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A new exciting ethnological study on the most prominent Native American leader in the 19th century:
 

on

Book

Presentation

 
 

The loss of Sitting Bull’s ceremonial pipe and its rediscovery is a story equal to a scientific mystery case, an exciting detective account stuffed with lies and crime.

 

The story begins in the 19th century on the undulating, windswept Plains of the Standing Rock Reservation in North Dakota where Sitting Bull was killed by Indian police and to re-surface more than 100 years later in a photo studio for a forensic examination of a Lakota pipe from the Forrest Fenn collection.

The two authors, an ethnohistorian and a forensic anthropologist began a painstaking research on one of the most spectacular and tragic murder cases in American history – the violent death of the great political and spiritual Lakota leader, Sitting Bull. Inseparably linked with that incident is, psychologically and physically, one of his most prominent ceremonial possessions, his huge, elaborately manufactured pipe shown in several famous photos of this impressive chief.

The story of this pipe makes clear the dubious role of the Indian agent, James McLaughlin who obviously acted as a libelist of Sitting Bull. With false statements about the intentions and deeds of the chief, as the authors prove, he prepared Sitting Bull’s annihilation as in McLaughlin’s eyes the great Lakota was a dangerous hurdle to the execution of his reservation politics.
 

Among McLaughlin’s infamous lies was the claim, Sitting Bull had broken his ceremonial pipe to return on the warpath against the White Man.

 

The recent rediscovery of Sitting Bull’s pipe unmasks James McLaughlin’s statement as blunt intrigue to discredit the great chief and construct the basis for the raid of the Indian Police against his house.

 

This study on Sitting Bull’s pipe and its history presents new evidence, shows his murder under new aspects and illuminates the obscure circumstances of a political power play on the Standing Rock reservation between the traditional Lakota leaders and an Indian agent with a fanatic missionary zeal to extinguish old Native traditions during the turbulent situation of the Ghost Dance movement.

 

From the contents: Sitting Bull’s Pipe – Kate Bighead’s Account of the Little Big Horn Battle – Authentication of the Pipe – Sitting Bull Photo Gallery (rare and unknown images from the Buffalo Bill Historical Center’s archives and other collections). Index.

 

Format 10.5 x 8.5 Inches. 130 pp, ca 50 images, several in color. Hardbound.

 

ISBN 3-89510-111-7    Prospective price  43.00 US-$