A Native American Legend, Sitting Bull

Also know as Tatanka Yotanka,which describes a buffalo bull sitting intractably on its haunches. A Lakota, born in what is now South Dakota, probably in 1831, son of a respected Sioux warrior named Returns-Again. The child wanted to follow in his father's footsteps but showed no particular talent for warfare, so he was given the name "Slow" until he could earn a better one. He earned Tatanka Yotanka (aka Sitting Bull) during a fight with rival Crow Indians.

Sitting Bull’s position on the white man was largely negative, having been quoted saying "The whites may get me at last... but I will have good times until then."

In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory, and while a treaty had been given to the Sioux for the land, the white settlers continued to come and clashes between the two became inevitable. When government efforts to purchase the Black Hills failed, the Fort Laramie Treaty was set aside and the commissioner of Indian Affairs decreed that all Lakota not settled on reservations by January 31, 1876, would be considered hostile. Sitting Bull and his people held their ground.

Sitting Bull summoned the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho to his camp on Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory. There he led them in the sun dance ritual, offering prayers to Wakan Tanka, their Great Spirit, and slashing his arms one hundred times as a sign of sacrifice.

**Sitting Bull gave 100 pieces of flesh from his arms in a Sun Dance offering. He had a vision of soldiers falling into the Indian camp and heard a voice say, "I give you these because they have no ears."**

The Lakota moved their camp and were joined by 3,000 more Indians who had left the reservations to follow Sitting Bull. Here they were attacked on June 25 by the Seventh Cavalry under George Armstrong Custer, whose badly outnumbered troops first rushed the encampment, as if in fulfillment of Sitting Bull's vision, and then made a stand on a nearby ridge, where they were destroyed. The blood bath of Custer and his men, known as the battle of Little Big Horn, brought thousands more cavalrymen to the area.

Over the next year they relentlessly pursued the Lakota, forcing chief after chief to surrender. In May 1877 he led his band across the border into Canada, beyond the reach of the U.S. Army. Four years later, however, with buffalo almost extinct, and his people starving, Sitting Bull finally came south to surrender. On July 19, 1881, he had his young son hand his rifle to the commanding officer of Fort Buford in Montana, explaining that in this way he hoped to teach the boy "that he has become a friend of the Americans." Yet at the same time, Sitting Bull said, "I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle."

Allowed to travel on occasion, Sitting Bull met Ms. Annie Oakley in 1884. So impressed by her

marksmanship he adopted her into the Lakota family naming her “Little Sure Shot”. Sitting Bull then joined Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show as an attraction in the opening procession. He enjoyed the work, compensated $50 a week in addition to all of the autographs he could sell.

**I am a red man. If the Great Spirit had desired me to be a white man he would have made me so in the first place.** 

The money he earned went to feeding orphan boys. He once made this comment to Annie Oakley regarding the way orphans were treated. "The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it."

Returning to Standing Rock in 1889, Sitting Bull lived in a cabin on the Grand River. Refusing to give up his old ways, he did consent to his children being educated in a nearby Christian school. He held the belief the next generation of Lakota would need to be able to read and write.

In the fall of 1890, a Miniconjou Lakota named Kicking Bear came to Sitting Bull with news of the Ghost Dance. A ceremony promising to rid the land of white people and restore the Indians' way of life, the Lakota had already adopted the ceremony at the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations. At Standing Rock, the authorities feared that Sitting Bull, still revered as a spiritual leader, would join the Ghost Dancers.

Before dawn on December 15, 1890, police burst into Sitting Bull's cabin and dragged him outside. His tribe gathered to protect him, but in the gunfight that followed, one of the Lakota policemen put a bullet through Sitting Bull's head.

**Legend says that when his gray horse heard the shots, he went into his Wild West Show routine, sitting on his haunches and pawing the air over Sitting Bull’s body. Many thought that the spirit of Sitting Bull entered his favorite gray horse.**

Buried at Fort Yates in North Dakota, and in 1953 his remains were moved to Mobridge, South Dakota, where a granite shaft marks his grave. He is remembered not only as an inspirational leader and fearless warrior but as a loving father, a gifted singer, a man always affable and friendly toward others, whose deep religious faith gave him prophetic insight and lent special power to his prayers.

Little Sure Shot - Annie Oakley A Western Legend

When I was a little girl my first record was Disco Mickey Mouse, my second record was the

original cast recording of “Annie Get Your Gun”, starring the magnificent Ethel Merman. I knew, and still know every word to every song and I belted them out at the top of my lungs! I walked into my room, closed the door and became Annie. I knew nothing about her other than what I imagined from the cover of the album and the tale within the lyrics of the songs. I have seen all of the film versions of her life. Of all the women who have portrayed Miss Annie Oakley, Ethel Merman is my favorite. My father played Sitting Bull in a local production of the musical. Sitting Bull, so impressed with the Skills of Annie Oakley he adopted her into the tribe giving her the nickname of “Little Sure Shot”


*Fun Fact - When the original Broadway Musical was turned into a feature film, Judy Garland was originally cast as Annie Oakley. Later to be replaced by Betty Hutton.

Phoebe Ann Moses (Mosey), born on August 13th 1860 in Darke County, OH. Phoebe was the fifth daughter of a poor farm couple, Susan and Jacob Moses (Mosey).
The family name has always been a source of confusion. Annie's brother, John, born a year later,insisted that their name was Moses. Annie equally insistent that it was Mosey, or Mozee.
In the winter of 1865, Annie's father, Jacob, was driving a team of horses into town to purchase supplies and to have corn and wheat ground at the mill. Caught in a blizzard, and then suffering of injuries and related illnesses sustained during that snowy ride, Jacob died in March of 1866 at the age of 67.
Widowed with seven children, Annie's mother, was forced to move to a smaller home. The children ranged from age fifteen to two years old. They all worked hard each day to provide food and provisions to keep the family together. Every evening, no matter how tired they were, Susan would gather them all around her to sing hymns and pray. She came from a Quaker background and she wanted to instill her values in her children.
At the age of five, Annie trapped birds and small animals to supplement food for her family. Annie loved to go for walks through the woods with her stepfather and was always begging to shoot her rifle. But he would laugh and tell her that shooting was a man’s job. One day before Thanksgiving when Annie was seven years old, her step father finally let her shoot her rifle. She killed the turkey with one shot in the head, delivering Thanksgiving feast.
Annie’s stepfather became very ill and died. Annie’s mother, having very little money, returned to work as a nurse. She sent the younger children to a friend’s house while she worked and sent Annie to live with friends who ran an orphanage. The more she used her fathers old muzzle-loading gun, the better shot she became. Successfully bagging more and more game Annie started selling her game, telling the local store owner she shot the birds in the head so the meat would not get ruined.

Impressed at how she shot the quail, the Greenville, Ohio, merchant Charles Katzenberger bought all of the game Annie could provide. He distributed it to restaurants and hotels around the region. Annie's reputation as a shooter began to grow. She earned so much from her skills, by the time she turned 15, Phoebe paid off the mortgage for her mother's home. In that same year, Annie received a letter from her older sister asking her to come to Cincinnati for a visit. Upon meeting her brother-in-law, she told of her success in Greenville, and he took her to a Shooting Show where she met Frank Butler. She entered a shooting contest against Butler. The match was run according to the regular rules of trap shooting. Frank shot twenty-four out of twenty-five birds. Annie won, killing all twenty-five of her birds. Frank would be quoted as saying, “he lost as soon as he saw the pretty and shy 15-year-old girl step to the mark”.
 Frank Butler, the Irish American, fell for Phoebe Ann, now Annie Oakley, that night. Leaving his first wife Elizabeth and marrying Annie on August 23, 1875.

 *Fun Fact - In his professional shooting act Frank Butler was assisted by a dog, a French poodle named George. Annie fell for George. So Frank courted Annie by sending her letters and cards "signed" by George.

In 1885, Oakley and Butler joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Annie received top billing and center stage, while Butler supported her as a manager and marksmanship coordinator. Annie and Frank coordinated wowing stunts, such as shooting the end off a cigarette in Frank’s mouth. Hitting the thin edge of a playing card from 30 paces, shooting holes in playing cards as they were thrown in the air.

*Fun Fact - Shooting holes through cards inspired the practice of punching holes in a free event ticket being referred to as an "Annie Oakley."

A top earner for the Wild West Show, Annie frugally shared money with her extended family and made regular donations to charities for orphans. She also helped to raise money for the Red Cross with exhibition work at army camps. Annie and Frank’s love affair lasted more than half a century, and the musical, “Annie Get Your Gun” is loosely based on their life together. On November 3, 1926, Annie Oakley died. B. Haugen reports that Frank stopped eating after Annie's death, which caused his own death from starvation eighteen days later, on November 21, 1926. Officially, the death certificate stated he died of "Senility". Annie Oakley is the first strong female character in my life. Her example and perseverance set the stage for women in the years long after her last stage appearance. Thank You, Annie.

You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun 
(Original Lyrics from the Musical Soundtrack)

 ANNIE OAKLEY:
Oh my Mother was frightened by a shotgun, they say, That's why I'm such a wonderful shot.
I'd be am out in the cactus and I practice all day, And now tell me what have I got.
I'm quick on the trigger with targets not much bigger Than a pen point, I'm number one.
But my score with a feller is lower than a cellar-
Oh you can't get a man with a gun.
When I'm with a pistol I sparkle like a crystal, Yes, I shine like the morning sun.
But I lose all my luster When with a Bronco Buster.
Oh you can't get a man with a gun.
With a gun, with a gun, No, you can't get a man with a gun.
If I went to battle With someone's herd of cattle You'd have steak when the job was done.
But if shot the herder, They'd holler "bloody murder"
And you can't shoot a male In the tail like a quail
Oh you can't get a man with a gun. I'm cool, brave and daring To see a lion glaring
When I'm out with my Remington But a look from a mister Will raise a fever blister
Oh you can't get a man with a gun.
The gals with "umbrellars" Are always out with fellers In the rain or the blazing sun
But a man never trifles With gals who carry rifles Oh you can't get a man with a gun.
With a gun, with a gun, No, you can't get a man with a gun.
A man's love is mighty It'll leave him buy a nightie For a gal who he thinks is fun.
But they don't by pajamas For Pistol packin' mamas,
And you can't get a hug From a mug with a slug, Oh you can't get a man with a gun.

 Song lyrics from soundtrack cd "Annie Get Your Gun" are property & copyright of their owners & provided for educational purposes. Visit Annie Get Your Gun page to find more lyrics, or use search.