The making of "Indians"

This book explores Sitting Bull as a national figure who rose to fame and notoriety within the U.S., Canada, and Europe during his lifetime, and whose name spread across borders as the embodiment of the Plains Indian resistance to American encroachment. From the beginning, he served as a figure in whom contested interests were manifested. These ascribed roles have ranged from a scapegoat for Custer's defeat, an eponymous hostile chief, a Sioux Napoleon, the last of the vanishing Indians, a generic Indian chief in Buffalo Bill's Wild West, an Indian freak in nineteenth-century American urban culture, a romanticized Great (Indian) Man and celebrated founder of America, an icon of resistance against any kind of injustice, and a hero and insurgent. Sitting Bull has long become a commercialized trans-American, trans-national phenomenon, whose legacy has been claimed by many parties for various purposes. This book traces the transformation of one of the most famous and at the same time most ambiguous characters of the nineteenth century, from Public Enemy Number One to the iconic paragon of American virtues.0.