Sitting Bull the progressive

‘Sitting Bull,’ by Bill YenneYenne’s study is most interesting when the author discusses the Lakota leader’s impressions of wasicu society during the time he spent traveling on lecture tours and as part of Bill Cody’s Wild West Show. Although his assessment of these years could benefit from a wider reading of more recent secondary sources, the insights he provides into Sitting Bull’s thoughts and ideas about urban settlement, technology and the character of 19th century white Americans are both fascinating and significant.

His book helps to dispel romantic, essentialist notions that have served to suspend Indians in time as hapless creatures of an archaic past. Through Yenne’s research, we learn that Sitting Bull was a progressive, practical thinker, interested in new technology and not opposed to the beneficial things Euro-Americans had to offer. Sitting Bull summed up his thoughts on the matter this way: “When you find anything good in the white man’s road, pick it up; but when you find something bad … leave it alone.”