Stranger In His Own Land
| If the trees could talk They would speak the legends of the land Like a rose that's buried deep Beneath the desert sand But the sacred heart is beating I dreamed I flew on the wings of an eagle Each season knows the weary David C. Behrens |
In the late 1860's Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa people migrated into land west of the Black Hills, which today is better known as Yellowstone country in South central Montana. This morsel of land ideally located in proximity to the Tongue,Bighorn, and Powder Rivers and still, at that time, was rich in natural resources, including buffalo.
In 1871, after Sitting Bulls people had just become acclimated to their new home, railroad surveyors from the East began to make their way through his county determined to mark out land for the coming of the Northern Pacific. At first, their attempts were futile as Sitting Bull's young warriors drove the surveyors, and their eventual military escort, out time and time again. However, in 1876, troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer battled Sitting Bull along the Little Big Horn River and drove he and the remaining Hunkpapa people out of Yellowstone country. (Later, Sitting Bull would defeat Custer) He eventually resurfaced in Canada.
Ironically, Sitting Bull, in 1883 was asked to address the people at a ceremony honoring the Northern Pacific's adjoining of the east and west in Bismarck, North Dakota. Filled with the horrors of the vanishing population of his buffalo and emergence of the newest Plains triumphant, the "Iron Horse" or "Bad-Medicine-Wagon", Sitting Bull was finally able to speak his peace concerning the terrible atrocities committed against himself, his people, his land and his buffalo.
As he spoke, an army officer was assigned to translate his speech into English from his native language. Sitting Bull's message primarily addressed the cunning and deceptive ways in which the U.S. government took away land that was rightfully his, referring to them as thieves and liars. Proving themselves worthy of Sitting Bull's description, the military translator changed his words as he spoke, stating how pleased Sitting Bull was at the coming of the railroad*. The commencement of Sitting Bull's speech was met with a standing ovation as the wealthy and truly deceived listeners remained ignorant and unremorseful towards the consequences suffered by many Native Americans in order to make way for the "Iron Horse".
*The phrase found within the flag was a direct quote made by Sitting Bull while giving a speech some time afterwards. Rendered into English, it reads "The Great Father (or the U.S. government) has proven himself an unkompti (or trickster)".