The Story Behind Sitting Bull

This skull belonged to the great Hunkpapa leader Sitting Bull. It was used in prayers and certain ceremonies and was consulted prior to the Seventh Cavalry's arrival at the Little Big Horn Valley.

It has special meaning for me because the person I think of as the greatest Indian leader of all time...Tasunka Witko (Crazy Horse)...undoubtedly had contact with it. Like many present day Lakota I consider Crazy Horse a religious figure on a plane with Jesus.

In 1986 I had the image of Sitting Bull's skull tattooed onto my chest so that it could rest next to my heart.

A few years later, as I lay on an operating table at UCLA, the surgeon looked down and remarked on the uniqueness of my tattoo. Before I passed out, I requested that the scalpel not cut into the precious image. I survived the surgery and so did the tattoo.

Michael Blake is the author of Dances With Wolves and its recently released sequel The Holy Road.