Page 24 THE VILLADOM TIMES I • December 1, 2010 became successful farmers. (Twiss was so disgusted that he formalized his marriage to a Lakota woman and now has about 400 descendants on Pine Ridge, all of whom will tell you Twiss was second in his class at West Point and Custer was dead last.) In 1868, after a bloody defeat in Red Cloud’s War, Congress gave the Sioux reservations that the United States was sworn to protect. That treaty lasted about five years, until the government got tired of it. On the Yellowstone in 1873, Sitting Bull and the Lakota, who were protecting their hunting grounds, fought Custer, who was protecting the stock he owned in the Northern Pacific Railroad. The battle was a draw, but the railroad collapsed due to the Depression of 1873, Custer lost money, and the Lakota got to keep their hunting grounds for a few more years. Sitting Bull didn’t care whom he offended. He once sent a Lakota woman out to rail at a bunch of peace commissioners, and pardon him for not being PC, but having a woman dis you in public was the ultimate insult in his culture. He made a speech at another summit meeting, where what he said was: “I hate all you Americans. You are all thieves and liars. You have stolen everything we had and left us beggars. We spit on you.” The Indian who was interpreting somehow translated this as: “Come my brothers, let us have peace. Let us see what kind of a world we can make for our children.” Something got lost in translation. Sitting Bull was astounded when he got a huge round of applause, so much that he was taken on a regular speaking tour. Then he ran into Buffalo Bill Cody, who sensed his ability to draw a crowd and took him on into Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show. Sitting Bull learned to write his signature – augmented with a sketch of a squatting bison for people who couldn’t read cursive – and he made a lot of money selling autographs. Ragged white children sensed a soft touch and used to cluster around him when he spent his money buying hot dogs, peanuts, and popcorn for his entourage of laughing children, who acknowledged him as their chieftain while he slipped them snacks. Handing out autographs, he would say “Sitting Bull – you bet!” and slip the money to the white urchins. He was a great friend of Annie Oakley, the petite sharpshooter who grew up deathly poor and was American’s sweetheart in the days before movies. He found Cody tolerable, but thought he drank too much. Some of the Lakota voyaged to England and met Queen Victoria, the Kaiser, and the Pope, all of whom they liked a great deal. They found the costumes of the Swiss Guards hilarious. When the word got back to Sitting Bull, he sent a prime buffalo robe and a friendly letter to the Pope. Sitting Bull already knew some French that he had learned from fur trader, and he now had a traveling artist named Rudolph Cronau swap lessons with him: Lakota for German. Sitting Bull didn’t hate whites. He hated the United States. He refused to speak English because he said it was snake talk: a language for liars. In 1887, Sitting Bull led the opposition to signing away a large portion of the land left over from the Sioux Treaty of 1868, which had never been legally abrogated. When the self-styled “friends of the Indian” presented their petitions to Grover Cleveland, the Beast of Buffalo told them they didn’t have enough signatures and told them to get out of his office. Grover Cleveland refused to annex Hawaii under similar circumstances. The next president was more pliable. The Sioux lost another huge swath of land and their parched reservation leftovers were broken up into 160-acre tracts too small for grazing and too dry for farming without expensive irrigation. Finally, the Indians all over the West began trance-dancing to see their lost loved ones. One of their terrified Indian Agents, a failed physician and newsman, saw this as threatening and called for troops. Half the U.S. Army converged on the Sioux reservations. Sitting Bull was not a believer in the Ghost Dance, but his Indian Agent – a rival for the respect of the people on the reservation – ordered his arrest. Sitting Bull was either deliberately murdered or killed in the scuffle by Indians in government pay, which was the customary death for leaders of the Indian resistance. Of all the great Indian leaders, only Tecumseh was killed by whites. Murder by proxy is murder all the same. Was Sitting Bull a real American? Of the 268 soldiers killed at the Little Bighorn, 106 were born in Ireland and 100 were born in Germany, with others born in Britain, Canada, and Denmark. Where was Sitting Bull born? America. Was Sitting Bull a hero? You bet. He lived for his people and died violently because he wouldn’t sell out. Was Obama right to put him on the list? Yes. Was Fox News vicious – perhaps rabid – to take another nip at a man who inherited most of the economic mess we’re in from his Republican predecessor’s pointless war and the last Democratic president’s support of easy credit for unqualified borrowers and massive outsourcing? Half of the dislike for Obama seems racially motivated, which is unacceptable to decent people, and the other half seems to focus on the fact that he can’t fulfill the expectations of people who expect him to bring back the Cold War economy without the threat of nuclear destruction. Don’t let the Fox bite Obama -- and remember that Sitting Bull was a real American. The rest of us are still working on it. I recently saved a small part of America from a fox. The beast was roaming around an occupied area and I made such a nuisance of myself trying to take its photograph that it voluntarily moved to a different town. Don’t harm this fox; it may yet achieve mascot status if it doesn’t get hit by the increasingly rude drivers. Personally I’d rather have more foxes and fewer taxes. Now it’s time to save American from the fox that took a nip at President Obama for mentioning Sitting Bull, a collateral friend of the family, along with such luminaries as George Washington and Helen Keller in his new children’s book, “Of Thee I Sing.” Obama tells us that Sitting Bull was a medicine man who healed “broken hearts and broken promises” but that he is “most famous for his stunning victory in 1876 over Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer in the Battle of the Little Bighorn.” Fox News struck back: “Obama Praises Indian Chief Who Killed U.S. General.” Now for the facts: Sitting Bull didn’t kill George Armstrong Custer, who was, as Obama correctly said, a lieutenant colonel at the time of his death commanding five companies of the Seventh Cavalry. Sitting Bull didn’t even fight at the Little Bighorn – not because he was “too old,” as one historian said. Sitting Bull was 42 at the time of the Little Bighorn, living with his mother, four wives, and a bunch of his kids. He didn’t fight because he had just offered 100 pieces of flesh cut out of both arms at a sun dance ceremony and was probably still too feeble from loss of blood to be much good in a fight. Sitting Bull had struck 68 enemy Indians in battle, sometimes fatally, sometimes just for laughs, before the wars against the whites took off. He once offered a surrounded Crow warrior a shot at him with his own musket, took a hit in the foot, jumped off his horse, limped over to the defiant Crow and stabbed him to death. You would not have wanted to offend this man. Sitting Bull was no coward. He grew up in tough times, when the U.S. War Department had ordered the destruction of the Lakota, or Sioux. “We must proceed with vindictive earnestness to the utter extermination of the Sioux Nation: men, women, and children,” said General William Tecumseh Sherman. The much-maligned President Ulysses S. Grant would not go for it, and the Sioux got broken treaties and short rations instead of genocide. Only some of the men, women, and children were murdered. Most later died of complications of malnutrition or contagious diseases. One historian who deplored Fox News as inaccurate but saw Sitting Bull as overrated, claimed that Sitting Bull was an arch-conservative who was fighting for an outmoded way of life hunting buffalo and roaming the prairies. That’s dead wrong. Thomas Twiss, second in his class at West Point and the first agent to the Oglala Sioux, got the Sioux, the Cheyenne, and the Arapaho to accept designated reservations in 1860, before the bloodiest of the Plains Indian Wars had been fought. Congress couldn’t afford the annuities Twiss recommended until the Indians Sitting Bull and Obama attacked by vicious Fox Letters to the Editor Dear Editor: On Nov. 15, our community demonstrated its generosity and kindness at the fundraising dinner for Andrew Goodell. Andrew is a two-year-old Hawthorne resident who is battling neuroblastoma. His mother, Jackie Goodell, is a teacher at Midland Park High School. Jackie has taken a leave of absence to care for Andrew during this time. As one of the event organizers, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who made it possible to present the Goodell family with over $30,000 to assist with Andrew’s ongoing care. The owners and staff of Ethos Fitness Spa for Women in Midland Park truly embody the meaning of “generous.” Their efforts to raise funds for Andrew through their basket giveaway were above anyone’s expectations. Special thanks go to Patti McCarthy who worked tirelessly to make this event a success. The 30-plus local merchants and residents who donated their merchandise toward the giveaway should also be commended for their generosity. I would like to thank these business owners for demonstrating that their commitment to their community lies beyond their own bottom line. I hope that you will join me in thanking them by patronizing them and showing your commitment to our local business community. Aldo Cascio, owner of The Brick House in Wyckoff is also to be commended. He kindly donated the entire evening’s meal for the fundraising dinner. The food, as it always is at The Brick House, was outstanding. The kindness was equally fulfilling. The students of Midland Park public schools rallied around their teacher by participating in a variety of fundraisers. To see these students reaching out to their teacher Appreciates generous community in her time of need is heartwarming and leaves me confident that we will be in good hands when these future leaders take the reins of our society. I am also proud to be a part of the staff of the Midland Park schools, where people from all aspects of the district have proven themselves kind and supportive. As we move into the season of “giving thanks,” I wish to thank each and every person who took the time to send a card, make a donation, purchase a ticket, or say a prayer for Andrew and his family. I am proud to be a part of this community. Thank you for making this a special place to live and work. Brian Ersalesi, teacher Midland Park High School Dear Editor: On behalf of the Matthew Larson Foundation for Pediatric Brain Tumors, we would like to extend our gratitude to the community during this season of Thanksgiving. First, we would like to thank Lakeside Fitness Club for sponsoring a 5K and Fun Run at Oakland-McBride Corporate Park to benefit children with brain tumors. We are grateful for the support of Julie Costello, race coordinator and co-owner of Lakeside, for running a remarkable family event. We also appreciate the sponsors: Franklin Lakes Mayor’s Wellness Campaign, TD Bank, Benjamin Moore, and Access Self Storage. It was marvelous to witness the support of these companies and all of the families who came out to volunteer and/or run the race. Our foundation recently held the Fourth Annual NYC Dinner and Auction at Cipriani, Wall Street. It was a spectacular event thanks to all the enthusiastic volunteers who dedicated their time and talent: Kerry Holder, Linda (continued on page 22) Family gives thanks