A Chronicle Of Lakota History
Chief Dull Knife
Like Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce, Chief Dull Knife is best known for an epic flight. In September 1878, he and another Cheyenne chief, Little Wolf, left their assigned quarters with the Southern Cheyenne in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and made a 1,500-mile flight northward, back to their homeland. The two chiefs eventually split up; Chief Dull Knife surrendered at Fort Robinson in the Dakotas and then broke out in January 1879 to avoid being sent back south. He almost died that winter, but before the year was out he would be given permission to live in Montana's Rosebud Valley (where he was born) and would rejoin Little Wolf. Learn more about Chief Little Wolf here. Battle At Wounded Knee
George Dull Knife later toured with Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West show in the United States and Europe. George's son Guy Dull Knife, born at Pine Ridge in 1899, also went to Europe, but to fight in World War I. Dull Knifes would also fight in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. Lakota artist Guy Dull Knife, Jr., who was the first in his family to be born in a hospital (1947), walked point in Vietnam. |
The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge: A Lakota Odyssey chronicles an American Indian family through a century, and in so doing, provides insight into Lakota (Sioux) history and culture. Chief Dull Knife, a Northern Cheyenne who was born about 1810 and died in 1883, is one of the better-known 19th-century Indians. Learn more about Chief Dull Knife here. Chief Little Wolf
George Dull Knife, son of Chief Dull Knife and the last of his family to be born in a tepee (1875), spent most of his life on the Pine Ridge Reservation (S.D.) of the Lakota. George Dull Knife was 15 in December 1890 when he heard gunfire to the west, but his mother would not let him leave home. A few days later, though, he rode out with a friend and saw the bodies of Chief Big Foot and his followers at Wounded Knee Creek.
Learn More About Wounded Knee here. Sign For Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show
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Joe Starita spent much of 2 ½ years talking with the Guy Dull Knifes, senior and junior, and their friends, and examining family and archival documents. The end result is a moving book in which Chief Dull Knife and his descendants all shine.