Overview Of Sitting Bull Champion Of The Sioux: A Biography, By Stanley Vestal

Sitting Bull Champion of the Sioux: A Biography, by Stanley Vestal, is a great book to read for anyone wanting vivid, yet serious, insight of the lives of the Sioux Indians, or more specifically, one Sioux Indian, Sitting Bull. There are three sections in the book that describe three major time periods of Sitting Bull’s life. Each section focuses on a different time span. The author highly exceeds his goal of “writing the first biography of a great American Indian soldier and statesman in which his character and achievements are presented with the same care and seriousness they would have received had he been of European ancestry.” (xxi) In the first few chapters, Vestal is describing Sitting Bull’s life in the early years. He does so in a serious, yet vivid narration. Vestal wrote information as if he was there with the Sioux witnessing events first hand. Vestal describes some Sioux rituals in a way that can clearly be understood. The information is given with much respect for the Indian ways. There are real, still life pictures of the Sioux and Sitting Bull throughout the sections. The reader really gets insight on the lives of American Indians of the time. Ritchie cleverly captures Sitting Bull’s life as he is growing, and the many hardships that made him the leader he was.

Vestal wrote in a way that gives insight of Sitting Bull as a young man. The second section of the book is wrote as if Vestal is being told the story of Sitting Bull’s life by a Sioux. “A good part of the job of writing the story of Sitting Bull was to fill in the meaning of well-known in the Chiefs life from the perspective of the Sioux themselves.” (xiv) He carefully illustrates this upcoming hero. Vestal completely avoids misinforming with half-truths, and goes straight to the honest