CHIEF SITTING BEAR

Chief Sitting Bear, also known as Katank, was a prestigious Kiowa warrior and medicine man. He was born about 1800, and killed on June 8, 1871, in Texas. 

By the 1830s Sitting Bear had established himself as an able warrior and became a member of the elite warrior society known as the Koitsenko (Ko-eet-senko). This group, comprising of about ten of the bravest warriors of the tribe, who had a reputation that was contingent upon warfare success.  Many Kiowa believed Sitting Bear possessed mysterious powers and shunned him.

Sitting Bear was well known for his combat skills against the Cheyenne, Pawnee, and other Kiowa enemies and gained notoriety for many battles against them, but as more white settlers moved on to the plains, Sitting Bear directed his attacks towards the settlements, wagon trains and occasionally army outposts.  It is reported that he was responsible for a raid on the Menard, Texas, settlement.

As the settlements grew, disease and intertribal warfare increased and the Kiowas began seeking accommodations from the white men.  In 1867 the Kiowas along with most of the southern plains Indian tribes agreed to sign the Medicine Lodge Treaty that required numerous tribes to relocate to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma.  Among those placing their mark upon this treaty was Sitting Bear and Satanta, another well-known Kiowa warrior Chief, of which both would grow restless and would later resume raids throughout settlements in North and West Texas. 

On May 18, 1870, Sitting Bear joined Satanta, Big Tree and other disgruntled Kiowa, Comanche and Apache warriors and attacked the Henry Warren wagon train killing and mutilated seven of its twelve members.  The five survivors made it to Fort Richardson, the northernmost army outpost in Texas, and reported their attack.  In response, General Sherman sent Col. Mackenzie and the Fourth United States Cavalry to search for the war party. 

Sherman failed to find the band of Indians but when he arrived at Fort Sill, Oklahoma (then known as Indian Territory), he discovered Sitting Bear, Satanta, and Big Tree already there seeking rations.  The General questioned them about the raids of which Satanta boasted that he was the leader and verified that Sitting Bear and Big Tree were a part of the war party.  Having verified their guilt, Sherman arrested them and made preparations for them to face trial. 

The three were shackled, handcuffed and thrown into a wagon to be transported to Fort Richardson.  Sitting Bear, having vowed to die before being dishonored, sat under the cover of a blanket singing the death song of the Koitsenko while he tore the flesh from his wrists so he could free himself from the handcuffs that held him.  Once free he managed to knock a guard from the wagon and grabbed his rifle.  As he fired upon the remaining guards he was in turn shot and mortally wounded.  Satanta and Big Tree helplessly watched as Sitting Bear was thrown from the wagon and left to die along the roadside. 

Because the Kiowas were fearful of reprisal by the army for Sitting Bear's attack his body lay unburied in the road, scalped by Tonkawa scouts.  For quite some time the Army assured the family they could safely claim the remains but no one would come forward to do so.  Eventually, his corpse was recovered by the army and buried at Chief's Knoll, Fort Sill, Oklahoma.

Satanta, who died by suicide in prison at Huntsville, Texas, is buried nearby. Other prominent chiefs of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Arapaho are also buried on or around the same knoll, such as Kicking Bird (Kiowa), Ten Bears (Comanche), Quanah Parker (Comanche), Yellow Bear (Arapaho) and Little Raven (Arapaho).

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