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The Last Sovereigns: Sitting Bull and the Resistance of the Free Lakotas
2021 Spur Award Winner for Best Historical Nonfiction from the Western Writers of America
True West Magazine's 2020 Best Author and Historical Nonfiction Book of the Year
The Last Sovereigns is the story of how Sioux chief Sitting Bull resisted the white man’s ways as a last best hope for the survival of an indigenous way of life on the Great Plains—a nomadic life based on buffalo and indigenous plants scattered across the Sioux’s historical territories that were sacred to him and his people.
Robert M. Utley explores the final four years of Sitting Bull’s life of freedom, from 1877 to 1881. To escape American vengeance for his assumed role in the annihilation of Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s command at the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull led his Hunkpapa following into Canada. There he and his people interacted with the North-West Mounted Police, in particular Maj. James M. Walsh. The Mounties welcomed the Lakota and permitted them to remain if they promised to abide by the laws and rules of Queen Victoria, the White Mother. But the Canadian government wanted the Indians to return to their homeland and the police made every effort to persuade them to leave. They were aided by the diminishing herds of buffalo on which the Indians relied for sustenance and by the aggressions of Canadian Native groups that also relied on the buffalo.
Sitting Bull and his people endured hostility, tragedy, heartache, indecision, uncertainty, and starvation and responded with stubborn resistance to the loss of their freedom and way of life. In the end, starvation doomed their sovereignty. This is their story.
True West Magazine's 2020 Best Author and Historical Nonfiction Book of the Year
The Last Sovereigns is the story of how Sioux chief Sitting Bull resisted the white man’s ways as a last best hope for the survival of an indigenous way of life on the Great Plains—a nomadic life based on buffalo and indigenous plants scattered across the Sioux’s historical territories that were sacred to him and his people.
Robert M. Utley explores the final four years of Sitting Bull’s life of freedom, from 1877 to 1881. To escape American vengeance for his assumed role in the annihilation of Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s command at the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull led his Hunkpapa following into Canada. There he and his people interacted with the North-West Mounted Police, in particular Maj. James M. Walsh. The Mounties welcomed the Lakota and permitted them to remain if they promised to abide by the laws and rules of Queen Victoria, the White Mother. But the Canadian government wanted the Indians to return to their homeland and the police made every effort to persuade them to leave. They were aided by the diminishing herds of buffalo on which the Indians relied for sustenance and by the aggressions of Canadian Native groups that also relied on the buffalo.
Sitting Bull and his people endured hostility, tragedy, heartache, indecision, uncertainty, and starvation and responded with stubborn resistance to the loss of their freedom and way of life. In the end, starvation doomed their sovereignty. This is their story.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2020
9 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Robert M. Utley
92 books73 followersA specialist in Native American history and the history of the American West, Robert Marshall Utley was a former chief historian of the National Park Service. He earned a Bachelor of Science in history from Purdue University in 1951, and an Master of Arts in history from Indiana University in 1952. Utley served as Regional Historian of the Southwest Region of the NPS in Santa Fe from 1957 to 1964, and as Chief Historian in Washington, D.C. from 1964 until his retirement in 1980.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
September 6, 2025
I moved to Iowa 20 years ago. I have been lucky to venture through this state, Minnesota, Nebraska and South Dakota and see some places that were part of Native American history. There’s are plenty of interesting histories and I like learning about them.
This book focuses specifically on Sitting Bull after Custer’s Last Stand. Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa Lakota tribe crossed the border to Canada. Robert Utley wrote a critically acclaimed biography of Sitting Bull in 1993 and in this book’s intro says he thought there was enough to get a book from covering the era.
The book could easily be a movie with colorful characters and ensuing drama. In Canada, Sitting Bull builds a relationship with James Walsh of the Canadian Mounted Police. He agrees to a pledge never to cross the border back to America and to keep the Queen’s rules.
It was a good solution but it wouldn’t last long. There wasn’t enough Buffalo to keep the tribe fed like there had been in Montana. Nor was the Canadian government remaining content with letting him stay, especially with strong influence from the US
One has to emphasize with Sitting Bull who is treated like a prisoner, maybe the same as an animal. The US had broken multiple promises and as the US makes even more promises, we read that these wouldn’t be kept either.
While this doesn’t provide a biography of Sitting Bull, you learn a lot about who he was. He is understandably hesitant to go back to the US but it becomes inevitable- the two sides playing a game of mental chess.
Besides highlighting the differences with how Canada and the US treated the Native Americans, there are plenty of interesting asides such as the Fenian raids and the Ghost Dance rituals. The epilogue does a good job of covering a lot of story. One feels tugs of empathy and hopes that the story ends well and not with betrayal. But it does end in betrayal and inevitably the series of events leads to the Wounded Knee massacre.
This is a short and very specific story but I found it quite interesting covering this very specific part of Sitting Bull’s life. Some insight into this legendary figure in roughly 120 pages or so
This book focuses specifically on Sitting Bull after Custer’s Last Stand. Sitting Bull and his Hunkpapa Lakota tribe crossed the border to Canada. Robert Utley wrote a critically acclaimed biography of Sitting Bull in 1993 and in this book’s intro says he thought there was enough to get a book from covering the era.
The book could easily be a movie with colorful characters and ensuing drama. In Canada, Sitting Bull builds a relationship with James Walsh of the Canadian Mounted Police. He agrees to a pledge never to cross the border back to America and to keep the Queen’s rules.
It was a good solution but it wouldn’t last long. There wasn’t enough Buffalo to keep the tribe fed like there had been in Montana. Nor was the Canadian government remaining content with letting him stay, especially with strong influence from the US
One has to emphasize with Sitting Bull who is treated like a prisoner, maybe the same as an animal. The US had broken multiple promises and as the US makes even more promises, we read that these wouldn’t be kept either.
While this doesn’t provide a biography of Sitting Bull, you learn a lot about who he was. He is understandably hesitant to go back to the US but it becomes inevitable- the two sides playing a game of mental chess.
Besides highlighting the differences with how Canada and the US treated the Native Americans, there are plenty of interesting asides such as the Fenian raids and the Ghost Dance rituals. The epilogue does a good job of covering a lot of story. One feels tugs of empathy and hopes that the story ends well and not with betrayal. But it does end in betrayal and inevitably the series of events leads to the Wounded Knee massacre.
This is a short and very specific story but I found it quite interesting covering this very specific part of Sitting Bull’s life. Some insight into this legendary figure in roughly 120 pages or so
October 7, 2020
Review: The Last Sovereigns: Sitting Bull and the Resistance of the Free Lakotas by Robert M. Utley
I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
-----------------
I was very much looking forward to learning about Native American History and finally get to know Sitting Bull better, whose name is known in Europe but his life and the historical context is largely unknown. Much like other important American indigenous figures, Sitting Bull is known through colonialist perspectives from Western movies and other cowboy vs. “Indians” popular media.
Sadly, the book did not meet my expectations. The focus is on Sitting Bull’s years in Canada after defeating White settler colonialists (I refuse to say Americans because that is the perspective of the coloniser) at Little Big Horn and the struggle of the Lakotas for survival. Mainly, it’s about how White settlers in Canada and America tried to force Sitting Bull to surrender and live in a reservation.
I must say that for a story filled with conflict, diplomacy, politics and survival, the author writes incredibly dull. 99% of the time he just lists things chronologically, with lots of info on the exact date and geographical place and then going down a list of who said what. The thing that makes historical writing sciences is lacking, namely: interpretation and analysis.
Sure, Utley does give a historian’s view here and there and fills in some gaps but more often, he focuses on listing things as if it were a Wikipedia article and offers no insight into the greater context.
What is particularly shocking is how Utley repeats White colonialist perspectives uncritically and uses “positive” stereotypes to talk about Native Americans. Be it vocabulary (mixed-blood), concepts or interpretations of a situation, Utley continually uses the language and thought process of White colonialists. Many situations and the few interpretations he offers, are drenched in imperialist and colonialist discourse and are never critically addressed.
The role of a historian is to question the sources and to give proper historical context. He likes to call those White colonialists who worked with Sitting Bull as “friends” or adversaries, he even has high praise for the agent who ultimately controlled the Lakota reservation but none of them were neutral or “good”, as Utley likes to position them. They were not working in the best interest of the Lakotas, they were working for colonialist Governments to control and ultimately subdue and imprison Lakotas, in the best-case scenario. Utley even briefly mentions the colonial re-educating program and the accompanying laws and has absolutely no nothing to say about its impact of these policies. It’s cultural genocide but apart from mentioning that Sitting Bull didn’t want to live a sedentary life of agriculture, Utley has nothing to say. He summarises the extermination of people, buffalos and Native American culture as if it was another bullet point and not strategic and brutal colonial policies, funded by the state and executed with cold precision.
A good example is the Epiloque which talks about Sitting Bull’s death. When Sitting Bull finally surrenders and later, he is killed, Utley doesn’t describe the consequences of this situation for the Lakotas. It’s as if they stopped existing with Sitting Bull’s death and the fate of the Lakotas was irrelevant to the story. Instead, Utley then talks about the fates of some White Canadians, again praising them and focusing more on the impact of these Canadian years on their life then on the Lakotas. Even One Bull, Sitting Bull’s nephew, is mentioned only briefly.
This book has failed as it doesn’t tell the story of the Lakotas or Sitting Bull but rather focuses on the hardships White colonialists (“Americans” or “Canadians”, doesn’t really matter) experienced in trying to convince Sitting Bull to finally give up and be shipped to a reservation. This is not only visible in the way he tells by focusing on the wrong people but also in the many small and big ways of his usage of language and perspective to perpetuate colonialist perspectives. Utley might have a more favourable view of Sitting Bull as people back then had but it’s so evident that the way he narrates history is from a White Anglo-Saxon male colonialist perspective. This is also visible in the way how women are invisible in this story. They are, if mentioned at all, background characters and in all of these stories one two women are mentioned by name: the wife of Canadian Mounty Walsh and Sitting Bull’s daughter Many Horses. Otherwise they’re just faceless, nameless women. I mean, even Sitting Bull’s mother who apparently was incredibly important is mentioned exactly ONCE at the end of the book in the Epiloque! And from the sources Utley uses I can see that he didn’t consult contemporary stories or have any interest in looking at a gendered perspective. Women are completely immaterial to the history he’s recaps.
Which is ridiculous because not only does he throw in several instances of gendered violence, which are never further discussed in any political or historical context, particularly not with an eye to sexual violence as a colonial tool; he also throws in two or three women at the last moment and just goes nowhere with it. This is especially egregious as he writes in the Epilogue – so at the complete end of the book! – that it was rumoured that Walsh (the White Canadian Mounty “in charge” of Sitting Bull and the Lakotas) was having “sexual relations with Lakota women.” And my first and immediate thought was: Of course he did and this immediately raises questions about consent because within this historical setting, I have my sincerest doubts that these “sexual relations” were done happily and not coercive if not outright forceful.
Utley spends so much time talking about Walsh and his psychology, yet he never mentions these rumours and does only so at the third to last page of the book and has zero comment on sexual violence within colonial power dynamics.
The fates of these women? Inconsequential, I guess.
This book was a disappointment because it was written so incredibly boring. It was like eating slimy, grey, tasteless porridge: nutritious but devoid of joy and it leaves you with a hatred for food.
The amount of work that went into researching this book is not reflected in the writing style as it lacks charm, narrative skill or a critical perspective. However, the constant repetition of colonialist perspectives, the lack of critical engagement and the missing wider context of colonial power dynamics and politics were the worst part of the book. I could forgive a boring writing style but I cannot forgive a lack of critical thinking and a mindless repetition of racist colonial imagination and propaganda. The lack of women and discussion of gendered violence is astounding. Women are cardboard cut-outs unless something horrific happens to them, like rape or semi-suicide/abortion via hanging over a cliff, and those who are supposedly so important for history are thrown it at the last second but only in ways that connects them to Sitting Bull: the daughter that left him, therefore leaving him sad; the counselling and influential mother that guided him but then died at old age.
The Last Sovereign merely recounts point by point how people moved from A to B, who they met and what they said. It has no historical analysis and doesn’t tie into a greater discussion of Native American history, the lives of the Lakotas, women in general or the impact of racist colonial policies. It’s just a timetable of events. That does not make for interesting, entertaining or academic research.
I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
-----------------
I was very much looking forward to learning about Native American History and finally get to know Sitting Bull better, whose name is known in Europe but his life and the historical context is largely unknown. Much like other important American indigenous figures, Sitting Bull is known through colonialist perspectives from Western movies and other cowboy vs. “Indians” popular media.
Sadly, the book did not meet my expectations. The focus is on Sitting Bull’s years in Canada after defeating White settler colonialists (I refuse to say Americans because that is the perspective of the coloniser) at Little Big Horn and the struggle of the Lakotas for survival. Mainly, it’s about how White settlers in Canada and America tried to force Sitting Bull to surrender and live in a reservation.
I must say that for a story filled with conflict, diplomacy, politics and survival, the author writes incredibly dull. 99% of the time he just lists things chronologically, with lots of info on the exact date and geographical place and then going down a list of who said what. The thing that makes historical writing sciences is lacking, namely: interpretation and analysis.
Sure, Utley does give a historian’s view here and there and fills in some gaps but more often, he focuses on listing things as if it were a Wikipedia article and offers no insight into the greater context.
What is particularly shocking is how Utley repeats White colonialist perspectives uncritically and uses “positive” stereotypes to talk about Native Americans. Be it vocabulary (mixed-blood), concepts or interpretations of a situation, Utley continually uses the language and thought process of White colonialists. Many situations and the few interpretations he offers, are drenched in imperialist and colonialist discourse and are never critically addressed.
The role of a historian is to question the sources and to give proper historical context. He likes to call those White colonialists who worked with Sitting Bull as “friends” or adversaries, he even has high praise for the agent who ultimately controlled the Lakota reservation but none of them were neutral or “good”, as Utley likes to position them. They were not working in the best interest of the Lakotas, they were working for colonialist Governments to control and ultimately subdue and imprison Lakotas, in the best-case scenario. Utley even briefly mentions the colonial re-educating program and the accompanying laws and has absolutely no nothing to say about its impact of these policies. It’s cultural genocide but apart from mentioning that Sitting Bull didn’t want to live a sedentary life of agriculture, Utley has nothing to say. He summarises the extermination of people, buffalos and Native American culture as if it was another bullet point and not strategic and brutal colonial policies, funded by the state and executed with cold precision.
A good example is the Epiloque which talks about Sitting Bull’s death. When Sitting Bull finally surrenders and later, he is killed, Utley doesn’t describe the consequences of this situation for the Lakotas. It’s as if they stopped existing with Sitting Bull’s death and the fate of the Lakotas was irrelevant to the story. Instead, Utley then talks about the fates of some White Canadians, again praising them and focusing more on the impact of these Canadian years on their life then on the Lakotas. Even One Bull, Sitting Bull’s nephew, is mentioned only briefly.
This book has failed as it doesn’t tell the story of the Lakotas or Sitting Bull but rather focuses on the hardships White colonialists (“Americans” or “Canadians”, doesn’t really matter) experienced in trying to convince Sitting Bull to finally give up and be shipped to a reservation. This is not only visible in the way he tells by focusing on the wrong people but also in the many small and big ways of his usage of language and perspective to perpetuate colonialist perspectives. Utley might have a more favourable view of Sitting Bull as people back then had but it’s so evident that the way he narrates history is from a White Anglo-Saxon male colonialist perspective. This is also visible in the way how women are invisible in this story. They are, if mentioned at all, background characters and in all of these stories one two women are mentioned by name: the wife of Canadian Mounty Walsh and Sitting Bull’s daughter Many Horses. Otherwise they’re just faceless, nameless women. I mean, even Sitting Bull’s mother who apparently was incredibly important is mentioned exactly ONCE at the end of the book in the Epiloque! And from the sources Utley uses I can see that he didn’t consult contemporary stories or have any interest in looking at a gendered perspective. Women are completely immaterial to the history he’s recaps.
Which is ridiculous because not only does he throw in several instances of gendered violence, which are never further discussed in any political or historical context, particularly not with an eye to sexual violence as a colonial tool; he also throws in two or three women at the last moment and just goes nowhere with it. This is especially egregious as he writes in the Epilogue – so at the complete end of the book! – that it was rumoured that Walsh (the White Canadian Mounty “in charge” of Sitting Bull and the Lakotas) was having “sexual relations with Lakota women.” And my first and immediate thought was: Of course he did and this immediately raises questions about consent because within this historical setting, I have my sincerest doubts that these “sexual relations” were done happily and not coercive if not outright forceful.
Utley spends so much time talking about Walsh and his psychology, yet he never mentions these rumours and does only so at the third to last page of the book and has zero comment on sexual violence within colonial power dynamics.
The fates of these women? Inconsequential, I guess.
This book was a disappointment because it was written so incredibly boring. It was like eating slimy, grey, tasteless porridge: nutritious but devoid of joy and it leaves you with a hatred for food.
The amount of work that went into researching this book is not reflected in the writing style as it lacks charm, narrative skill or a critical perspective. However, the constant repetition of colonialist perspectives, the lack of critical engagement and the missing wider context of colonial power dynamics and politics were the worst part of the book. I could forgive a boring writing style but I cannot forgive a lack of critical thinking and a mindless repetition of racist colonial imagination and propaganda. The lack of women and discussion of gendered violence is astounding. Women are cardboard cut-outs unless something horrific happens to them, like rape or semi-suicide/abortion via hanging over a cliff, and those who are supposedly so important for history are thrown it at the last second but only in ways that connects them to Sitting Bull: the daughter that left him, therefore leaving him sad; the counselling and influential mother that guided him but then died at old age.
The Last Sovereign merely recounts point by point how people moved from A to B, who they met and what they said. It has no historical analysis and doesn’t tie into a greater discussion of Native American history, the lives of the Lakotas, women in general or the impact of racist colonial policies. It’s just a timetable of events. That does not make for interesting, entertaining or academic research.
August 3, 2020
As with other books by the author that I have read, I found this one to be well researched and written. The author's writing style makes for an interesting read that brings history to life. This book is a biography of Sitting Bull with the primary focus on the years that he spent in Canada after the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The reality was that Canada did not want him, but he rightfully did not trust that the United States would honor their pledges if he returned. He wavered several times and finally agreed to return only to be arrested rather than left in peace as promised. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in the life of Sitting Bull or reading about another instance where our government was less than truthful in dealing with native americans.
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.
I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.
October 26, 2020
In THE LAST SOVEREIGNS, Robert M Utley covers a period of history that has been missing in the historical narratives of the life on Sitting Bull, chief of the free Lakotas during their escape to Canada following the Battle at Big Horn with Gen Custer. This was the last time his small tribe would be free to follow their traditions. As they slowly surrendered their way of life, the Army, as a representative of the American Government, would place them on reservations under governmental oversight. Utley's book contains so much information on their lives, it's clear he researched and committed a huge piece of his life into insuring Sitting Bull's story was shared. An absolutely wonderful reading experience for anyone interested in Native American history. This could easily be used as a reading assignment in a home schooler's history class, too.
April 15, 2025
Wonderful accounting of the final years of Sitting Bull’s life, his unique friendship with Maj. James Morrow Walsh, the generosity of Jean Louis Legaré at Willow Bunch, and the resistance of the free Lakotas. It has me interested in reading other detailed accounting of Sitting Bull’s life by Stanley Vestal and his papers in the University of Oklahoma Library Western History Collection.
September 19, 2020
Living in Calgary, we have schools named after men in this book… Macleod, Irvine. I have also been to the Cypress Hills and passed by the small town of Walsh. Every time I think of the Cypress Hills, I think of Sitting Bull fleeing to Canada to keep his people safe.
This is a well-done history of the Lakota in the last years of Sitting Bull. He truly was a remarkable man. He was a warrior. He was a medicine man. He was a father and family man. He obeyed the laws of the Great Mother. He also wanted to provide for his people even learning to farm. There is not much information about Sitting Bull so this book will become a resource to those who want to learn a bit more about the man who is probably the most famous indigenous leader of all time. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.
This is a well-done history of the Lakota in the last years of Sitting Bull. He truly was a remarkable man. He was a warrior. He was a medicine man. He was a father and family man. He obeyed the laws of the Great Mother. He also wanted to provide for his people even learning to farm. There is not much information about Sitting Bull so this book will become a resource to those who want to learn a bit more about the man who is probably the most famous indigenous leader of all time. Thanks to NetGalley and publisher for the ARC.
October 6, 2020
Fascinating book on Sitting Bull! It was hard to put down as it was extremely well written. Highly recommend it.
September 3, 2020
This is the history of the end of the independent Lakota nation from Little Big Horn to Wounded Knee. Sitting Bull was born into the family of the chief of one of the five Lakota tribes of the Black Hills. When he grew to a man he was considered to be looked on by their deity as 'chosen'. Because of his history as a great warrior and dreamer, he became the Great Chief of all the Lakota.
Sitting Bull wanted to be able to live the nomadic life of the Plains Indians, hunting buffalo, migrating with the animal herds by the seasons and following the customs of his people. But they were constantly being pressured for their lands and to 'civilize' their people. After "Little Big Horn" things got worse and worse for the Lakota, until Sitting Bull took his tribe (Huckpapa) north into Canada.
While in Canada he hoped to be protected by the White Queen and given land to re-establish his people. But the Buffalo were dying out in the North and he was in constant trouble with both the Canadians and Americans. He stayed in Canada for five years, but slowly his people surrendered to the Americans (and gave up their weapons and horses) and were put on reservations. The Lakota had been promise the western part of South Dakota, but the US continued to shrink the reservation and separate the five tribes of the Lakota.
Sitting Bull was finally murdered by the US Cavalry when he was only protected by his household warriors. After he was killed the woman and children fled into the Black Hills and were massacred at Wounded Knee.
Sitting Bull wanted to be able to live the nomadic life of the Plains Indians, hunting buffalo, migrating with the animal herds by the seasons and following the customs of his people. But they were constantly being pressured for their lands and to 'civilize' their people. After "Little Big Horn" things got worse and worse for the Lakota, until Sitting Bull took his tribe (Huckpapa) north into Canada.
While in Canada he hoped to be protected by the White Queen and given land to re-establish his people. But the Buffalo were dying out in the North and he was in constant trouble with both the Canadians and Americans. He stayed in Canada for five years, but slowly his people surrendered to the Americans (and gave up their weapons and horses) and were put on reservations. The Lakota had been promise the western part of South Dakota, but the US continued to shrink the reservation and separate the five tribes of the Lakota.
Sitting Bull was finally murdered by the US Cavalry when he was only protected by his household warriors. After he was killed the woman and children fled into the Black Hills and were massacred at Wounded Knee.
August 23, 2020
It's funny, although I really enjoyed this book as it isn't a subject that I know a lot about, I did rather feel like the beginning either went too fast or didn't have enough information. I wanted more in the beginning. The details started to pick up a bit later and it seems to be a very informative book. I was curious about the dialogue in the book, whether they were direct quotes that someone present had recorded. It was a bit hard for me to tell since some of the formatting was off due to it being an ARC PDF. Regardless, I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone interested in Sitting Bull or what the Native's faced at the hands of Europeans. It is too bad we don't have their point of view.
On that note (and not contributing to my rating), there were grammar and punctuation issues that I assume will be fixed before publishing. There was as sentence at around 68% that had me re-reading it a few times and should def be fixed. ("Sitting Bull arrived at Willow Bunch with five hundred people arrived on April 20, 1881.) Also, I think the beginning mentioned maps, however, I wasn't able to see any maps. There were some sections with garbled text that maybe were supposed to be images of maps? I'm not sure. Maps would be helpful to help understand exactly where the tribes were roaming to and from. I could see the photos in the middle of the book, although one (#12, Sitting Bull Council) was completely upside down.
On that note (and not contributing to my rating), there were grammar and punctuation issues that I assume will be fixed before publishing. There was as sentence at around 68% that had me re-reading it a few times and should def be fixed. ("Sitting Bull arrived at Willow Bunch with five hundred people arrived on April 20, 1881.) Also, I think the beginning mentioned maps, however, I wasn't able to see any maps. There were some sections with garbled text that maybe were supposed to be images of maps? I'm not sure. Maps would be helpful to help understand exactly where the tribes were roaming to and from. I could see the photos in the middle of the book, although one (#12, Sitting Bull Council) was completely upside down.
October 5, 2020
Sitting Bull quickly became known as a great leader and a fearless warrior, and he became leader of the Hunkpapa. The final years of Sitting Bull's life were spent mainly in Canada after he led the Hunkpapa into Canada following run-ins with the American government. Sitting Bull wished to live out his final years there but clashes with the Canadian government over their policies, and disagreements with the Native Canadian groups over the resources available, meant that Sitting Bull and his people faced uncertainty and starvation. His return to American soil unfortunately led to his death on the Standing Rock Reservation in 1890.
This book examines the final four years of Sitting Bull's life and his friendship and working relationship with Major James Walsh of the North-West Mounted Police in Canada. This is a period of history that I know little about, and it was interesting, but I found that at the end of it, I didn't feel as if I got to know much about Sitting Bull himself, as it was more about the events that happened. Yes it is a non fiction account but an author can make the characters 'come alive' off the page whereas this felt like a very remote perspective. Many of the other people in the book were not fleshed out and the Lakota women barely featured at all.
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
This book examines the final four years of Sitting Bull's life and his friendship and working relationship with Major James Walsh of the North-West Mounted Police in Canada. This is a period of history that I know little about, and it was interesting, but I found that at the end of it, I didn't feel as if I got to know much about Sitting Bull himself, as it was more about the events that happened. Yes it is a non fiction account but an author can make the characters 'come alive' off the page whereas this felt like a very remote perspective. Many of the other people in the book were not fleshed out and the Lakota women barely featured at all.
Thanks to NetGalley and publishers, University of Nebraska Press/Bison Books, for the opportunity to read an ARC.
December 29, 2020
Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Crazy Horse are probably the three most well-known Native American chiefs, yet little is taught about them in schools. The only thing I knew about Sitting Bull is that he killed Custer in the battle of Little Big Horn. With that said, I really appreciated the respect with which Utley wrote this book.
I enjoyed learning about Sitting Bull’s early years and why/how he became so incredibly respected by his people. It’s not difficult to have compassion for an entire people forced off their land and confined to small reservations carved out of their own lands. We’ve probably all seen the same picture of Sitting Bull - the one on this cover. Regal, straight back, serious expression. But Utley did a wonderful job of giving a life to that face. We get a glimpse into what drove Sitting Bull. The passion he had for his people, the weight of the entire Sioux nation on his shoulders. The difficult challenges in dealing with both the US and Canadian governments, and deciding who could be trusted and how far.
The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because the Kindle version was missing items. Maps maybe? There were a few wonky parts and some errors that I’m sure will be corrected in the final edit process. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I enjoyed learning about Sitting Bull’s early years and why/how he became so incredibly respected by his people. It’s not difficult to have compassion for an entire people forced off their land and confined to small reservations carved out of their own lands. We’ve probably all seen the same picture of Sitting Bull - the one on this cover. Regal, straight back, serious expression. But Utley did a wonderful job of giving a life to that face. We get a glimpse into what drove Sitting Bull. The passion he had for his people, the weight of the entire Sioux nation on his shoulders. The difficult challenges in dealing with both the US and Canadian governments, and deciding who could be trusted and how far.
The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 was because the Kindle version was missing items. Maps maybe? There were a few wonky parts and some errors that I’m sure will be corrected in the final edit process. Thank you to NetGalley for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
September 29, 2020
I had heard of sitting bull in school, but I feel like I was told virtually nothing of what he endured. This book was so informational, so encompassing. I knew our treatment of Native Americans was abysmal, but it was just so unfair. It seems like the little bit we do learn of Native American history does not justice to what actually occurred. This book was very thorough and used a ton of resources and offered many of the events as they happened in the people involved's own words. There were a couple of typos, but nothing too distracting. It was laid out in a linear fashion making it easy to follow. I liked the epilogue at the end as well that told how it ended for many of the men involved in Sitting Bull's life during his campaign for freedom for his people. Well written and very educational.
August 2, 2020
This was an interesting read. Despite the title, the focus isn't entirely on Sitting Bull. There's a lot of information about various Americans and Canadians who had "dealings" with Sitting Bull and his people, giving the book a far wider scope than I had expected. "The Last Sovereigns" is a little bit repetitive at times and it felt like the author was biased towards one side or the other in certain parts. Well worth a read.
My thanks to the author, publisher, and Edelweiss+ for an advance copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.
My thanks to the author, publisher, and Edelweiss+ for an advance copy to review. This review is entirely my own, unbiased, opinion.
February 25, 2025
These historical events were not taught to me in my United States education. I knew he was friends with Buffalo Bill. Couldn't tell you what that meant though. This was a clear and detailed description of his life. From youth to adulthood. He went through so much for his people. He advocated for peace, but the white settlers would not let that happen.
Historical non-fiction is a hard genre for me. But I found this story slightly pulling me along. There were times where the writing was a little dull.
l-l, s-n, v-m
TW: colonization, racism, & violence
Historical non-fiction is a hard genre for me. But I found this story slightly pulling me along. There were times where the writing was a little dull.
l-l, s-n, v-m
TW: colonization, racism, & violence
August 19, 2020
If you're looking for a biography of Sitting Bull this is probably not the place to start. There's nothing wrong with the book. It's very clear that Mr. Utley is very familiar with the subject and the research certainly appears to be complete and well rounded. And while the book does give enough background on Sitting Bull's life to keep one from getting lost (particularly if you're reasonably well versed in the history of the American West) that isn't the focus.
Utley sets out, with appropriate background, to examine Sitting Bull's time living with his Hunkpapa followers in Canada after fleeing the United States. In particular Utley looks at the relationship between Sitting Bull and John Morrow Walsh, who was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and Commander of Fort Walsh when Sitting Bull and his followers settled near Fort Walsh in Wood Mountain Saskatchewan. Sitting Bull and Walsh entered into a friendship and an important relationship that caused significant local and international consternation. The influx of a relatively large number of Lakota into Canada, where indigenous tribes were already struggling with the demise of the buffalo was a significant problem. Internationally, Sitting Bull had caused a black eye to the United States with the defeat of Custer and they wanted the Lakota docilely settled on allotments. Since Canada's foreign policy was still largely handled by Great Britain at the time international diplomacy was involved in the attempts to get Sitting Bull and the Lakota back to the U.S.
This has been a part of the history of Sitting Bull that tends to be glossed over in favor of the Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn), Sitting Bull's short time with Buffalo Bill's show and his assassination in 1890. And it's a topic deserving of the attention that Utley gives to it. It's just important to be aware that the other parts of Sitting Bull's life are given a fairly cursory coverage.
That said, it is again an interesting and well researched book covering a largely overlooked part of American and Canadian history.
My thanks to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for a preview copy in exchange for my reviews.
Utley sets out, with appropriate background, to examine Sitting Bull's time living with his Hunkpapa followers in Canada after fleeing the United States. In particular Utley looks at the relationship between Sitting Bull and John Morrow Walsh, who was a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and Commander of Fort Walsh when Sitting Bull and his followers settled near Fort Walsh in Wood Mountain Saskatchewan. Sitting Bull and Walsh entered into a friendship and an important relationship that caused significant local and international consternation. The influx of a relatively large number of Lakota into Canada, where indigenous tribes were already struggling with the demise of the buffalo was a significant problem. Internationally, Sitting Bull had caused a black eye to the United States with the defeat of Custer and they wanted the Lakota docilely settled on allotments. Since Canada's foreign policy was still largely handled by Great Britain at the time international diplomacy was involved in the attempts to get Sitting Bull and the Lakota back to the U.S.
This has been a part of the history of Sitting Bull that tends to be glossed over in favor of the Battle of Greasy Grass (Little Big Horn), Sitting Bull's short time with Buffalo Bill's show and his assassination in 1890. And it's a topic deserving of the attention that Utley gives to it. It's just important to be aware that the other parts of Sitting Bull's life are given a fairly cursory coverage.
That said, it is again an interesting and well researched book covering a largely overlooked part of American and Canadian history.
My thanks to Net Galley, the publisher and the author for a preview copy in exchange for my reviews.
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August 20, 2020I received this through #NetGalley in return for an honest review.
This book deals with the last years of Sitting Bull. I knew very little about Sitting Bull after The Battle of the Little Big Horn, so this filled in lots of gaps for me. It tells of his trek to Canada and his life there until his surrender and return to America. We meet people in Canada who are in varying degrees sympathetic to, or antagonistic to the Lakotas. Good read. @University of Nebraska.
This book deals with the last years of Sitting Bull. I knew very little about Sitting Bull after The Battle of the Little Big Horn, so this filled in lots of gaps for me. It tells of his trek to Canada and his life there until his surrender and return to America. We meet people in Canada who are in varying degrees sympathetic to, or antagonistic to the Lakotas. Good read. @University of Nebraska.
May 25, 2021
Hmmmm....maybe only 2.5 stars?
Utley obviously is writing about a subject he has done a lot of research on, but this recounting of a few very narrow years of Sitting Bull's life was flat and uninspired. There was little analysis, just a laying out of facts in a repetitive and uninteresting way. Utley's writing was bland. I've read plenty of nonfiction books that grab you with their language and narrative style. This is not one of them.
Utley obviously is writing about a subject he has done a lot of research on, but this recounting of a few very narrow years of Sitting Bull's life was flat and uninspired. There was little analysis, just a laying out of facts in a repetitive and uninteresting way. Utley's writing was bland. I've read plenty of nonfiction books that grab you with their language and narrative style. This is not one of them.
November 3, 2020
This book does what it set out to do: tell the story of the last years of Sitting Bull's life. It does it well, but as someone educated in the American school system, I felt as if I were reading the epilogue to a story I was never told. This is no fault of the author - just a note for any future readers.
Copy provided by Netgalley.
Copy provided by Netgalley.
July 20, 2020
The was a good read. It described a more political time for Sitting Bull, and a sad time, as he was trying to not change the way he lived, and was receiving great pressure to change. Will need to try some more of Robert Utley's writtings.
April 25, 2023
Felt like an excerpt from a biography of Sitting Bull, rather than a fully fleshed out stand-alone book. Could be dry and lost me in the weeds from time to time despite the super interesting subject matter.
April 3, 2022
3.75/4 - I learned a lot, overall an interesting read.
March 21, 2023
Interesting book! Pretty short. Describes Sitting Bull’s later years when he was in Canada. Didn’t know much about Sitting Bull before this. Glad I found this one.
June 2, 2025
Well researched and informative.
p-n, s-n, v-s, a-n
p-n, s-n, v-s, a-n
January 15, 2026
Sooooooo much Indigenous history we weren’t taught in school.
May 25, 2023
(Note: listened to the audiobook version)
This book detailed the five years in which Sitting Bull resided in Canada, with his adopted tribe of the Lakota natives. It gives a bit of background on his amazing rise to prominence among his people, but focuses on the tragic time when the Canadian bison herds disappeared, and he was forced to surrender to the Americans.
He is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Trusting a murderous and treacherous American government, or slow starvation on the plains of Saskatchewan.
I am going to continue my self education on the history of US / Native relations, but this was a great starting place. It is short, and does justice to the painful choices the natives had to make towards the end of the mid 1800’s.
This book detailed the five years in which Sitting Bull resided in Canada, with his adopted tribe of the Lakota natives. It gives a bit of background on his amazing rise to prominence among his people, but focuses on the tragic time when the Canadian bison herds disappeared, and he was forced to surrender to the Americans.
He is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Trusting a murderous and treacherous American government, or slow starvation on the plains of Saskatchewan.
I am going to continue my self education on the history of US / Native relations, but this was a great starting place. It is short, and does justice to the painful choices the natives had to make towards the end of the mid 1800’s.
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