Robert M. Utley’s The Last Sovereigns: Sitting Bull and the Resistance of the Free Lakotas exposes a new angle to the history of Sitting Bull after Little Bighorn and before his death in 1890. Reading against the grain of traditional archival sources such as government correspondence and documents, Utley shows us how the Lakotas’ search for sovereignty and agency in the years after Little Bighorn contributes to the burgeoning history of this important Lakota leader. In regard to Utley’s previous work on Sitting Bull, The Last Sovereigns serves two purposes. First, it contributes to Utley’s Sitting Bull: The Life and Times of an American Patriot (2008), filling in a period that has been understudied. Second, the accessibility of the book allows for broad audiences to understand Sitting Bull’s life in Canada before his death, while making a crucial historiographical call to action for the exploration of deeper notions of Lakota...
Skip Nav Destination
Article navigation
October 1, 2021
