Sitting Bull: Prisoner of War

After his surrender at Fort Buford in what is now North Dakota, the United States Army transported Sitting Bull and his followers down the Missouri River to Fort Randall, roughly seventy miles west of Yankton. There the famed Hunkpapa leader remained for twenty-two months, until September 1883.

During that year and a half, Sitting Bull conducted tribal business, met with dignitaries and visitors, and interacted with those who imprisoned him. Dennis Pope has written a dramatic account of that time and those relationships, taking the reader inside Sitting Bull’s camp to see the day-to-day reality of captive life for this powerful man and his people. Pope paints an insider’s view of the events of these months, using extensive research, primary accounts from eye-witnesses, and the observations and writings of a reporter from the Saint Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press. The combination of sources presents an almost minute-by-minute description, intimately depicting the great chief’s character, beliefs, and thought processes.

Sitting Bull, Prisoner of War fills a gap in the great chief’s story, allowing readers to explore a previously little-known episode of his life.