Sitting Bull knew who the enemy were – of what tribe.'...They were soon to find out."(Utley 1992: 122–24) Sitting Bull's refusal to adopt any dependence on the US government meant that at times he and his small band of warriors lived isolated on the Plains. When Native Americans were threatened by the United States, numerous members from various Sioux bands and other tribes, such as the North Cheyenne, came to Sitting Bull's camp. His reputation for "strong medicine" developed as he continued to evade the European Americans. After the January 1st ultimatum of 1876, when the US Army began to track down
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