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Primary sourceArtifactc. 1856 (recorded later)

Sitting Bull's Autobiographical Drawing: Gunfight with a Crow

Sitting Bull · c. 1856 (recorded later)

A pencil drawing by Sitting Bull showing himself on horseback in a gunfight with a Crow warrior around 1856.

This drawing, made by Sitting Bull, records in his own hand a wound he carried for the rest of his life.

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Pencil drawing on pale paper: a mounted warrior on a dark horse with a round shield and feathered trailing ornament faces a man on foot who holds a long rifle toward the horse's head. Handwritten caption below describes the fight. Printed credit at left edge.
Sitting Bull, autobiographical drawing of a gunfight with a Crow, c. 1856.

About this source

What it is

This autobiographical drawing was made by Sitting Bull as part of his own pictographic life record. It shows him mounted on his war horse in a gunfight with a Crow man on foot, an event dated to around 1856. Sitting Bull is shown wounded in the foot, an injury said to have left him limping for the rest of his life, while he wounds his opponent in return.

Why it matters

This drawing is part of a tradition among Plains peoples of recording personal history through images rather than writing. Because Sitting Bull made it himself, it offers a firsthand, visual account of an event that shaped his body and his reputation as a warrior, in contrast to the many accounts written about him by others.

Look closer

  • What details tell you this is a violent encounter, and how is the outcome shown?
  • Why might Sitting Bull have wanted this wound and fight remembered?
  • What can a drawing show about a person's life that a written document cannot?

This artifact is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake) on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill

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