Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People

by S. D. Nelson

Overview

An inspiring picture book biography of the Lakota/Sioux warrior and chief Sitting Bull, from award-winning author and illustrator S. D. Nelson

Sitting Bull (c. 1831–1890) was one of the greatest Lakota/Sioux warriors and chiefs who ever lived. He was eventually named war chief, leader of the entire Sioux nation—a title never before bestowed on anyone. As a leader, Sitting Bull resisted the United States government’s attempt to move the Lakota/Sioux to reservations for more than 25 years.

From Sitting Bull’s childhood—killing his first buffalo at age 10—to being named war chief, to leading his people against the US Army, and to his surrender, Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People brings the story of the great chief to light. Sitting Bull was instrumental in the war against the invasive wasichus (White Man) and was at the forefront of the combat, including the battles of Killdeer Mountain and Little Bighorn. He and Crazy Horse were the last Lakota/Sioux to surrender their people to the US government and resort to living on a reservation.

Award-winning author and member of the Standing Rock Sioux tribe S. D. Nelson intersperses archival images with his own artwork, inspired by the ledger-art drawings of the 19th-century Lakota. Through the art and riveting story, Nelson conveys how Sitting Bull clung to his belief that the Lakota were a free people meant to live, hunt, and die on the Great Plains.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419707315
Publisher:	Abrams Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	11/03/2015
Pages:	64
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Lexile:	860L (what's this?)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

S. D. Nelson, Maȟpíya Kiny’An (Flying Cloud), is a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe in the Dakotas and the author and illustrator of inspiring children’s books that celebrate Lakota and Indigenous cultures. Awards include an American Indian Library Association Honor Book, an ALA Robert F. Sibert Honor, and two Spur Awards from Western Writers of America. His original paintings are held in many national collections including the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, South Dakota State Historical Society, the Crazy Horse Memorial and State Historical Society of North Dakota. He lives in Cottonwood, Arizona.

Editorial Reviews

STARRED REVIEW
“Told through a calm but doomed first-person narrative, this enthralling biography recounts the life of the great chief and warrior Sitting Bull and the defeat of his fellow Sioux… Nelson draws upon the Ledger Book Art tradition developed by Plains Indians in the late-nineteenth century to illustrate key moments in Sitting Bull’s life. With an often shocking bluntness, heightened by a papery flatness, these colorful and dynamic drawings depict buffalo hunts, dances, and battles. A tragic true story told in powerfully subdued tones.”

Booklist

STARRED REVIEW
"The book is engagingly told in the first person, with Sitting Bull describing his childhood training to be a warrior and a hunter...The book is visually appealing, combining art inspired by ledger book art style (a note explains that American Indians incarcerated on military bases sometimes were given discarded books in which to draw) with period photographs and quotations, demonstrating the intersection of two cultures in a tangible manner... this portrait of a committed leader provides a unique perspective on the man and his time period."

School Library Journal

"Nelson...will leave readers with a rich picture of this noble figure's personal and cultural context. Solidly historical and far more heartfelt than those on the overcrowded shelf of assignment-fodder profiles."

Kirkus Reviews

STARRED REVIEW
“Told through a calm but doomed first-person narrative, this enthralling biography recounts the life of the great chief and warrior Sitting Bull and the defeat of his fellow Sioux… Nelson draws upon the Ledger Book Art tradition developed by Plains Indians in the late-nineteenth century to illustrate key moments in Sitting Bull’s life. With an often shocking bluntness, heightened by a papery flatness, these colorful and dynamic drawings depict buffalo hunts, dances, and battles. A tragic true story told in powerfully subdued tones.”

Booklist

2015-07-22
A reverent tribute to the great Hunkpapa chief and holy man, cast as a memoir with a rich array of new and contemporary illustrations. Nelson also pays tribute (as he has elsewhere) to ledger-book art, with scenes done in that simple style. Here they depict, along with mystical symbols and traditional hunts and battles, a steamboat, a busy city street, the slaughter of women and children at Killdeer Mountain, Custer's death (depicted as a suicide) at Little Big Horn, and Sitting Bull's murder by a Lakota police officer. Sitting Bull himself, aptly named for a buffalo that would never back down, retraces in dignified language his early years, long struggles with the "wasichus" over invasions and broken promises, and his end. His is a strong voice, whether scorning subservient "Hang-Around-the-Forts" or commending his great contemporaries—of Crazy Horse: "He fought like a thunderstorm. I liked that man." He closes with a stirring exhortation to "honor those traditions that still serve our people," to "Brave up!" and to "go forth with a good heart." The first-person narration makes this problematic as nonfiction, but the backmatter provides a wealth of information. Along with period photos distributed throughout and a detailed timeline of Lakota history up to Wounded Knee, Nelson's lengthy closing notes on Lakota practices and spiritual beliefs will leave readers with a rich picture of this noble figure's personal and cultural context. Solidly historical and far more heartfelt than those on the overcrowded shelf of assignment-fodder profiles. (endnotes, bibliography, index) (Historical fiction. 10-13)

Kirkus Reviews