Chiefs: Part 2 - Documentary

[Music] or away some of these people have bundle up you today I was really cold ah try that lowdown you from North Dakota came in a blizzard with the windchill the temperature is 40 below zero it is December the time for grim anniversaries they are famous as the sued once the glory of the Great Plains they call themselves Lakota the people they are descendants of those Lakota who fought with Sitting Bull at the Little Bighorn who fled after the battle many following him to exile in Canada the Lakota re-enacting a journey of flight recalling a time of despair remembering the killing of their chief and a massacre of their people in the aftermath of the Custer battle the long pursuit of Sitting Bull began in earnest the job of catching and killing the supreme chief of the Sioux was given to a friend of Custer's general Nelson miles miles demonized the Lakota leader but did not underestimate him Sitting Bull is the embodiment of everything hostile to civilization a perfect type of the savage Indian a natural-born leader of men cunning and courageous he always advocated war on the white race Sitting Bull and his band moved across the Dakota Hills unaware of their peril they thought there was nothing spectacular about the battle they had won Custer was no-one to them so the chief reacted to miles pursuit the surprise and annoyance but in a note still tried to keep it friendly I want to know what you are doing traveling on this roll you scare the Buffalo away I want to hunt on this place I want you to turn back from here if you don't I will fight you again your friend Sitting Bull the pursuit continued without let-up fleeing with hundreds of women and children it was hard for Sitting Bull to stand and give battle again the story of that flight is alive among descendants like Ron Matney no then the army pursued him right into the wintertime and they didn't have down clothing and pack boots like we did when we ride in the wintertime imagine how cold it was being chased bikes by the Calvary after they left here they tracked him down one by one [Music] through that terrible winter of 1876 the Lakota were hunted by the army feminine fear did their work finally at the end of the winter the Sioux began to give in Sitting Bull's war chief Crazy Horse became the first to choose surrender over starvation led by Crazy Horse a band of 889 Sioux came to Camp Robinson Nebraska where they gave up their freedom in May 1877 [Applause] as a result of the military occupation of the Indian country came the first dawn of peace [Music] within six months the man called the greatest of Sioux warriors was killed at the end of an army bayonet Sitting Bull and his people still face starvation and an enormous decision many urged him to surrender but he was resolute saying it was Liberty or death now that we are poor we are free no white man controls our footsteps if we must die we die defending our rights Sitting Bull had a plan they would make for Canada grandmother's land for its Queen Victoria in the war of 1812 their grandfather's had fought to defend it against an invading United States now they hope for refuge from persecution starvation and death in May of 1877 Sitting Bull's ban crossed the border called the medicine line because it was so powerful and came to the Cypress Hills of Saskatchewan camping here at Pinto horse Butte yeah there's no wind down here you think this would be a good place for it he can't yeah for the less rich cousins it was not that long ago their grandmother was a young girl when she arrived here with Sitting Bull she found it a good place to camp yeah because it's open to the south you could see quite a ways there and then of course they had scouts out everywhere so they'll get plenty of warning if there's any American troops coming the Buffalo was planning more here at that time so they was lots of food here for that for that many to live it takes lots of food to beat that many people just think of a family reunion well not much it takes Sitting Bull and his followers were apprehensive they knew the Americans wanted them dead or in prison camp they knew Canada's white government was a friend of the white government of America so they expected the worst nothing prepared them for what happened next word that Sitting Bull crossed the border had alarmed Canadian authorities reinforcements arms and artillery were mobilized the government prepared for an Indian war they didn't want [Music] that spring Canada was scarcely ten years old the government couldn't afford an army to rule the prairies instead they tried to keep the peace with small patrols of a newly formed Northwest Mounted Police a loader to Sitting Bull's presence in the territory an unusual mount he wrote for the camp of the supreme chief of the Sioux he left the big guns behind the details of this dramatic encounter had been pursued for years by Lucretia Grendel a writer who is a descendant of the first Redcoat to approach the camp of Sitting Bull well the man in the red coat I discovered was my great-great uncle and his his name was James Walsh he was I also discovered the son of a distiller from Dublin he was one of six brothers and he was I don't want to say he wasn't a gentleman but he but he was not he was not sort of the of the Anglo aristocracy at all he was a very romantic figure he was tough he was funny he was very very Irish Welsh kept a careful journal the entry for May 1877 recorded the consternation as he and his patrol descended into the middle of Sitting Bull's camp [Music] when Walsh arrived Sitting Bull wasn't there my name is Major James Mauro Walsh of the Northwest Mounted Police I wish to speak with Sitting Bull never Walsh was informed had white men ever approached this close and lived to tell about it he was told it would be much safer if he left immediately [Music] sittin bull' later confessed he was astounded by Walsh's bravado he crossed the big encampment to find the Mountie had tethered his horses planted his flag set up his army tent and was inside brewing of tea when he arrived yesterday I was fleeing the white man cursing his every move today he plants his large next to mine and defies me have I fallen is my power at an end my heart is pale that how my people were persecuted by the Americans I have come to the white mother country to ask her to have pity on me and to let me sleep sound for his part Wallis was clear and direct about the queen in her laws sue are now on the land of the great white mother she will tolerate no horse stealing no murder and no raids on the United States you are prepared to obey these Canadian laws the police will protect you if you are not prepared you can expect to be jailed or forced to leave the country what had a a perfect sense of how to play this Sitting Bull was an incredibly sophisticated man and I think it he realized that this was someone he could actually talk to they didn't try to terrorize him they didn't try to con him they didn't lie to him they simply told him or Walsh simply told him what the deal was if he wanted to stay in Canada [Music] over the next few months there was the start of a friendship between Sitting Bull and major Walsh walls began to be welcomed and Sitting Bull's home from the start the chief was forthcoming about many things but he was always careful when he spoke of the Little Bighorn I feel sorry that too many got killed on both sides but when Indians must fight they must fight that battle hung over the Sioux like a bad dream after they had that battle a Little Bighorn they could have surprised themselves at the wiped out the whole troop they didn't feel that about it they were scared to talk about it only one of the Lethbridge cousins was ever able to get their grandmother to speak of it even safe in Canada it was the vivid impressions of a little girl at the 7th Cavalry appeared on the range the soldiers came on the hill and their outfits are sparkling whatever space sabers and saddles and spurs it was all sparkling and all the women and children they ran away into the bush she said it was a terrible terrible fight yeah there's a couple of not very nice story she told me that some of the warriors cut kaverman cavalryman's throats and she said it was all brown inside the throat from smoking that's what she told me and of course they took their cavalry horses in the summer of 1877 in Saskatchewan the emotions of the Little Bighorn were fresh 60 miles away US forces under the command of Nelson miles were chomping at the bit ready to ignore the border and take on Sitting Bull and Walsh was incredibly affronted by that of course because they embodied the Mounties and bloodied not just the law but the serenity of this new nation which Canada was and he was enormous ly proud of that in Canada's capital the presence of Sitting Bull touched off a diplomatic crisis Ottawa received demands from Washington that the Sioux be driven back across the border into the hands of the cavalry or make them Canadian Indians and guarantee that none would ever return Prime Minister John a McDonald was also hearing from Britain which still handled young Canada's foreign affairs it's pretty clear that Ottawa just wanted the Sioux out of Canada the and the Americans were making a lot of trouble over this they were leaning on Britain about it Britain in turn was leaning on Ottawa about it across the border there was a new Indian War a band of Nez Perce Indians refused to be forced onto a reservation were making a run for Canada led by Chief Joseph they defeated several US Army forces attempting to stop their flight but just 40 miles short of the Canadian border they were ambushed by General Nelson miles who turn to overwhelming firepower on men women and children the Nez Perce were forced to surrender but a remnant of the band escaped the Bluecoats and were given refuge in Canada by the Mounties for the first time while saw American Indian policy up close several little boys and girls had their arms and legs broken by bullets one was on a horse wrapped in her shawl with its mother as the horse moved had left the trail of drops of blood and in that moment Walsh begins to change he begins to question from that time the Mountie approached the official approach to the Indians that's when he really decides that they are these people have to be protected [Music] at his post in the Cypress Hills Walsh wrote long reports deflecting the pressure from Ottawa and discounting rumor that the Mounties might join a u.s. operation to evict Sitting Bull from Canada we should have no understanding with the United States we have no interests in common with them the Army on the frontier and their contractors and speculators have no other reliance but an Indian war on such a war they constantly depend to build their reputations and fortunes in October 1877 Washington dispatched a high-level delegation to Canada to persuade the chief to surrender the American delegation was headed by General Alfred Terry it was not a diplomatic choice he had been Custer's commander sitting Bull was in mourning his nine-year-old son had just died but out of friendship with walls he reluctantly agreed to meet his enemies a newspaper artists and reporters were present to record the historic confrontation it unfolded at 3 p.m. on October 17th in the largest room of Fort Walsh the mess hall Sitting Bull made a point of greeting all the Canadians and snubbing General Terry he sought to impose his will on the encounter from the start it is the habit of the whites to sit on chairs we cannot see them behind the table I have come in peace and harmony from the President of the United States at the request of the Dominion of Canada the president invites you to come to the boundary of this country and give up your arms and ammunition and go to the agencies assigned to you and give up your ponies except those required for peaceful purposes in return cows will be bought for you the president has also instructed us to say that if you return to your country and refrain from further hostilities a full pardon will be granted to you and your people for all acts committed in the past what is past shall be forgotten it is time for bloodshed to cease one of the reporters present noted that the Indians continued to smoke smoke smoke they smoked he wrote until the room reaped for sixty four years you have kept and fitted my people badly we could go nowhere so we took refuge here no one gave you our country you took it from us you see how we live with these people I shake hands with these people you think me a fool you come here to tell us stories when you go home take your lies with you we do not want to hear them I will say no more are we to say to the president that you all refused the offers made to you I have told you all I will tell this part of the country does not belong to you all on this side of the medicine line belongs to these people afterwards one of Sitting Bull's band drew a pictograph represented the encounter with the general they called one star the Lakota were convinced they had humiliated him so great was his loss of face Terry was depicted in the act of shooting himself beside an open grave but from the American point of view they were just going through the motions they had a plan to deal with Sitting Bull with the complicity of the Canadian government they would starve him out of Canada on the Canadian Prairie beyond politics a remarkable relationship was deepening between the Supreme chief of the Sioux in a Canadian Mountie from another tribe of underdogs the Irish walls these men were great friends this was much more than some sort of authority thing and they did work out a way to sort of govern together for a very difficult time in the villages but it was much more than that and when Walsh would go on patrol sometimes Sitting Bull would come with him there's one incident of the two of them taking off and riding 50 miles together so there's a sense that they were pals [Music] even more legend hazard walls had a discreet romance with a woman from Sitting Bull's big family this story has been around for a long time and we don't know who she was I think there is reason to believe that she was closely connected to the Sitting Bull family Walsh had really a very unhappy marriage and I think again with Sue he was we all have moments in our life when we feel were sort of as much as we can be worth the epitome of our being and I think that that's what Walsh found in those four or five years at Wood Mountain they were the happiest years of his life and I think some of that was because he literally found a sense of family with them even as he grew closer to Sitting Bull Walsh had a sense of foreboding confided another Mountie later we knew what the Americans were doing to the Buffalo on the Great Plains a great crime was in the making the unrestricted slaughter of the Buffalo continued without let-up to ensure none of the dwindling herds reached Canada and Sitting Bull's band general Miles cavalry patrol the border scaring off the Buffalo with huge grass fires this forced the Sitting Bull band to take chances once they crossed over in her grandmother's lament then the leastwise they could be safe from well from pursuit but they still had to find food which was a hard thing to do sometimes they cross back over into a state side to to chase Buffalo and when they did then they would be harassed by the army [Music] on one Buffalo chaise Sitting Bull was confronted by the army and a crow warrior anxious to settle old scores Sitting Bull agreed to a duel with rifles still in fighting form at 48 Sitting Bull blew the top off the crow warriors head with general miles in the army watching Sitting Bull's seize what remained of his scalp and took the crows horse as a prize of war but one act of bravado could not save Sitting Bull's band in Canada Sitting Bull's hungry people were now deserting in droves but the chief still wanted Canada I'm looking to the north for my life and I hope the grandmother country will not ask me to look at the country I left the Buffalo are going and will not return I am until I die a hunter when there are no Buffalo I will send my children out to hunt and feed on prairie mice the American agency Indians don't have all the freedom they want but they're well cared for just think of being assured food and clothing for you and your children you have been advising us for months to take our living from the ground will you tell me where I will find this ground in Canada there will be no land but the Sioux are American Indians he felt that the Mounties and the Canadian nation had betrayed the Sioux that was terrible for him because he was caught between loyalty to this country that he loved and was incredibly proud of also as a son of immigrants and what he felt to be right which was was not to send Sitting Bull back to the United States [Music] Sitting Bull's people were being left to starve by the Canadian government those were Walsh's orders the mount he and his men couldn't stand it defying Ottawa they pooled their savings and bought wagonloads of supplies to feed the Sioux but this couldn't go on Walsh made a crucial decision Sitting Bull would have to go back to the US but he would campaign to save his life he cared more about this than he did about his own career and he was going to do whatever he felt that he could do to try to guarantee Sitting Bull's safety in the United States Sitting Bull believed he would be murdered as Crazy Horse had been if he returned to the United States and I think Walsh believed that - Walsh appealed directly to the prime minister asking to be appointed an official emissary to the American government to save Sitting Bull he is the shrewdest most intelligent - Indian living has the ambition of Napoleon and his brave to a fault he's respected as well as feared by every Indian on the plains in war he has no equal and counsel he's superior to all every word he says carries weight is quoted and passed from Camp to camp Walsh's appeal backfires the government decides that to get rid of Sitting Bull they must first get rid of Walsh Her Majesty's Government orders Walsh back to Ontario it is a cool moment Walsh simply could not bring himself to leave he lingered for a month and there are endless stories of Sitting Bull and Walsh walking off onto the Prairie riding out into grasslands trying to somehow make this okay when both of them knew that it was not going to be okay when wolf did eventually leave all the Sioux lined up to say goodbye to him and Sitting Bull is the last person who comes forward and he almost can't manage to do this it's a very painful moment and he has with him the war bonnet that his father gave him that has its long trails of eagle feathers and says to Walsh take this my friend every feather here stands for a deed done when the Sioux were brave in war but I have no need for it anymore and that's his parting gift to Walsh walsh was gone and so were the buffalo Sitting Bull had nothing to feed his band now no one could save them from starvation they have to eat the horses eat their dogs just to rough shape the people hold out as long as they can but finally Sitting Bull relents tell the Americans they will see me soon I've given my word in my body to the Queen and will do as I'm told I'm an earnest I'm going in Sitting Bull and his band took the long road home some so weak from hunger they were carried in covered wagons of Sitting Bull's Legion less than 200 were now left at 11 a.m. on the 20th of July 1881 Sitting Bull accompanied by his son crowfoot entered the office of the Post Commander for Buford Montana I surrender this rifle to you through my youngest son I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my people to surrender my rifle this boy has given it to you you know wants to know how he is to make a living sitting Bull was separated from his family and made a prisoner-of-war years later when the government no longer saw him as a threat the chief became a celebrity traveling with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show he gave away most of his earnings to homeless children he never forgot Walsh when the Buffalo built or arrived in Montreal crossing the st. Lawrence on a riverboat the chief learned that by coincidence whilst his young daughter Cora was aboard Sitting Bull asked to meet her he comes forward and takes both of her hands in his and looks at her and says your father was my brother and my friend and you are my daughter Sitting Bull was ordered back to the reservation the authorities deciding he was becoming too famous warrior have been now it is all over hard time I have at home he found himself fighting new government schemes to swindle more Indian land in 1890 starvation came again as the government cut rations and banned Indians from hunting out of hunger and despair was born a new religion the Ghost Dance it promised to awaken dead ancestors who would help them take revenge against their white overlords not by force of arms but through strong magic the Ghost Dance movement flustered the US authorities the Army in general miles feared an uprising in Indian country it was a threatened uprising of colossal proportions and only the prompt action of the military prevented its execution I concluded that if the so-called Messiah was to appear in that country Sitting Bull had better well be out of it and I considered it of the first importance to secure his arrest and removal from that country the mission of removing Sitting Bull dead or alive was given to the government's Indian police force many of them former comrades would be interned against the chief dan thought they had the ability to talk to talk to birds and birds told him their own will kill you your own meaning other local to us other Indians will kill you great grandson run McNeil his son Ronald and daughter we Hika returned to the remote spot where Sitting Bull's cabin stood at dawn on December 15 1890 there's other things that don't tell you in the books like Indian police before they left 48 on their ride down here or even alcohol they were drinking that night that was one of the ways they made that one of the ways that gave him false courage to go get their chief somebody who they were really afraid of so being liquored up you get a false sense of courage and they came [Music] oh brother come for you [Music] goodbye myself let me go at first he did it is this he wanted he was gonna go willingly and they believed it was his son COFA who yelled at his father I thought you were the mighty chief was a brave warrior and look at you you're letting them go take you and so he paused I'm not going about that time a guy named catch the bear was actually one of his bodyguards came around because Winchester rifle and shot warhead bullhead was falling they say that he turned his gun shot Sitting Bull this way said tomahawk he just fired off a round in the back of his head sitting Bull was killed but revenge in Custer had just begun so hey see crowfoot took refuge in the cabin he was buried underneath some some blankets they pulled him out and he's and he said to them my uncle's my uncle's don't kill me pushed him off the door [Music] [Music] [Music] but you think about it son you need to remember the stories to see that when you have kids you can tell them stories remind him of where they come from who wished their grandfather after the killing the Sioux fled fearing they would be killed too every December their descendants reenact that journey to Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota the riders that day expected an attack so some had guns under their blankets but nothing to match the military mobilizing just over the hill was the seventh Cavalry Custer's old outfit Sam Hall the Calvary pupil they came down and I heard from what I heard there was a lot of celebration victory there was a lot of old old memories from Custer's battlefield somebody's Calvary were drinking booze and they were getting their selves warmed up for the next they're never gonna seek revenge the cavalry surrounded the Sioux and demanded they disarm they set a for rapid fire Hotchkiss cannon with exploding shells the newest weapon in the u.s. arsenal no one is sure who fired the first shot but within seconds the guns opened up [Music] the result was a massacre strewn across the hillside were the bodies of 300 Lakota mostly women and children [Music] mounted soldiers had shot women down as they ran some with babies strapped to their backs on New Year's Day 1891 the soldiers dumped the bodies of the Indian people into a pit in pose for a photograph 31 soldiers also died many from friendly fire [Music] the massacre was called a battle 18 soldiers from the seventh cavalry were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their conduct at Wounded Knee the most for any single action in the history of the US Army in the United States there was satisfaction that Custer had been revenged but some were dismayed at the massacre and the killing of Sitting Bull [Music] in Canada James Walsh forced out of the Mounted Police was home when word arrived about his old friend I was glad to hear the bull was finally relieved of his miseries even if it took a bullet to do it men who wield such powers bull once did that of a king over a wild and spirited people cannot endure abject poverty and beggary without suffering great mental pain [Music] death is a relief Bulls confidence and belief in the Great Spirit were stronger than I ever saw in any other man he trusted to him implicitly [Music] history does not tell us that a greater Indian than Bull has ever lived [Music] he was the Muhammad of his people law and kingmaker of the Sioux [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Encore +

Views: 24,860

Rating: 4.8839049 out of 5

Keywords: CMF, Canada Media Fund, Encore, Mini-series, Television, Aboriginals, First Nations, Chiefs, August Schellenberg, Tyrone Tootoosis, Billy Merasty, Gabriel Arcand, 90s, nineties, 90s TV, 90s kid, nostalgia, Canadian TV, Canadian shows, Canadian film, Canadian television, Native, Native culture, first nations, first nations culture, Canadian history, first nations history, Chiefs: Part 2 (2003) | Full Documentary

Id: 7jSfDLh_2Xk

Length: 47min 3sec (2823 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 06 2017