitting Lieutenant Bull Head in the side, the world exploded. Bull Head, acting almost on instinct as he fell, spun and fired his revolver directly into Sitting Bull’s chest. At the same time, Sergeant Red Tomahawk, who was positioned behind the Chief, fired a shot into the back of Sitting Bull's head.
He died instantly.
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It wasn't a long, drawn-out fight for him. The sitting bull cause of death was two gunshot wounds—one to the torso and one to the head. But the fight didn't end there. It turned into a brutal, close-quarters melee. This wasn't a battle with lines and strategy; it was a panicked scramble in the dark. By the time the dust settled, six policemen were dead or dying, and seven of Sitting Bull’s followers lay dead beside him, including his 17-year-old son, Crow Foot.
There’s a weird, haunting detail that some survivors mentioned later. Sitting Bull had a "show horse" that he’d been gifted by Buffalo Bill Cody during his time with the Wild West Show. When the gunfire started, the horse reportedly started performing its tricks—sitting, pawing the air, and "dancing." Some witnesses thought the horse was possessed or reacting to the Ghost Dance spirits. In reality, it was just trained to perform when it heard shots.
The Aftermath and the Path to Wounded Knee
If you think Sitting Bull’s death was the end of the story, you're missing the most tragic part. His killing was the spark that led directly to the Wounded Knee Massacre just two weeks later.
When Sitting Bull died, his followers fled. They were terrified that the army was going to kill everyone. Many of them joined up with Chief Big Foot’s band. They headed south, seeking protection, but they were intercepted by the Seventh Cavalry. We all know how that ended on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek.
The death of Sitting Bull wasn't just the death of a man. It was the death of a specific type of resistance. He was one of the last holdouts who refused to fully "assimilate." He didn't want to farm; he didn't want to wear white man's clothes; he didn't want to give up the old ways.
Where is he buried?
Even in death, there’s a bit of a mystery. He was buried at Fort Yates in a simple wooden coffin. But in 1953, his descendants (or at least those claiming to be) reportedly dug up what they believed were his remains and moved them to Mobridge, South Dakota, closer to his birthplace. There’s still a huge debate about whether they got the right body or if part of him is still at Fort Yates. People still visit both sites today.
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Moving Past the Myths
When we talk about the sitting bull cause of death, we have to acknowledge the complexity of the Lakota police involvement. It’s easy to paint this as "The Army vs. Sitting Bull," but it was more intimate and painful than that. It was Lakota men, paid by the government, killing a Lakota icon. Bull Head and Shave Head, the officers who led the charge, also died from their wounds.
It was a fratricide.
Some historians, like Robert Utley, have spent years dissecting the records of the Standing Rock Agency. The consensus is that the government didn't necessarily order an assassination, but they created a situation where violence was almost guaranteed. They sent a small group of men into a volatile camp to arrest a hero. They knew what would happen.
Understanding the Context Today
To truly grasp why this matters, you have to look at the primary sources. The reports from Agent McLaughlin and the testimonies of survivors like Iron Star provide a fractured, chaotic picture of that morning.
- Fact Check: Sitting Bull was roughly 59 years old when he was killed.
- Location: His cabin on the Grand River, South Dakota.
- The Weaponry: A mix of police-issued revolvers and civilian Winchester rifles.
If you’re researching this for a project or just because you’re a history buff, the best thing you can do is look at the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s own historical accounts. They offer a perspective that moves beyond the "hostile Indian" narrative found in old 19th-century newspapers.
Actionable Insights for History Enthusiasts
If you want to delve deeper into the life and death of Sitting Bull, here are the most effective ways to do it without getting lost in misinformation:
- Visit the Sites: If you can, go to the Sitting Bull Monument in Mobridge, SD. Standing on the land gives you a sense of the scale and the isolation of the Grand River camp.
- Read the Right Sources: Look for Sitting Bull: The Life and Times of an American Patriot by Ernie LaPointe. He is Sitting Bull’s great-grandson, and he brings oral traditions to the table that you won't find in government archives.
- Consult the National Archives: You can actually find the digitized letters from James McLaughlin. Reading his growing frustration in the months leading up to December 1890 reveals the "premeditated" nature of the pressure put on the Lakota leader.
- Analyze the Ghost Dance: Study the movement as a religious phenomenon. Understanding that it was a peaceful, albeit desperate, prayer helps explain why the violent response from the authorities was so disproportionate.
The sitting bull cause of death wasn't just lead and gunpowder. It was the result of a collision between a collapsing old world and an aggressive new one that didn't know how to handle a man who refused to break.