Sitting Bull & The Lakota

Sitting Bull

The Indian Wars in the United States had spurred the tribes to fight and to move. After the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull led the Lakota northward into Canada. They settled in the Wood Mountain area, also the site of one of Fort Walsh's outposts. Walsh met the Lakota when they entered Canada and began a relationship with Sitting Bull based on mutual trust and respect. It was this relationship of mutual respect that allowed Walsh and a handful of his men to ride unchallenged into the Lakota camp of 5000. Sitting Bull and his people remained in Canada from 1887 to 1881. During that time, Walsh was key in preventing bloodshed and border raids into the United States and in negotiating the eventual return of the Lakota to the US.

The arrival of the Lakota created tensions between Canadian, British and American governments. Walsh's friendship with Sitting Bull was seen by some government officials as an obstacle - why should the Lakota return to their own reserves when they were treated well in Canada? Walsh was transferred to Fort Qu'appelle in 1880. The Lakota, denied food by the Canadian government when the buffalo disappeared from the prairies, returned reluctantly to the United States.