Sitting Bull named Wovoka, spread a religious movement from Nevada eastward to the Plains in 1889 that preached a resurrection of the Native. This was a time of severe conditions of harsh winters and long droughts impacting the Sioux Reservation. It was known as the "Ghost Dance Movement", because it called on the Indians to dance and chant for the rising up of deceased relatives and return of the buffalo. When the movement reached Standing Rock, Sitting Bull allowed the dancers to gather at his camp. Although he did not appear to participate in the dancing, he was viewed as a key
Sitting Bull Canada, he may have visited Walsh for a final time and left a ceremonial headdress as a memento. Hunger and desperation eventually forced Sitting Bull, and 186 of his family and followers, to return to the United States and surrender on July 19, 1881. Sitting Bull had his young son Crow Foot surrender his Winchester lever-action carbine to Major David H. Brotherton, commanding officer of Fort Buford, Sitting Bull said to Major David H. Brotherton, "I wish it to be remembered that I was the last man of my tribe to surrender my rifle." To the Oglala Lakotas, Dakotas and