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50 free Sitting Bull trivia questions with answers — history quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Sitting Bull led the Hunkpapa Lakota through the last great resistance to United States expansion on the Plains, and this trivia quiz follows his whole life. It starts with the boy called Jumping Badger and nicknamed Slow, the coup counted at 14 that earned him his father's name, the fights with Sully's columns and the forts of the upper Missouri, and his refusal to sign the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie. Then come the Black Hills gold rush, the Sun Dance vision of soldiers falling into camp and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The later questions cover the four years of exile at Wood Mountain in Canada, the surrender at Fort Buford in 1881, the Fort Randall imprisonment, the friendship with Annie Oakley, the season with Buffalo Bill's Wild West, the Ghost Dance panic, the botched arrest of December 1890 and the disputed graves at Fort Yates and Mobridge. There are also questions on his legacy, from Sitting Bull College and the 1989 stamp to the DNA study that confirmed his great-grandchildren. Every answer was verified against Wikipedia's articles on Sitting Bull, the Great Sioux War, the Little Bighorn and related topics, and each question links to its source. Try our Native American History and American West quizzes next.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What does the name of Sitting Bull's band, Hunkpapa, mean in Lakota?
Head of the Circle
By tradition they set up their lodges at the entrance to the great council circle when the Sioux met.
Q 02What was Sitting Bull named at birth?
Jumping Badger
He was nicknamed "Slow" for his careful, unhurried nature.
Q 03How did the 14-year-old future chief earn his father's name?
By counting coup on a Crow warrior in a horse raid
His father then took the name Jumping Bull and gave his son an eagle feather, a horse and a buffalo-hide shield.
Q 04What does the Lakota name Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake roughly translate to?
Buffalo Bull Who Sits Down
Americans shortened it to Sitting Bull.
Q 05According to family oral tradition reported in 2007, Sitting Bull was born along which river?
The Yellowstone
That would put his birthplace south of present-day Miles City, Montana, sometime between 1831 and 1837.
Q 06Which general's 1864 expedition, the largest ever against Native Americans, fought Sitting Bull at Killdeer Mountain?
Alfred Sully
More than 4,000 soldiers took part in the overall operation.
Q 07Where was Sitting Bull shot in a September 1864 skirmish with soldiers from a wagon train?
The left hip
The bullet exited through the small of his back and the wound was not serious.
Q 08What did Sitting Bull tell missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet when asked to accept the 1868 Fort Laramie treaty?
"I do not propose to sell any part of my country"
Gall and others signed a form of the treaty at Fort Rice; Sitting Bull kept raiding forts on the upper Missouri.
Q 09Why do historians reject Stanley Vestal's claim that Sitting Bull became 'Supreme Chief of the whole Sioux Nation'?
Lakota society was highly decentralised
Individual bands and their elders decided for themselves whether to make war.
Q 10Which railway's survey parties did Sitting Bull's Hunkpapa attack in 1871-73?
The Northern Pacific
The Panic of 1873 bankrupted the railway's backer Jay Cooke and halted construction.
Q 11Whose 1874 expedition announced gold in the Black Hills, triggering the rush that led to war?
George Armstrong Custer
The 1868 treaty had guaranteed the Black Hills to the Sioux.
Q 12After what date were Sioux bands still off the reservation certified 'hostile', under Grant's November 1875 order?
January 31, 1876
That certification let the army pursue Sitting Bull's people as enemies.
Q 13In his vision before the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull saw soldiers falling into camp 'as thick as' what?
Grasshoppers
They fell upside down, which his people read as a great victory to come.
Q 21Which North-West Mounted Police commander met Sitting Bull at the border and became his lifelong friend?
James Morrow Walsh
Walsh told him the Lakota were on British soil and must obey British law, enforced equally for all.
Q 22Sitting Bull named one of his sons after which Blackfeet leader he made peace with in Canada?
Crowfoot
The Blackfeet had long been enemies of the Lakota and Cheyenne, but Crowfoot accepted the tobacco peace offering.
Q 23Why did Sitting Bull finally leave Canada in 1881?
Hunger, as buffalo herds there were too small
Q 14What sacrifice did Sitting Bull make during the Sun Dance a week before the Little Bighorn?
He slashed his arms more than 100 times
He fasted as well; the vision came at the climax of the ceremony.
Q 15Roughly how many people were in the great camp on the Little Bighorn when Custer attacked?
More than 10,000
Bands had gathered around Sitting Bull for safety in numbers throughout the first half of 1876.
Q 16What role did Sitting Bull play in the actual fighting at the Little Bighorn?
A spiritual leader rather than a combatant
Crazy Horse led his followers into battle.
Q 17What do the Lakota call the river and battle Americans know as the Little Bighorn?
Greasy Grass
Contemporary participants also called the site the "Valley of Chieftains".
Q 18How many of the 7th Cavalry's twelve troops were wiped out at the Little Bighorn?
Five
Custer's own battalion was annihilated while Reno's and Benteen's men were besieged.
Q 19On what date was the Battle of the Little Bighorn fought?
June 25, 1876
It came about three weeks after Sitting Bull's vision.
Q 20Where did Sitting Bull lead his band in May 1877 to escape the US Army?
Wood Mountain in Canada
He stayed four years in what is now Saskatchewan, refusing a pardon.
He crossed with just 186 family members and followers.
Q 24At which army post did Sitting Bull surrender on July 19, 1881?
Fort Buford
It stood at the meeting of the Missouri and Yellowstone rivers in present-day North Dakota.
Q 25Who handed over Sitting Bull's Winchester rifle at the surrender ceremony?
His young son Crow Foot
Sitting Bull said: "I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle."
Q 26After surrendering, Sitting Bull's band was held as prisoners of war for 20 months at which post?
Fort Randall
They were shipped down the Missouri by steamboat and allowed back to Standing Rock after 20 months.
Q 27Which sharpshooter did Sitting Bull 'adopt' in 1884, naming her 'Little Sure Shot'?
Annie Oakley
He paid $65 for a photographer to take their picture together.
Q 28How much a week was Sitting Bull paid to ride once around the arena with Buffalo Bill's show in 1885?
About $50
He also charged for autographs and photos, but often gave the money to beggars.
Q 29How long did Sitting Bull stay with Buffalo Bill's Wild West?
Four months
Historian Robert Utley disputes the rumour that he cursed audiences in Lakota during the show.
Q 30What is Sitting Bull said to have declared in Lakota at an 1884 railway ceremony as a translator read a polite speech?
"I hate all White people"
The audience, including President Grant, was reportedly none the wiser.