When he was a youngster, Sitting Bull was called “Jumping Badger,” and he was also known as “Tatanka Yotanka,” a name that reportedly means “Buffalo Bull Who Sits Down” or a bull sitting on its haunches.
All of these names belonged to one Native American man, who grew up in the Grand River Valley in what is now South Dakota, and who later in his adulthood became a distinguished Hunkpapa Sioux chief, perhaps one of the most prominent leaders among all Native American tribes of that period.
That he bore a warrior spirit and was a rebellious leader is unquestionable; it was something Sitting Bull demonstrated since his early days, when he accompanied the more senior tribesmen on their regular raids against age-old adversaries such as the Assiniboin peoples and the Crow tribe.
Later on, there were the other enemies, the White Men who gradually expanded their territories and in 1874 were claiming the Black Hills area in South Dakota.
This place was sacred for various Native American tribes, but a U.S. expedition under the watch of General George Armstrong Custer affirmed it contained plenty of gold ore, too.
