The picture, as you might guess, is cropped. The full picture is this:
Notice what is usually cropped out of the picture: a crucifix. That's right: Sitting Bull became a Catholic and was not ashamed to show it.
The real question is why the crucifix is generally cropped out of the photo.
I have enjoyed being a student of history for most of my life. And knowing that "to the victor go the spoils" generally means the victor's own spin on the recording of their event in history. It is my educated guess that leaving out the crucifix helped to demonize him, to make him look bad in the eyes of society at that time. To show him with the crucifix would have shown people that the "savage had been tamed."
ReplyDeleteYou forget the anti-Catholic bias of most publishers. After all, it is the last acceptable prejudice.
ReplyDeletePrecisely. We don't know whether the photo was cropped in it's own day, only that it IS cropped in today's textbooks.
ReplyDeleteIronically, Multiculturalists fail to consider Catholicism culturally diverse.
Incidentally, it is believed that Catholic convert William Frederick “Buffalo Bill” Cody was inspired to become a Catholic by his friend Sitting Bull.
http://www.ncregister.com/blog/6-of-the-most-unexpected-converts