Cowan's Corner

Sitting Bull Still a Celebrity in World of Collectibles

By Wes Cowan
and Joe Moran

Sitting Bull (1831-1890), the Hunkpapa Lakota chief, lived up to his childhood name by resisting General George Armstrong Custer and the U.S. Army's drive to push them out of the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. In 1873, when confirmation came from Custer that there was gold in the Paha Sapa, the Lakota name for the Black Hills, gold seekers rushed in, violating the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. The Sioux retaliated by attacking them, and by 1875, the government was forced into action.

The next summer, Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse were the victors in the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. After the battle, Sitting Bull and his band fled to Canada for several years beyond the reach of the U.S. Army. Although ultimately surrendering to U.S. authorities to reside on the Standing Rock Reservation in what is now North Dakota, Sitting Bull remained a defiant symbol of the Indian Wars.

Sitting Bull was also a wily self-promoter who recognized his value as a symbol of Indian-white relationships. In 1885, he toured with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and was known to sell his penciled autograph.

When the Ghost Dance-a messianic religious cult promising the deliverance of the Indians-swept the western reservations in 1890, Sitting Bull and his band became ardent followers. In December of that year, he was killed at his home near Grand River, Dakota Territory, during a skirmish with Indian police who had come to arrest him.

In recent years, a pipe belonging to Sitting Bull sold privately for a reported six figures, and in November 2005, Cowan's Auctions sold a well-documented Whitney revolver once owned by Sitting Bull for $118,000. The provenance of the gun goes back to 1920 when No Two Horns, a cousin of Sitting Bull presented the gun to Colonel A.B. Welch of Mandan, N.D. No Two Horns was a Hunkpapa Lakota warrior and chief who fought against Custer at the Little Big Horn.

The revolver is housed in a fringed leather scabbard with the inscribed scratched notation, "Sitting Bull Die 1890." Its wooden handle is also scratched with the same notation. No Two Horns and his family noted that they had seen Sitting Bull shoot at larks many times with the revolver.

Because of his notoriety, just about anything that relates to the Hunkpapa chief is collectible. He was photographed many times, and his images command high prices. Likewise, his autographs are highly sought after.

Wes Cowan is founder and owner of Cowan's Auctions, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio. An internationally recognized expert in historic Americana, Wes stars in the PBS television series History Detectives and is a featured appraiser on Antiques Roadshow. He can be reached via email at info@historicmericana.com. Article research by Joe Moran.

Large D.F. Barry photograph of Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill fetched $2,900 in June 2005.

Sitting Bull cabinet card
by D.F. Barry

A well-documented Whitney revolver once owned by Sitting Bull sold for a record-selling $118,000.

This Sitting Bull autograph was recently sold for $2,185.