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 the Lakota language means "Buffalo Bull Who Sits Down", would later be abbreviated to "Sitting Bull". Thereafter, Sitting Bull's father was known as Jumping Bull. At this ceremony before the entire band, Sitting Bull's father presented his son with an eagle feather to wear in his hair, a warrior's horse, and a hardened buffalo hide shield to mark his son's passage into manhood as a Lakota warrior. During the Dakota War of 1862, in which Sitting Bull's people were not involved, several bands of eastern Dakota people killed an estimated 300 to 800 settlers and soldiers in south-central Minnesota in