Sitting Bull

Since Dee and Cal stopped (however briefly) in Plentywood, MT on their way to the Canadian border, I will take this opportunity to write about Sitting Bull, because the town of Plentywood claims to be the site where "Sitting Bull and his Sioux people surrendered to the U. S. Army after living in Canada for five years." Other sources, including biographer Robert Utley place Sitting Bull's surrender at Fort Buford at the confluence off the Yellowstone and Missouri Rivers. Dean Simmons and I are trying to run this inconsistency down.

In any case, Sitting Bull is considered by Utley and others to be an American patriot, a stubborn defender of the traditional ways against the steadfast and unwelcome encroachment of the white man. In the months after the Battle of Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull and his people fled to Saskatchewan until they surrendered some five years later due to hunger and cold. Let us hope Dee and Cal find Saskatchewan more hospitable.