By his mid-thirties, Sitting Bull had risen to a position that no simple English title adequately captures. He was a blotahunka — a war chief — but also a holy man, a wichasha wakan, whose visions and spiritual authority gave him influence that extended beyond military leadership. He led the Strong Heart warrior society and helped found the Midnight Strong Heart Society, where he was honored as one of two Sash Wearers — men who wore sashes in battle that pinned them to the ground, making retreat impossible, symbolizing their commitment to stand and fight to the last.
He became principal chief of the northern Hunkpapa around 1866, and was recognized as a paramount leader of the broader non-treaty Lakota and allied nations in the years that followed. He was the person other chiefs and warriors looked to — not because he was the most fearsome fighter, though he was formidable, but because his spiritual authority and his uncompromising position on Lakota sovereignty gave him a moral weight that others recognized.
He never signed the 1868 Treaty of Fort Laramie, which created the Great Sioux Reservation and guaranteed Lakota lands in the Black Hills. He saw it as an agreement that acknowledged what the Lakota already held, not a grant of rights from the United States. And when gold was discovered in the Black Hills in 1874 and the United States sought to buy the territory — land held sacred and protected by the treaty — he refused to negotiate.
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## The Sun Dance Vision and the Battle of the Little Bighorn