The Anti-Hero and American Culture

Was Sitting Bull an American hero?

"He was a medicine man who healed broken hearts and broken promises... though he was put in prison, his spirit soared free on the plains, and his wisdom touched the generations." - Barack Obama.

Quite a lot of people are disturbed and upset with President Obama's inclusion of Sitting Bull in his 'Hero's Hall of Fame.' Such individuals point out that he was little more than a terrorist. Whilst he did not actively participate in the attack on General Custer's 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876, he acted as a spiritual advisor to his warriors. However they fail to point out that an advance party of Custer's began the conflict with an attack on Cheyenne and Lakota tribes in that area. The Indian response was once of defense and protection of their people and land, rather than an attempt to annihilate the perceived enemy. 

"Hear me, people, we have now to deal with another race, small and feeble when our fathers first met them but now great and overbearing. Strangely enough they have a mind to till the soil and the love of possession is a disease with them. These people have made many rules that the rich may break but the poor may not. They take their tithes from the poor and weak to support the rich and those who rule... They claim this mother of ours, the earth, for their own and fence their neighbors away; they deface her with their buildings and their refuse. The nation is like a spring freshet that overruns its banks and destroys all that are in its path... We cannot dwell side by side... shall we submit or shall we say to them: 'First kill me before you take possession of my land” - Sitting Bull.

Sitting Bull's commentary on the state of his nation could well be read in a modern context. Materialism (many would argue) has become a greater force in society than charity. Everything is reduced to the desire for possessions. We exist in a society that is heavily taxed, the rich it seems get richer and the poor descend into even more profound destitution. There is great inequality in terms of education and health. We have to fight for everything and anything we can get. We are the anvil of a corrupt government that, more often looks after itself rather than caring for the people of the nation. We can never really 'own' the land on which we live, nor secede from the government. Through sovereignty the government possesses the land, the fact that we assume that we possess the land is a persistent illusion.

"Sitting Bull’s history has been written many times by newspaper men and army officers, but I find no account of him which is entirely correct. I met him personally in 1884, and since his death I have gone thoroughly into the details of his life with his relatives and contemporaries. He was gifted with the power of sarcasm, and few have used it more artfully than he. We say he is an untutored man: that is true so far as learning of a literary type is concerned; but he was not an untutored man when you view him from the standpoint of his nation. To be sure, he did not learn his lessons from books. This is second-hand information at best. All that he learned he verified for himself and put into daily practice. In personal appearance he was rather commonplace and made no immediate impression, but as he talked he seemed to take hold of his hearers more and more. He was bull-headed; quick to grasp a situation, and not readily induced to change his mind. He was not suspicious until he was forced to be so. All his meaner traits were inevitably developed by the events of his later career..." - Dr. Charles A. Eastman.

Sitting Bull was humble but sharp-witted and intelligent. True to the principles of the American dream he rose to the top of his society. The paradox is that he spoke against the very concepts and principles by which he is considered to be an American hero. In order to understand his form of heroism we must come to terms with ourselves, our own history and maybe even come to the conclusion that the way we see the world may not, in matter of fact, be the only or correct one. White, Anglo-Saxon society may owe more to it's capacity for conquest rather than for whatever merits it claims to possess. Ultimately we have still a lot to learn from cultures that were deemed in history to be inferior.

Thus, I extend my sincere gratitude to all warriors who courageously fought for their land and freedom against oppression and injustice. Your example has inspired me, knowing that oftentimes the greatest enemy are the ones who call themselves our leaders. Blessings on Veterans Day 2013. Sometimes we have to ask what it is that we are fighting for, who are the winners and losers... and most important to question the motives of the leaders who get us into the situation in the first place!

All Rights Reserved / Copyright David John Drew 2013