The Taking

In the immediate aftermath of Sitting Bull’s death, his body was at the center of conflicting claims and conflicting currents of authority.

The reservation agency had ordered his arrest.

The military had been involved in the events surrounding the Ghost Dance.

Journalists, curiosity-seekers, and a wider American public were intensely interested in anything connected to one of the most famous — and in much of the non-Native world, most feared and despised — figures of the Indian Wars era.

Under these circumstances, items were taken from Sitting Bull’s body and from his immediate surroundings by people acting without the consent of his family or his community and without any legitimate authority over his possessions or his remains.