When Resistance Died on a Cold Morning - December 15, 1890

On December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull, the legendary Lakota leader who defeated Custer at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, was killed during an arrest attempt on the Standing Rock Reservation. But Richard Backus examines the deeper tragedy: Sitting Bull was killed by Indian Police, Native officers working for the government that had systematically destroyed their way of life. From his investigator's perspective, he explores how systems of oppression work not just through direct violence but by creating impossible choices, by turning communities against themselves, and by forcing people to choose between survival and values. This isn't just about one death, it's about cultural genocide, the machinery that creates impossible positions, and patterns that continue today in how oppressed communities are policed and divided.