Friday, July 2, 2010

Sitting Bull

Three days ago we went to see Sitting Bull's burial site. It's south of Bismarck N.D. on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation.
I have always been a huge fan of Sitting Bull. Huge. He was a brilliant man, an uneducated "savage", who could out do the best U S Army Generals that Washington set against him both in battle and negotiation.
His burial site is about 20 yards off a two lane road leading into the town of Fort Yates. A gravel parking lot could hold six cars or so. When we arrived a group of trustees from the local jail were using weedeaters around the small lot.
Sitting Bull's marker is a boulder around 4 feet tall with a metal plate telling the dates of his birth and death and a few facts about his life. Two nearby signs add to the information. No other graves are there.
I'm not sure what I expected, but it wasn't this. Sitting Bull deserved more than a lonely marker in a dirt lot surrounded by dusty weeds, and it saddened me.

No comments:

Post a Comment