![Red Tomahawk interview with Welch, 1915: Told by Tacankpe Luta, a Hunkpapa, at Fort Yates, N.D. that he is the man who k...](https://img5.medioq.com/213/109/122199287282131095.jpg)
01/15/2025
Red Tomahawk interview with Welch, 1915: Told by Tacankpe Luta, a Hunkpapa, at Fort Yates, N.D. that he is the man who killed Sitting Bull, and the white man’s translation of his name is Red Tomahawk. It really means Red War Club.
“I was a Sergeant of the Indian Police. Sitting Bull was my friend. I killed him like this.”
(With aid of a rough Indian Map, which I own, he followed the story) (Editor Note: this map is lost)
“We went together with the soldiers. They stayed away about a mile from the camp in the hills. It was on the Grand River. We police went toward the camp of the hostiles. We came up behind a corral with horses. No one saw us yet. We went to a log house and I tied my horse to the corner of it. We opened the door and went in. Sitting Bull was there and he got awake then. He had been singing and dancing and was tired and sleepy, I guess. We told him to go with us. I had hold of his left arm and I had my gun in my hand, too. I told him not to make cry for his people. We would kill him first. We got outside and he made a loud cry as his son came around the corner of the house, and then the hostiles came. His son, Crow Foot, came and was killed right away. He went down these tracks and died. (Pointed to the trail depicted on the map). I shot Sitting Bull in the left side. He fell with his face down. I shot him again in the back of the neck then. He was dead then. There were lots of shots then. We had a battle with the hostiles. Bull Head, Shave Head, Warriors Fear Him, Broken Arm, Hawk Man were all killed. They were police like I am. Many hostiles were killed. The soldiers came up fast and shot twice with a cannon. They shot off the hind part of my horse tied to the house. They wanted to kill the police, too, it looked like. The soldiers took what Sitting Bull had on to keep for medicine. One soldier hit him in the face after he was dead, with a neck yoke. We piled him and the police dead into the wagons and went to Fort Yates with them. He is buried there. That is where he lies where I point. I was under orders so I killed him. He should not have hollered.”