lieved that he could control the Indians on his reservation without resorting to harsh measures, but toward the end of December, when he learned that Sitting Bull was preparing to leave the reservation without authority, he too believed that the time had come when the old medicine man should be arrested. Order is preserved upon the Indian reservations through a system of Indian police, and Major McLaughlin had detailed a large number of
Fort Sully
his policemen to watch Sitting Bull and report upon his conduct. To these policemen was given the task of arresting Sitting Bull and bringing him into the agency. In this they were to be assisted by Captain Fetchet and a company of soldiers from Fort Yates. The arrest was to be made at daybreak on Monday morning, December 15.
Sitting Bull's home was on Grand River, in northern South Dakota, where he lived in two substantial log cabins, a few rods apart. Forty-three policemen, under command of Lieutenant Bull Head, who was a very cool and reliable man, surrounded Sitting Bull's house. Ten
