Sitting Bull, holding calumet, photographed by Orlando Scott, 1881. Sitting Bull (1831 - December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to US government policies. Before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw the defeat of the 7th Cavalry under Custer on June 25, 1876. Months after their victory at the battle, Sitting Bull and his group left the US for the North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan), where he remained until 1881, at which time he and most of his band returned to US territory and surrendered to US forces. After working as a performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, he returned to the Standing Rock Agency in South Dakota. Because of fears that he would use his influence to support the Ghost Dance movement, Indian Service agent James McLaughlin at Fort Yates ordered his arrest. During an ensuing struggle between Sitting Bull's followers and the agency police, Sitting Bull was shot in the side and head by Standing Rock policemen Lieutenant Bull Head and Red Tomahawk. His body was taken to nearby Fort Yates for burial. In 1953, his Lakota family exhumed what were believed to be his remains, reburying them in Mobridge, South Dakota near his birthplace.