One week after the June 1876 Battle of the Little Big Horn, when news of the defeat of Custer and his 7
th
Cavalry troops reached the American public, Lakota Chief Sitting Bull became the most wanted hostile Indian in America. He had resisted intrusions into Lakota land for years, refused to sign treaties, and had called for a gathering of tribes at Little Big Horn. He epitomized resistance. But there are other battles than those of war, and the conflict between Sitting Bull and Indian Agent James McLaughlin was one of those battles. Theirs was a fight over the hearts and minds of the Lakota.