Sitting Bull's Autograph, Beaded Bags, and Rosary

[Shotgun Steve]

Never-before-seen rosary belonging to Sitting Bull collected by Lt. Elmer Curtis the night Sitting Bull was killed.

[kflach]

I'm curious as to why Sitting Bull would have a Rosary. I can imagine someone giving it to him as part of an attempt to convert him to Christianity, but I know people often don't keep things like that if they don't mean anything to them. Did he convert?

[Professor Marvel]

Thanks Steve, excellent stuff.

The Large bag appears to be a Pipe Bag, it loks like brain-tan and note that it has both beads done in the "lazy stitch" (classic northern plains geometric pattern) on the body and "wrapped quills" on the fringe. The smaller bag is a shoulder bag with beadwork done in a floral motif.

By the time of Sitting Bull's murder in 1890, the "reservation system" had been in place for several years and with it came the missionaries intent on saving souls. According to my Hunka relatives, the tribal elders quietly met and discussed the new "god men" who were arriving on what was left of their lands. According to what I have been told, the Elders felt sorry for the Christian Missionaries whose new churches were empty. Since the missionaries did not try to force them to give up Channupa Olowan , and the teachings were acceptable the Elders decided amongst themselves who would "adopt" which church so that the churches would not be empty and the missionaries would not feel so bad. Mostly they went to the nearest, or most convenient mission. As a result Sitting Bull "became" a catholic as did Black Elk and the Standing Bear family. It was not until later that they were to find that the missionaries were instrumental in the "Indian Reconstruction" .

Today many of the reservation churches, such as the Saint Francis Mission in Rosebud  play an important role in the support of the local communities and the preservation of Native American languages and cultures. In fact Fr Buechel of the St Francis Mission was instrumental in authoring a quintiscential Lahkota-English dictionary which is still in use teaching the Lahkota language to the children.

Thus while I cannot verify the provenance of that rosary, Sitting Bull "would have" had one.

yhs
prof marvel

[Dr. Bob]

SS & PM,

Thanks for the opportunity to increase my knowledge!  Great stuff!!

[O.T. Buchannan]

Thanks for the info....I also wondered about that rosary.....

[kflach]

In all the missionary stories I've heard, I don't think I've ever heard of churches being filled because of compassion towards the missionaries by the local people. That's very cool and reflects well on them. Thanks for that info.