BLOOD BROTHERS

The Story of the Strange Friendship Between Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill. The Native American Sitting Bull achieved worldwide fame in 1876 when he defeated Lieutenant Colonel Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn. Sitting Bull was the leader of native Americans who felt their rights and their land were being eroded by the American military and were refusing to enter the reservations. As a result of Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa followers went into exile in Canada, where in spite of influential supporters the problems of subsistence drove him back over the American border in 1881. "Sitting Bull Surrenders!" screamed the headlines as he laid down his arms to Major Brotherton at Ford Buford, saying "I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle." Meanwhile the great American showman Buffalo Bill Cody had been touring his Wild West Show, and when Sitting Bull hit the headlines again for his encounter with the sharpshooter Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill started a long process of enlisting them both for his travelling show. Cody's father had achieved notoriety for his opposition to slavery in the state of Kansas, and Bill had grown up knowing how to defend himself with a gun, which he put to good use in his career as a travelling showman. The book flashes back to the earlier lives of both Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill before their four months together on the road in 1885. Sitting Bull returned to his home in the Standing Rock agency as a showbusiness celebrity as well as a Native American leader, and inevitably crowds of "palefaces" started to arrive, attracted by his charisma. The bohemian Catherine Weldon moved from Brooklyn to join his entourage, possibly replacing the missionary Mary Collins as his partner. Sitting Bull died resisting arrest over the Ghost Dance ceremonies, while Cody continued his show until his death in 1917. 286pp, photos.