why was "sitting bull" important? what did he do?

Answer 1

To correct the other answerers Sitting Bull (Tatanka Iyotanka) di not defeat Custer though he was blamed for it. Crazy Horse and Gall lead the attack it is believed that Sitting Bull wasn't even present at the attack. Also he wasn't a War Chief - he was a Medicine Man and his only documented involvement in the battle was a vision he had shortly before in which he saw Blue Coats Soldiers riding away from battle upside down which in Sioux culture symbolised that they were dead.

After the battle Sitting Bull fled to Canada and was welcomed by the authorities there but after growing US pressure he, and his followers were sent back across the border to be captured later.

He did tour with Buffalo Bill as a star attraction, travelling to Britain and Europe in the process.

He was killed in 1890, a few days before the Massacre at Wounded Knee, by Tribal Police made up of fellow Sioux that stormed into his cabin to arrest him late one night and after a misunderstanding there was a scuffle and they shot him and his son then, after shooting him they beat his body so badly that his jaw was twisted round to the side of his head.

Answer 2

Sitting Bull was important I think. He was more of a visionary I believe, rather than actually in the battle. Crazy Horse, Gall, and others were really handling all of that pretty well.

What he had was a dream. He saw the soldiers falling upside down into the camp and all of them being killed. He told his people to not defile or rob the dead soldiers, that is taking trophies, something customary at the time on both sides of the Indian wars. They didn't all follow his instructions. In one instance, I've heard that a bugler had fought until he ran out of ammunition, and then started using his bugle as a club. His body wasn't touched, they covered him with a blanket out of respect for his valor.

He was later with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and Congress of Rough Riders. He was with them for a season, I think. He didn't come home with much money. Annie Oakley said that he gave most of his wages to hungry little kids who were hanging around after the show.

There's a lot that says about his character I think.

He thought the Ghost Dance was a fairly harmless thing that might be good for his people's morale, even though he didn't believe in the mythology that went with it (the dead coming to life and fighting the whites, ghost shirts that were impervious to bullets). The agency people thought it was dangerous (dead indians coming to kill them might have something to do with it), and his support got him in trouble. He was being taken to the Agent, then noticed they were going to lock him up, he resisted and was shot and killed.

Answer 3

He wasn't all that important. He did wipe out General Custer at Little Big Horn. Of course, Custer was an over-rated, egotistical buffoon of a general, so if it wouldn't have been Sitting Bull, it probably would have been someone else. Custer finished last in his class at West Point, and was almost tossed from the Academy for various infractions, including breaking into professor's classrooms to steal exam answers.

Answer 4

HE WAS THE WAR CHIEF OF THE SIOUX INDIANS AND WAS THE PERSON RESPONSIBLE FOR CUSTERS DEFEAT AT THE LITTLE BIG HORN.