25/07/2025
Sitting Bear 1800 - 1871
Photo restored and colorized by Mostafa Tabit
Satank (Set-angya or Set-ankeah, translated as Sitting Bear) was a prestigious Kiowa warrior and healer. He was born about 1800, probably in Kansas, and killed on June 8, 1871. Skillful warrior, he becomes a member of Koitsenko (or Kaitsenko, Ko-eet-senko), the society of the bravest Kiowa warriors. He led numerous raids on Cheyenas, Bags and Foxes. As the white columns grew in importance, he attacks the colonies, convoys and even army outposts.
For many years, one of the Kiowas' main chiefs was Satank, the tough-faced warrior who fought in countless battles. He was born in the Black Hills of the Dakotas around 1810 and survived years of wild warfare against the Arapahos, Comanches, Cheyennes, Tonkawas, Pawnees, Creeks, Apaches, Osages, and Dakotas. Satank โ whose name means Sitting Bear โ distinguished himself as an exceptional fighter very early on. He was a member of the Ko-eet-senko, of which only the ten bravest members of the tribe could be part of. When inducted into this elite group, every man also takes an oath to return from every warrior encounter with honor or not to return at all. Satank lived by this code until the end.
Satank played a key role in establishing lasting peace with the Arapahos and Cheyenne in 1840 and was the first man to sign the Medicine Lodge Treaty in 1867. The last document saw the Kiowas and their main ally, the Comanches, to live on reservation in Oklahoma (then Indian territory) and cease their raids against white settlers. Satank's vague interpretation of these terms - he was a true product of the Stone Age and would never learn to live by white men's rules - allowed the Indians to continue their raids under certain circumstances and take their time to settle in reserve. As a close friend of Chief, Lone Wolf, and other tribal chiefs, Satank had a major influence on Indian behavior in the crucial years following the treaty's enactment.
In 1870, a son of Satank was killed during a revenge raid in Texas. The distressed chief travels to Texas and collects the bones of the young warrior, then takes them with him in a package on a special horse. Although he was at least 60 years old at the time, Satank accompanied brave young men in their attacks against the hated Texans.
Satank was with Satanta in the infamous Warren Wagon Train Massacre (the story of which is given in the Satanta chapter), the incident that ended the period of tolerance between U.S.-Kiowa relations. Shortly after, under the orders of General Sherman, Satanta, Satank and Bit Tree were arrested, stacked in carts and en route to Texas for trial. Satank, who voluntarily refused to leave, had to be tied up and physically thrown by four men in the head cart, partially loaded with maize.
As the chariot was heading to the race track, Satank sits straight on a pile of corn and starts a strange chant. It was the Ko-eet-senko's funeral chant, the chant that promised death before dishonor. One of the soldiers recognized the death chant and alerted the guard corporal, but no one feared the tired old man in the cart. Satank interrupts his singing long enough to talk to a Caddo whistleblower asking him to tell the Kiowas to make a restitution and stop their raids. He then pointed to a tree on the road in front of him and said, โWhen I reach the tree, I will be dead.โ "Satank resumes his death chant, while working his free hands. As the chariot reached the tree indicated by Satank, the old chief jumped and jumped onto the accompanying guard. Satank snatched the rifle from the man's hands and threw it on the road. An officer standing nearby saw the guard fall and ordered the men near the cart to shoot. While Satank was leveraging with a shell into the rifle chamber, he was hit by a stolen bullet. The elderly man fell on the platform of the cart, bleeding from multiple injuries. A moment later, he stood up and attempted to point his rifle at the officer. Before he could pull the trigger, he was shot down again by a gunshot.
Old Satank was still alive, but it was obvious that he would die soon. He told his kidnappers that he wanted to die alone, and as a result he was removed from the cart and placed by the roadside. The last time caravan members saw him, he was sitting against a tree and covered in blood and dust. His body was later taken to Fort Sill and buried in the military cemetery.
