Sitting Bull - On This Day in History

One of the legends that has persisted in the annals of Lake County history is that the Native American, Sitting Bull, was imprisoned at Fort Sheridan in the late 1800s.

The confusion probably arises from the fact that a group of Sioux warriors were escorted to Fort Sheridan in early 1891. However, Sitting Bull could not have been among those men, because he had been killed months earlier on December 15, 1890.

Sitting Bull (c. 1831 – 1890) was a Sioux holy man, notable in American history for his role in the victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn against Lt. Colonel George Custer and the U.S. 7th Cavalry on June 25, 1876.

In the 1880s, he toured briefly with “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show. Sitting Bull is shown at left in a studio portrait with Bill Cody.

Sitting Bull urged his people to accept no further compromise and relinquish no more land to the U.S. Government. He participated in the "Ghost Dance," a ceremonial movement with a messianic message. Because of his great influence, his involvement raised fears of an uprising. Federal agents ordered Sitting Bull arrested, and in a pre-dawn raid on 15 December 1890, more than three dozen tribal policemen backed by military escort were dispatched to his cabin. In the ensuing chaos Sitting Bull was shot and killed.

Two weeks later, the Indian Wars came to a tragic end at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. Big Foot, another Sioux leader, led his people to an area he thought safe. Federal troops caught up with him and opened fire massacring 370 Lakota.


Shortly thereafter, 19 Sioux warriors were escorted to Fort Sheridan. The idea was to show the warriors the newly constructed fort with all its buildings, soldiers, and weapons, to impress on them the might of the U.S. military. Pictured above are the Sioux who were brought to Fort Sheridan, as photographed by George E. Spencer.

Buffalo Bill Cody heard of their capture and asked the U.S. Government for permission to ask the men to join his Wild West Show. A letter dated March 1891, from General Miles states that Cody’s offer “would give them [Sioux] occupation for a year and a half without expense to the government; they would be away from the Sioux country during that time... [it] will educate them as to the extent, power and number of the white race.”

The Sioux warriors toured Europe with Cody, and returned to Illinois to perform at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893. Once no longer employed by Cody, the U.S. army allowed them to return to their homes.

Native American Collection

The museum has a significant Native American collection, most of which was collected or donated in the mid 1950s to mid 1960s.

One of the most beautiful and intriguing objects is a birchbark cradle, made about 1870. (BBDM 94.0.7)

In September, Curley Youpee of the Fort Peck Tribes of Montana made a consultation visit to the museum and examined the cradle.






Mr. Youpee noted the mix of Native American and European imagery on the cradle, created with hand-dyed porcupine quills on birchbark, and in the form of a traditional European rocking cradle. He felt the European rooster and chicken design, and Native American floral design represented the blending of the two cultures.

Photo by Mark Widhalm 2006 (left)






Another object carefully examined by Mr. Youpee was a sash.

The museum's files indicate the sash, still on its original loom, and shown here on its conservation mount, was collected at Bad River Reservation, WI in 1915. (BBDM 70.17.46)

The sash had been culturally identified as Chippewa, but Mr. Youpee advised that the leaf shooter design should be classified as Yankton Sioux.

Culturally identifying Native American objects can be difficult and often sources are contradictory.

This bandolier bag has been identified as Chippewa (Ojibwe) from about 1890, but due to the vivid red color used on the floral design, it has been speculated that the bag was made by Potawatomi.
(BBDM 70.16.23)




The bags, worn in pairs one over each shoulder, were adapted from the European style of ammunition belts, such as those worn by British Red Coats. Over time, these pouches evolved into purely decorative costume with the bags sewn shut.

Today, bandolier bags are worn as a symbol of prestige at pow-wows, or given as gifts.

Native Trail Trees

Trail tree photographed by historian Bess Bower Dunn 

on Waukegan Road west of North Chicago, circa 1910. Dunn Museum Collection. 

Indigenous people have populated this region for thousands of years. As recently as the early 1800s, Potawatomi, Chippewa and Ottawa peoples navigated a vast network of trails by marking those trails with road signs known as trail trees. Also, waterways such as Lake Michigan and the Des Plaines River were used as thoroughfares. 

Trail trees were used along Native American foot trails to direct travelers to neighboring villages, hunting grounds, and ceremonial grounds. The unusually shaped trees essentially “pointed” the direction the traveler needed to go. Typically, trail trees were oak or elm since they lived much longer than other types of trees.

Bess Bower Dunn (1877-1959) researched trail trees at the turn of the 20th century, writing: “[They] marked routes or trails… by taking a small sapling, bending it to the ground, fastening it, taking off the lower branches or twisting them around the trunk… so the forests of Lake County… became penetrated with a network of trails… marked by trees."

Trail tree in Warren Township west of U.S. Hwy 41 and south of Washington Street 

near Park City, circa 1935. Dunn Museum Collection

Dunn also noted that "Some of the early settlers recognized these bent trees as landmarks of importance and made an effort to preserve them; others considered them deformed and cut them down.” 

Though locals continue to report finding these trees in backyards and woodlands, only two trees in Deerfield and Zion are accepted as the last remaining markers of this early navigation system in.  

Historian James Getz took this photo on Hazel Avenue in Highland Park, 1957. Dunn Museum Collection.

The United Nation of Potawatomi, Chippewa and Ottawa reluctantly sold their last remaining Great Lakes land to the U.S. Government in the Treaty of Chicago on September 26, 1833. Lake County's current road system is based largely on historic trails now paved over and in some cases straightened. Milwaukee Avenue, Fairfield Road, Greenbay Road, and Belvidere Road are a few of the former trails still in use today.