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Sitting Bull's 1884 Visit to St. Paul

Sitting Bull's 1884 Visit to St. Paul

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RAMSEY COUNTY The St. Paul Volunteer Fireman and the HıstoryA Publication of the Ramsey County Historical Society Page 13 Spring, 2003 Volume 38, Number 1

An ‘Attempt’ on His Life? ’s 1884 Visit to St. Paul —Page 4

Sitting Bull around 1880, just before his 1884 visit to St. Paul. Historical Society photograph. See article beginning on page 4 on Sitting Bull’s visit and an alleged attempt on his life. Minnesota Historical Society photograph. 02 RCHS Sp03-Mast 6/12/03 7:45 PM Page 2

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director RAMSEY COUNTY Priscilla Farnham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz Hıstory RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 38, Number 1 Spring, 2003 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS James A. Russell C O N T E N T S Chair Marlene Marschall 3 Letters President 4 ‘A Shady Pair’ and an ‘Attempt on His Life’— George Mairs First Vice President Sitting Bull and His 1884 Visit to St. Paul W. Andrew Boss Paul D. Nelson Second Vice President 13 The St. Paul Fireman Who Rose to Command the First Judith Frost Lewis Secretary Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment at Gettysburg Peter K. Butler Patrick Hill Treasurer 17 The Volunteer Pioneer Hook and Ladder Company Duke Addicks, Charles L. Bathke, W. Andrew Boss, Peter K. Butler, Norbert Conzemius, 18 Oakland Cemetery and Its First 150 Years Anne Cowie, Charlton Dietz, Charlotte H. Chip Lindeke Drake, Joanne A. Englund, Robert F. Garland, Howard Guthmann, Joan Higinbotham, Scott 19 Roots in the English John Wesley Hutton, Judith Frost Lewis, John M. Lindley, George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Richard St. Paul’s First German Methodist Church T. Murphy, Sr., Richard Nicholson, Marla Helen Miller Dickison Ordway, Marvin J. Pertzik, Penny Harris Reynen, Glenn Weissner, Richard Wilhoit, 25 Growing Up in St. Paul Laurie Zenner, Ronald J. Zweber. ‘Homer Van Meter, a Member of the Karpis Gang, EDITORIAL BOARD Was Shot Across the Street from Our House’ John M. Lindley, chair; James B. Bell, Thomas Bernice Fisher H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Mark Eisenschenk, Pat Hart, Thomas J. Kelley, Tom Mega, Laurie Murphy, Richard H. Nicholson, Paul D. Nelson, Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from David Riehle, G. Richard Slade. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H. Cowie, Jr. and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton The Society regrets an omission from the 2002 Donor Recognition Roll Dietz, William Finney, William Fallon, Robert in the Winter issue of Ramsey County History. The list of supporters should S. Hess, D. W. “Don” Larson, George Latimer, have included the name of Albert W. Lindeke, Jr., a generous and loyal supporter. Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Mirick, Marvin We apologize for this omission. J. Pertzik, James Reagan, Rosalie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISSIONERS A Message from the Editorial Board Commissioner James McDonough, chairman Commissioner Susan Haigh n 1884 the Lakota Indian leader Sitting Bull visited St. Paul. Our feature article in this issue fo- Commissioner Tony Bennett Icuses on the circumstances of his two brief stays in the city that year and whether during the lat- Commissioner Rafael Ortega ter visit there was an attempt to assassinate the man who embodied so much of the conflict between Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt Commissioner Janice Rettman the white settlers and the native inhabitants of . This issue also includes Civil Commissioner Jan Wiessner War historian Patrick Hill’s account of Wilson B. Farrell, a St. Paul volunteer fireman, who gave his life as a member of the First Minnesota Regiment in the Battle of Gettysburg and a brief salute to Paul Kirkwold, manager, Ramsey County the sesquicentennial of the founding of St. Paul’s Oakland Cemetery, where Farrell is now buried. Ramsey County History is published quarterly This issue concludes with Helen Miller Dickison’s history of today’s Fairmount Methodist Church, by the Ramsey County Historical Society, 323 Minnesota’s first German Methodist church, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2002. Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street,St. Paul, Readers of Ramsey County History and anyone interested in the history of Ramsey County and Minn. 55102 (651-222-0701). Printed in U.S.A. St. Paul now have a new resource for history searches: the Society’s web site at www.rchs.com. On Copyright, 2003, Ramsey County Historical the site’s home page, the researcher can click on several links that are of value. One is “Ask the His- - Society. ISSN Number 0485 9758. All rights torian,” which provides questions and answers about the area’s history that recently have come to reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted or otherwise reproduced Society staff members. Another briefly profiles the histories of some of St. Paul’s neighborhoods. without written permission from the pub- All the information on this link comes from the Society’s Ramsey County Historic Site Survey Re- lisher. The Society assumes no responsibility port, a major resource in the RCHS library. The final link on the Society web page connects the user for statements made by contributors. Fax 651- to information on the contents of the most recent issues of Ramsey County History and ties to a 223-8539; e-mail address [email protected].; complete listing of articles published in the magazine since its initial publication in 1964. We hope web site address www.rchs.com this new link will get many hits from users and increase awareness of the richness of the content of our magazine’s back issues. John M. Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board

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Sitting Bull and His 1884 Visit to St. Paul ‘A Shady Pair’ and an ‘Attempt on His Life’

Mark Diedrich Adapted, with permission, from a longer article by Paul D. Nelson

September 4, 1884. An attempt on Sitting Bull’s life occurs at the Grand Opera House in St. Paul. Sitting Bull is there as part of a program, where, incidentally, he meets . —Minnesota Book of Days (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2002), p. 181.

e was a living symbol of American Indian resistance—to progress and in one view, to genocide in another. In 1884 the Indian wars had not yet Hended; many whites still feared the Red Man generally and Sitting Bull in par- ticular. His in a downtown theater would have called up wrenching memories nationwide of Lincoln’s similar assassination just nineteen years earlier. All eyes would have turned toward St. Paul, not to celebrate its growth and progress, but to lament (or celebrate) an historic crime. It is surprising how little press cover- camp in southeastern for all— age this event provoked. The next day’s including not just Lakotas but also Pioneer Press reported only that Sitting , Yanktonai, and Santee Bull planned to leave soon for New York Dakotas—who wanted to resist Ameri- but wished first to visit the German horti- can domination. In June 1876 George cultural fair at Market Hall, because he Custer’s Seventh Cavalry attacked Sit- was “desirous of seeing how big the ting Bull’s encampment on the Little pumpkins grow in these parts.” Neither Bighorn River, with electrifying conse- the St. Paul Daily Globe nor either of the quences. Although he did not participate dailies mentioned the great in the fight, many whites considered Sit- A carte-de-visite photograph of the Lakota Lakota leader at all. ting Bull the “general” of the Indian leader that, at $1.50 each, found a ready How could this be? As it turns out, the forces and hence the “killer of Custer.” market in St. Paul. Photo by Palmquist & Jurgens, Minnesota Historical Society newspapers, from which the Book In time he fled to , seeking collections. of Days extracted this account, were just refuge and assistance from Queen Victo- as eager to hype a story as they are today. ria. The British, however, gave limited There is both much less to this story of help. In 1881 the starving leader and his whites mean him no harm and bear him that September 4 and much more. last remaining followers surrendered to naught of malice, and then by some little the , who held him for two preferment or authority—almost imper- McLaughlin’s Plan years at in . ceptible in itself, but to a man who be- By the early 1880s Sitting Bull had be- He was then ushered to the Standing lieved he might be hung when captured, a come the most famous American Indian Rock Agency at Fort Yates, where he very great deal—he can gradually be in- in the (though rivaled in the came under the authority of United States duced to learn the truth that his best inter- West, at least, by his contemporary Lakota agent James McLaughlin. ests will be subserved by obedience to .) He had become a leader of The ambitious and possibly self-de- the power that be.” To achieve this goal, the Lakotas on the high north- luded McLaughlin wanted to reduce Sit- McLaughlin allowed, or perhaps urged, ern plains and resisted white intrusion ting Bull to an “agency Indian” (mean- Sitting Bull to participate in some public into their ancestral domain. In the ing, presumably, dispirited and events. On September 5, 1883, for exam- his war parties attacked Northern Pacific compliant) and make him ready for as- ple, he joined former President Ulysses railroad crews and the soldiers who pro- similation into white civilization. “I shall S. Grant and Northern Pacific railroad tected them. In 1875 he established a convince him first,” he said, “that the president Henry Villard in laying the cor-

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nerstone of the Dakota Territory Capitol at Bismarck. Sitting Bull proved so popu- lar at this and other such events that he found a ready market for his autographs, often on a carte-de-visite photograph, at $1.50 or more apiece. McLaughlin prob- ably recognized that fame and participa- tion in the dollar economy could prove useful in his plans for Sitting Bull. In the late winter of 1883–84 McLaughlin planned a trip to St. Paul to purchase some oxen for his Lakota farm- ing project. In pursuit of his acculturation plans for Sitting Bull, he invited the great man and his nephew, , to come along. [M]y object in taking Sitting Bull . . . was to show him the importance and power of the whites, to see how they live, the many comforts they enjoy and to impress upon him the importance of industrious habits among the Indians and the education of their children . . . . I knew that his seeing would be more convincing than years of education in any way would affect him. The Merchants Hotel at Third Street and Jackson around 1884-1885 when Sitting Bull stayed Put another way, McLaughlin hoped that there during his visit to St. Paul. The hotel was owned by Colonel Alvaren Allen. Minnesota St. Paul would so impress Sitting Bull Historical Society photograph from the St. Paul City Directory. that he would give up any further thought of holding onto his and his people’s tradi- tional ways. anize” Sitting Bull. But he underesti- civilization. At the same time, he desired Minnesota in 1884 boasted a popula- mated his subject. Sitting Bull had, it was to preserve and protect Lakota “Indian- tion of some 270,000, mostly immigrants true, suffered devastating defeats, but ness” and communal ownership of their from Germany, Sweden, and Norway. accepting defeat is one thing; cultural lands. So he allowed himself to be placed More than a third, approximately surrender is something very different. in circumstances where he would be- 100,000 people, lived in St. Paul. Served McLaughlin hoped to use the St. Paul come knowledgeable about white civi- by traffic on the Mississippi in the 1850s and 1860s, the city had been visit as a demonstration—”You cannot lization. He had pressing concerns too. the first great hub of trade in the Upper resist a civilization so powerful as to pro- His dwindling followers, now just some Midwest. Before long the telegraph, rail- duce such a marvel”—and an entice- 180, faced starvation, so getting them road, and telephone made their way to the ment—”Your people can share in this quick help was vital. Hence Sitting Bull’s city, which was showing off every sort of marvel if you do as we say.” Sitting Bull St. Paul visit had two objectives: Learn commercial, religious, and educational doubtless had different objectives in about whites and their ways in order to establishment, including the Union mind. plan long-term strategy; and make the Depot, the State Capitol, the Cathedral of Sitting Bull was a traditionalist among case for immediate government help in St. Paul, the Grand Opera House, the his people, one of their leading holy men. order to ensure short-term survival. Olympic Theater, and may other bustling He had adhered to Lakota cultural pat- Thousands of St. Paulites gathered at enterprises, plus schools crammed with terns and customs all of his life. Yet he the brand new Union Depot (the down- children. The accounts of Sitting Bull’s was not an immutable traditionalist, as he town Post Office now occupies the spot) visit provide the reader with a fascinating was in fact open to some degree of to meet Sitting Bull and his party on the historical tour of the city as it then existed. change. He may be seen simply as a con- early morning of March 14, 1884. The servative man who exercised a cautious crowd was disappointed, though, when A Tour of the City approach to change and adaptation. He the party quickly boarded a coach and James McLaughlin felt great confidence wanted to choose which aspects of white was taken to Colonel Alvaren Allen’s in the superiority of his Euro-American culture would be good for his people, to Merchant’s Hotel at Third Street (now culture and in his own ability to “de-Indi- engage in a selective adaptation of white Kellogg) and Jackson. There Sitting Bull

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was immediately beset by reporters from love wild country. I do not understand the white men made us pay for them. I think the local newspapers, who took a lively white ways. With my children it will be the Great Father should command that we interest in everything about him. One de- different. I love my own country best and receive our money back and our loss on ac- scribed him as “a man of short stature, prefer to live there.” count of the killing of the buffalo made heavily built, and with a particularly good. I think he should order that no more stolid expression. His features are mas- ‘Our food is not enough’ buffaloes or game should be killed in our sive and his hair turning gray.” Of his The press gave Sitting Bull an opportu- country by white men. dress it was said that he was in “all the nity to pursue one of his objectives in the With this, the interview ended. One of beaded magnificence which befitted his St. Paul visit, and he grabbed it. Was he the reporters assessed the performance rank, and during conversation was en- satisfied with the government’s supplies this way, and hit the mark: “It is seen by gaged in cleaning a very large pipe.” to the Lakota? Sitting Bull was noted as the close observer that he is an adroit rea- He wore a buckskin shirt, with a white giving the “usual deliberation” to his an- soner, a consummate flatterer, and shirt on the outside, as well as leggings, swer, and finally said, “Well, we live, but weighs every word he utters before giv- moccasins, and an overcoat. In his hair I don’t think that we get enough rations. I was an eagle feather, and while on the ing it expression.” wonder why the Great Father does not street he wore a fox cap with the entire Not all press coverage displayed equal give us more food.” In response to an- animal’s face intact. He carried with him thoughtfulness and respect. With Min- other question he commented, “Our food a war club of box elder, with a small nesota’s Dakota Conflict (1862), the car- is not enough; and if the Great Father medicine pouch at the base. The pipe he nage at Little Bighorn (1876), and the does not give us more, we are likely to was seen cleaning was three and one half years of war that followed still in living starve.” A reporter asked about the suffi- feet long, with the carving [of] an Indian memory, the St. Paul Dispatch reflected ciency of buffalo in Lakota country, pro- figure at the head. He had come, in short, much popular sentiment when it charged voking this reply: dressed as he wished and not as an accul- that Sitting Bull, “for his past infamies turated Indian. His appearance made a I wish to say that in our own country our [was] worthy of the title of ‘The Great clear statement. white brothers killed the ’s buffaloes. Unhung.’” Other papers called him Sitting Bull showed himself an effec- Our young men took some buffalo skins and “butcherer of Custer,” “ferocious sav- tive handler of the press. Asked if he liked white people, he replied, “I like white people very much, and I want my children to be raised among them.” Asked if he was impressed with what he had seen, he said, “I think the white peo- ple ought to be well pleased with their country, with all its civilization and im- provement.” Of the houses he had seen and the locomotive that brought him to St. Paul he commented, “I think the houses of the whites are very grand, their machinery curious and cunning. My first impression of the iron horse was that it was so fast I wanted to get out of its way as quickly as possible.” It should be noted here that all quotations from Sitting Bull come through two filters, the white interpreter and the various reporters; what he said in Lakota is lost forever. Still, it seems likely that his meanings were conveyed accurately. The reporter who asked about Sitting Bull’s assess- ments of white civilization realized that his answers, superficially positive, were in fact noncommittal: whites ought to be pleased with their country. Answering The interior of St. Paul’s Union Depot as it looked upon Sitting Bull’s arrival there in 1884. Ac- different questions he revealed his true counts of his visit provide the reader with a fascinating historical tour of St. Paul as it was dur- thoughts about whether he would submit ing the 1880s. Minnesota Historical Society photograph from the Northwest Magazine, March, to acculturation. “I am naturally wild and 1885.

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Reminder of a Catastrophe After lunch the party visited the St. Paul Cathedral. As it turned out, Bishop Thomas Grace was then entertaining Fa- ther Augustin Ravoux, who had been a missionary among Minnesota Indians and spoke Lakota. Ravoux, though a friend to Indians, was a living reminder of catastrophe. He had served as coun- selor to many of the thirty-eight Dakota executed at Mankato after the Dakota Conflict of 1862 and to Little Six and Medicine Bottle, hanged at in 1865. Also present at the cathedral that day was Bishop Martin Marty of Dakota Territory, whom Sitting Bull had met in 1877 in Canada. Marty had gone to to persuade the Lakota to surrender and return to the United States. At that time Sitting Bull was reported to have said to Marty, “You know, as the messenger of God, that they [the Ameri- cans] tried to kill me. Why did you wait until half my people were killed before you came? I told the Americans to keep A stop on Sitting Bull’s tour: the St. Paul Armory at West Sixth Street and Main in 1895. Min- nesota Historical Society photograph. off my land . . .You are waiting for my people to come to your land so that the Long Knives may rush at them and kill them.” There is no record that Marty and age,” and “old scalawag.” Before the trip voice through the receiver, he grinned Sitting Bull reminisced over their previ- was over, one Minneapolis editor went so and exclaimed, “Wakan.” “The tele- ous meeting. far as to denigrate the entire visit by writ- phone,” wrote a reporter, “broke him all The group moved on then to the new ing that Sitting Bull was “probably now up and forced the first exclamation from State Capitol, on Tenth Street between convinced that it is a good thing for an In- him.” The journalists translated wakan to Wabasha and Cedar (later the site of the dian to murder white men, and slaughter mean The Devil, though it was a Lakota Science Museum of Minnesota.) They women and children.” Similar comments word for spiritual or holy mystery. started to climb to the cupola atop the studded other press accounts. It is impossible now to know what Capitol’s central tower, but only One Bull His busy first day was far from over. James McLaughlin had in mind when he made it all the way; Sitting Bull tired half Sitting Bull rested until about five in the lined up particular sites and events for way up and sat down for a smoke. One afternoon, when McLaughlin began con- Sitting Bull. Looking back on that Satur- Bull was rewarded with a fine view of the ducting him around town. The party first day of March 15, it appears that, regard- city. From there the party traveled by visited Patrick H. Kelly’s Mercantile less of what McLaughlin may have sleigh to Dayton’s Bluff, site of the an- Company in the wholesale district. planned, the day was filled with painful cient burial mounds, and a place not so There the curious crowds grew so great reminders. The party went first to Kelly’s many years before used by the Dakota for that the visitors had to give up and return wholesale grocery (where Sitting Bull funeral platforms. Dayton’s Bluff also of- to the hotel. Later that evening they rode in an elevator), then to the Auer- fered still more excellent views of the toured the Pioneer Press newspaper and bach, Finch and Van Slyke store nearby; city, and especially the vast railroad spent about two hours “witnessing type in both, the abundance of food and goods yards, inescapable symbols of the expan- setting, job printing, telegraphing, tele- must have contrasted painfully with the sive drive and power of Sitting Bull’s host phone exchange . . . and steam heating want then being suffered by Sitting and adversary, the United States of Amer- apparatus. . . .” Sitting Bull was given Bull’s people. Curious throngs gathered ica. That night the group disappointed the the opportunity to try out a telephone. He outside, and later in the morning the curious public by staying in. and his nephew One Bull were placed Lakota leader sold his autographs for Sunday began with church, naturally, about 100 feet apart on opposite ends of $1.50 each; his celebrity had cash value, a 10:30 Mass at Assumption Church, the the line. When he heard his nephew’s while his people counted for little. only building visited by Sitting Bull that

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still stands today. A Minneapolis reporter wrote: “[Sitting Bull] . . . assumed a pen- itent and contrite spirit when he gazed upon the crucifix and the saints in chro- matic colors. Possibly he was meditating upon the day of atonement for that hideous butchery on the green slopes of the Little Big Horn.” After lunch the party was invited to see Engine Number 2 of the St. Paul fire department in simulated action. A crowd of 500 surrounded the firehouse to watch, with Sitting Bull and One Bull looking on from a neighboring balcony. Trained engine horses were summoned and hitched to the wagon; the engine then took in water at the Sixth and Wacouta hydrant. Firemen hooked up three hoses and set the engine to full power. One hose escaped the firemen’s grasp and “went through the street like a snake and water was thrown in all directions,” to the great amusement of Sitting Bull and everyone else. One reporter jibed that “it was probably as near as [Sitting Bull] . . . ever came to taking a bath.” The party then went to the central fire- house, where Sitting Bull added his per- sonal touch by pressing the electric signal that rang the gong for the next operation. Firemen slid down a pole from the upper floor and hitched the horses very quickly to a hook and ladder unit, then dashed to O’Leary’s packing plant, extended the ladders, and climbed to the top. Sitting Bull professed to have enjoyed the entire demonstration very much. A View of the Schools On Monday morning—St. Patrick’s Day—Sitting Bull prepared for a fourth Assumption Church as it looked when Sitting Bull attended 10:30 a.m. mass there. This is straight day of public appearances. the only building visited by Sitting Bull that still stands today. Minnesota Historical Society McLaughlin arranged to take the him first photograph. to Adam Fetsch’s cigar store (one of many in the city in those days), where Sitting Bull witnessed the process of cigar making and received a gift: two joke about a recent school board row and the Great Spirit had been kind to the chil- twelve-inch cigars specially decorated “their recent attempts to take each others’ dren of the white man and that he hoped to for him and One Bull with a St. Patrick’s scalps in true Indian fashion.” At Franklin live to see the day when the children of his Day ribbon. Sitting Bull sampled his and school they toured the building and then own race would enjoy similar advantages. expressed his delight “with some very watched the children at their calisthenics, St. Paul was then a shoemaking capi- significant demonstrations.” elocution, and music, then witnessed a fire tal, supplier to the Great Northwest and At nine the party began its tour of the St. drill. At the high school Sitting Bull and the home to several shoe factories, so this Paul public schools. The two carriages also friends endured a program of singing and industry made a natural destination. After bore the school board president and school recitation before the Lakota leader made a lunch, the group went to Forepaugh and director, prompting one newspaper wag to short speech, saying that he was pleased that Tarbox, then C. Gotzian and Company.

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At Forepaugh’s, Sitting Bull’s measure- ments were taken and a pair of shoes made for him in twenty minutes, right be- fore his eyes. That evening Sitting Bull took in a St. Paul tribal ceremony, the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations at the Armory. After music by the Crusaders Society, Father Shanley introduced Sitting Bull to the large audience as a possible representa- tive of a “lost tribe of Celts.” Greeted by loud applause, the guest made his now customary and diplomatic remarks about the fine churches and schools he had seen, and advising the citizens of St. Paul not to neglect to make use of them. A “musical extravaganza” entitled “The Happy Man” closed the ceremonies. The sponsors reported that a “very generous sum” had been raised for the church schools, and no doubt Sitting Bull had a lot to do with the evening’s success. No The interior of the St. Paul’s old Cathedral and its third, as it looked in 1889 when it was deco- note was made of the irony of Sitting rated for the consecration of Bishops John Shanley, Joseph Cotter, and James McGolrick. Bull’s raising money for white folks’ Minnesota Historical Society photograph. schools while the children of his had none. Bull may have welcomed the meeting as would be productive of much good, that An Old Enemy an opportunity to make his case with he must faithfully tell his people what he The following afternoon, travelling in a someone in a position of genuine author- had seen, and that honest work was the government ambulance pulled by four ity. He took advantage of it. After his for- only solution to the problems besetting mules, Sitting Bull and his party jour- mal introductions to General Terry and the Indian. He concluded by saying that it neyed down Fort Road to Fort Snelling the other dignitaries and various acts of was not impossible that a grandson of for a meeting with, of all people, General military etiquette were performed, Sit- Sitting Bull might one day become the . Known to Indians as One ting Bull had a ten minute conversation Great Father of the country. Of more im- Star, Terry had been George Custer’s with One Star about the conditions of his mediate interest to Sitting Bull, no doubt, commanding officer at the time of the people and his hopes for help from the he promised to send more cows to the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Arriving at Great Father. The general then invited his Lakota reserve that summer. After the the scene not long after the battle, Terry former adversary to make a speech. After speeches Sitting Bull and his party joined was among those who faced the grue- his standard remarks about his enjoyable Terry and his officers for lunch at Terry’s some realization that the strange white visit and the kindness shown him, Sitting residence. spots on the prairie near the river were Bull made the crucial point: “I have come dead cavalrymen, stripped naked. In an to tell One Star how I and my people are ‘Little Sure Shot’ 1876 report, Terry had written of Sitting getting along at the agency, so that he Back in downtown St. Paul that evening Bull that he “has always been the white may go and repeat my words to the Great the grind of public appearances resumed, man’s most inveterate enemy and a bitter Father. The One Star is the head soldier this time with a visit to the Grand Opera opponent of any policy other than that of and chief of everybody at this place, and House for a performance of a play enti- driving the white man back into the sea his words in behalf of me and my people tled “Cheek,” featuring singer and come- whence he came. . . . I believe that if he will have great weight with the Great Fa- dian Roland Reed. Despite the language were out of the way we would have much ther.” From there Sitting Bull went on to barrier, Sitting Bull appeared to have en- less trouble with the Sioux people here- promise that his people would take up joyed the show. A reporter wrote that his after.” The two had met in Saskatchewan farming and to wish for “the mutual en- “taciturn visage was often lighted with in 1877 when Terry tried, but failed, to joyment of this world and all it contains.” smiles” and that “when the dude song induce Sitting Bull to surrender. Now Terry responded with words that prob- was sung the ferocious savage actually they would meet again. ably pleased James McLaughlin but burst out laughing.” McLaughlin wrote However painful it may have been for sound patronizing to today’s ears. He that his guest had been “delighted with the vanquished to visit the victor, Sitting told Sitting Bull that his visit to St. Paul the play and was amused to see how mis-

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taken he was in the actors, especially the old couple after they changed costumes. Seeing that they were all young people, and their taking off their wigs pleased him very much.” A newspaper reporter had a different take on the removal of wigs. He wrote that Sitting Bull became “a total wreck mentally” when he saw Reed and his co-star, Miss Vaughn, “vol- untarily scalp themselves.” Sitting Bull returned to the theater the next evening, this time for the Arlington and Fields Combination—”the greatest aggregation of talent” ever on a single stage—at the Olympic Theater. The at- tractions, a wonderful example of late nineteenth century travelling entertain- ments, included the three Wertz Broth- ers, an acrobatic act, and a young female “professional wing and rifle shot” named Annie Oakley. She awed the audience by knocking corks out of bottles, snuffing candles, and shooting cigarettes out of Franklin School at Tenth and Broadway where Sitting Bull witnessed a fire drill. Minnesota her husband’s mouth. She so impressed Historical Society photograph from the Minnesota State Archives Collection. Sitting Bull that he asked to see her, then sent $65 (possibly his autograph money), requesting a photo. Miss Oakley later re- Art Center later was named. Walker the St. Paul visit had enormously en- called, “I sent him back his money and a showed Sitting Bull and the others hanced his fame. Reaching Fargo and photograph, with my love, and a message through the largest grain mill in town and later Jamestown, Dakota Territory, to say I would call the following morn- then drove them in an open carriage McLaughlin was compelled to take his ing. I did so, and the old man was so through the city’s principal streets. They guest off the train so that the “anxious pleased with me, he insisted upon adopt- stopped at the Nicollet House, where a hundreds” might get sight of him. ing me, and I was then and there chris- crowd gathered to catch sight of the visit- McLaughlin later reflected upon the trip tened ‘Watanya Cicilla,’ or ‘Little Sure ing leader. Sitting Bull sat in the rotunda, that Sitting Bull’s “eyes had been opened Shot.’” Oakley’s husband, William But- smoked his pipe, and agreed to meet a . . . by the recent visit to civilization and it ler, later used this event for publicity, limited number of those who had come. is showing itself in many ways since his claiming with showbiz hyperbole that Asked by a reporter how he liked Min- return. . . .What influence he has is now Annie had “captured Sitting Bull,” and neapolis, he replied, “I have been here being turned in the right direction and the that he had given her “the original pair of but a short time but I like it very much.” recent trip to St. Paul has been largely in- moccasins he’d worn in the Custer fight.” All Minneapolitans must have been grat- strumental in bringing this about.” The Minnesota Book of Days places ified to read then that Sitting Bull went this event incorrectly at September 4 on to say that “the people [of Minneapo- Return to St. Paul rather than March 18. It also erroneously lis] are just as good here as they are in the While the accuracy of Laughlin’s assess- has Sitting Bull “part of the program.” other city [St.Paul].” Still, after just two ment is debatable, Sitting Bull’s visit to But this may have been the occasion that and a half hours, he was ready to return to St. Paul certainly whetted his appetite to introduced him to the possibility of his St. Paul. A writer for a St. Cloud news- see more of the United States, and partic- later brief career on the variety stage. paper observed that the Lakota leader had ularly to secure an audience with the not received much of a reception in Min- president. Alvaren Allen, who had been Minneapolis and Farewell neapolis compared to St. Paul, and wrote Sitting Bull’s host at the Merchant’s Sitting Bull’s sojourn in urban America with satisfaction that the Mill City had Hotel, decided to try to get permission to wound down with a March 20 visit to “declined to follow the example of St. take him and a few others on a tour of Minneapolis. Travelling by train, he and Paul in making a fool of itself over the New York. Allen went to Washington his party were met at the Minneapolis butcherer of Custer and his soldiers.” D.C. and, arguing that the trip would help Depot by Thomas Walker, a lumberman Sitting Bull left for home that evening. break down Lakota prejudice against civ- and art collector for whom the Walker On the train voyage west he found that ilization, persuaded Interior Secretary

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Henry Teller to approve the venture. So permit. He knows nothing about it and I on September 2 Sitting Bull returned to do not intend to have him scared.” St. Paul, this time accompanied by a Though he presumably did learn of the wife, a niece, a cousin named Spotted aborted event, no further mention of it Horn Bull, and a few others. Alvaren appeared in the St. Paul press, and neither Allen, of whom it was said Sitting Bull of the shady pair ever was identified. had become quite fond, put him up again Whether the acts of that September 4 in the Merchant’s Hotel. Allen had pre- night at the Opera House qualify as an at- pared publicity for the trip, photos of Sit- tempt on Sitting Bull’s life is a semantic ting Bull and wife, Sitting Bull and fam- question open to debate. ily, and Spotted Horn Bull, but he probably overestimated public interest. McLaughlin’s Plan a Failure This time the newspapers, at least, took The rest of Sitting Bull’s second St. Paul little note. visit passed without incident and he left One reason, then, for the press’s lack for New York on September 8. There he of interest in the “attempt” on Sitting labored for a time as the feature of an In- Bull’s life on September 4, was simply dian show at the Eden Musee. The fol- that people were not paying much atten- lowing year he toured the United States tion to it and few, if any, reporters were and Canada in Cody’s “Wild on hand. Just one story from the St. Paul West.” The theater bug seems to have bit- and Minneapolis daily press survives, ten. Whereas McLaughlin might have ex- and this one must be the source of the pected Sitting Bull’s growing celebrity Minnesota Book of Days account. A front and participation in the white man’s page headline (though in type smaller “Little Sure Shot,” Annie Oakley. Photograph economy to denature him as an indige- than most of the advertising banners on from the Annie Oakley Foundation Collec- nous leader, he was horrified to see the the page) of the St. Paul Daily Globe on tion, Greenville, Ohio. opposite take place: the celebrity/leader the morning of September 5 read: used his status to object all the more to the government’s heavy-handed policies. ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION The witness, remarkably versed in assas- In 1886 he refused to travel with Buffalo An Unknown Draws a British Bull-log sination lore, continued: Bill to England so that he could stay to Pistol On Sitting Bull “Without any warning the man in gray fight the government’s efforts to break up took a short nickle[sic]-plated revolver the Standing Rock reservation. He partic- The text of the story proceeded breath- from his pocket and without raising it, ularly opposed a new treaty proposal that lessly: “Sitting Bull came near following leveled it at the body of Sitting Bull, so would have permitted Lakotas to take in- in the footsteps of the lamented martyr, that, had it discharged the chief would dividual allotments of land and sell the , who was assassinated have been shot in about the same portion rest of the reserve. During this period Sit- in a theater. Sitting Bull and his party of of the back where Garfield was hit. The ting Bull began to consider Agent wild Indians went to the Grand Opera reflection of the electric light along the McLaughlin hostile. house and greatly enjoyed seeing Mr. barrel attracted my attention and my fa- Relations between McLaughlin and Louis Aldrich and his company act in the ther’s simultaneously. We were very Sitting Bull worsened a few years later play entitled “My Partner.” When the In- much surprised and expected to hear the when the came to Sitting dians were leaving the theater in single gun go off and see Sitting Bull fall dead Bull’s village in the summer of 1890 and file, and while the great Sioux leader was in the foyer. people began performing ceremonies as- still in the foyer, an attempt was made to “But he did not. Instead, the man’s sociated with it. McLaughlin urged him take his life.” brown-clad companion grabbed the gun, to stop the Ghost Dance, but Sitting Bull The Globe reporter had found a wit- saying ‘Don’t make a fool of yourself.’ declined. He wrote, “You should say ness to the event who described it in de- ‘Give me the gun and let me shoot the nothing against our religion for we said tail. W.R. Fish and his father had fol- son of a bitch,’ replied the first man, nothing against yours. You pray to God. lowed Sitting Bull out of the theater and ‘Damn him, I’ll shoot him!’ The Indians So do all of us Indians.” He added that were behind him when they noticed two left the building, got into a horse-drawn he knew McLaughlin now hated him for men beside them. One wore gray clothes omnibus, and left. The two men appeared his supposed obstruction of civilization: and a black, soft-brimmed hat; his most to follow on foot.” “You don’t like me because you think I memorable feature was a “thin Roman The Globe reporter proceeded to the am a fool, and you imagine that if I were nose which was more hooked than that of Merchants Hotel and asked to interview not here all the Indians would become John Wilkes Booth.” His companion Sitting Bull. Alvaren Allen shooed him civilized, and that because I am here all wore brown and had a brown mustache. away, saying, “That’s just what I will not the Indians are fools.”

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him to abandon traditional ways and per- suade his people to do the same. At the end, however, he was forced by events to admit that Sitting Bull remained, as he put it, “an unreconstructed Indian.” For his own part, while Sitting Bull consistently gave polite and diplomatic praise to what he was shown during his St. Paul visits, he kept some of his private assessments to himself. He did not see the taking on of a white education or other benefits as meaning that he must abandon his religious and cultural be- liefs. In fact, he had not been impressed with everything he saw in his travels. He particularly had noted that there were many poor people among the whites. How would the government feed his peo- ple if they would not feed their own? In 1888 he told a missionary, “The white people are wicked and I don’t want my women to become as the white women I have seen. I want you to teach my people to read and write, but they must not be- come white people in their ways; it is too bad a life. I could not let them do it. I would rather die an Indian than live a white man.”

Mark Diedrich is a frequent contributor to Ramsey County History. His account of the life of the Dakota leader Cloud Man also appeared in a recent issue. Sources Paul D. Nelson adapted this article from Mark Diedrich’s longer manuscript. Roger Buffalohead, a member of the Gibbs Farm Museum Native American The Grand Opera House, the scene of the supposed attempt on Sitting Bull’s life. Photo from Advisory Board also reviewed it for pub- the Northwest Magazine, 1885, Minnesota Historical Society collections. lication. The facts of Sitting Bull’s visit, came mainly from accounts in the St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer Press, St. The government, fearing a Lakota up- [Sitting Bull] put a stop forever to the Paul Daily Dispatch, the St. Paul Daily rising, already had planned for Sitting domination of the ancient regime among Glove, Minneapolis Evening Journal, Bull to be taken out of the picture. the Sioux of the Standing Rock Reserva- Minneapolis Daily Tribune, and the St. McLaughlin sent Indian police to capture tion.” Paul Journal Press. Information came him at his home on the early morning of However gratified McLaughlin may also from the Major James McLaughlin December 15, 1890. The consequences have been to see the ancient regime end, Papers at the Minnesota History Society, of such an action were predictable. Dur- Sitting Bull’s death represented a per- and from Folwell’s , ing the arrest, Sitting Bull’s followers sonal failure. He had come to his position Robert Utley’s The Lance and the Shield: fired on the police; the police in response at Standing Rock boasting that he would The Life and Times of Sitting Bull, Shirl killed Sitting Bull and a son, Crowfoot. turn Sitting Bull into an “agency Indian.” Kasper’s Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull: After the great man’s death, McLaughlin In 1884 he had written that the trip to St. The Collected Speeches, compiled and wrote smugly, “ . . .[T]he shot that killed Paul would play a key part in persuading edited by Diedrich.

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“Little Sure Shot,” Annie Oakley. Photograph from the Annie Oakley Foundation Collection, Greenville, Ohio. See article beginning on page 4.

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