A NEW PICTOGRAPHIC AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

 SITTING BULL 



By ALEXIS A. PRAUS 



Director, KaJaviazoo Public Museum, Kalamazoo, Mich. 



Sitting Bull's fame as a warrior and Indian patriot is well estab- 

 lished and is likely to remain so for many years to come. There is 

 hardly a person to whom his name, if not his exploits, is not well 

 known. As was the custom among Plains Indians, Sitting Bull was 

 proud of his exploits and recorded them in the form of pictographic 

 paintings.^ 



In 1947 ]\Iiss Alice Quimby passed away at Niles, Mich., leaving 

 behind several interesting memorabilia of Sitting Bull as well as a set 

 of his autobiographical pictographs. All are now a part of the perma- 

 nent possessions of the Fort St. Joseph Historical Association Mu- 

 seum at Niles. Miss Ouimby's father, Capt. Horace Quimby, was 

 stationed at Fort Randall, Dakota Territory, as a Regimental Quar- 

 termaster between 1881 and 1883. It was during this time that Sitting 

 Bull drew and colored for little Alice the pictographs appearing with 

 this article, in return for food and other commodities given to him by 

 her parents. 



More has been written about Sitting Bull than any other prominent 

 Indian. Aluch debate has appeared in print as to his personality, 

 courage, motives, and actions. The following brief sketch is probably 

 as close to the facts of his life as can be determined. He was born on 

 the Grand River, in what is now South Dakota, about 1834, as a 

 member of the Hunkpapa Teton Sioux, a warlike, aggressive, and 

 self-respecting group of people. He distinguished himself as a hunter 

 at ten years of age and as a warrior four years later. During his early 

 twenties he rose rapidly in influence within his band and was soon 

 recognized as a leader in both peace and war. 



In the i86o's the Indians of the Plains vigorously resisted the en- 

 croachment of the whites and of Indian groups who were responding 

 to the pressures upon them. Sitting Bull first burst into national fame 

 when he led the raid in 1866 against Fort Buford in Dakota Territory. 



1 Stirling, M. W., Three pictographic autobiographies of Sitting Bull. Smith- 

 sonian Misc. Coll., vol. 97, No. 5, 1938. 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS, VOL. 123, NO. 6 



