Sitting Bull Falls in springs further down the canyon or joins the Pecos Valley underground water supply. The area around Sitting Bull Falls is the remnant of a reef system known as the Capitan Great Barrier Reef dating from the Permian period. Approximately 250 million years ago, the region was located near the edge of an inland sea. The origin of the name Sitting Bull Falls remains uncertain. One version holds that the falls were named after a Sioux medicine man. The Apache name for the area was gostahanagunti which means "hidden gulch". A number of hiking trails allow visitors access to the
Arnold Short Bull Arnold Short Bull Arnold Short Bull (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Ptéčela) (c. 1845-1923), a member of the Sičháŋǧu (Brulé) Lakota tribe of Native Americans, instrumental in bringing the Ghost Dance movement to the reservations. Arnold Short Bull was born around 1845. He was active in the Ghost Dance religious movement of 1890, and had traveled with fellow Lakota Kicking Bear to Nevada to visit the movement's leader, Wovoka. The two were instrumental in bringing the movement to the Lakota living on reservations in South Dakota. Following the fatal shooting of Sitting Bull, Short Bull was imprisoned at Fort Sheridan, Illinois. On his