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Caroline Weldon was a Swiss-American artist and activist who became Sitting Bull's secretary and interpreter in 1889. She painted four portraits of the Lakota leader, warned him of the Ghost Dance movement, and faced persecution and tragedy in her life.
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In the late 1880s, Weldon was vilified as a harpy who was in love with Sitting Bull. Both she and the Lakota leader would meet tragic fates.
When Caroline Weldon arrived at the Standing Rock Reservation in 1889, she attracted attention. The Sioux people who lived there hadn’t invited her. The white settlers who lived nearby didn’t understand why she wanted to go there. She herself was on the run from life as a social outcast in the East, her young son in tow.
But as she approached the encampment of Lakota leader Sitting Bull, she was confident in her mission: to help save the Sioux people from a government that wanted to take away their land and their way of life.
The Last of the Sioux
Weldon’s mission did not succeed, and she soon became a social pariah for her attempts to help the Sioux people. As the events that would ultimately end Sitting Bull’s life began to swirl, Weldon acted as his secretary and advocate, agitating for better treatment of Native Americans during a time in which bigotry against people like the Sioux was not just socially acceptable, but written into federal law.
“Weldon was one of the only white people of her time of either gender who not only had the right political view of Native American rights, but also gave her life to work for those rights,” says Eileen Pollack, author of Woman Walking Ahead: In Search of Catherine Weldon and Sitting Bull. The book, which details Weldon’s doomed, self-appointed mission to help Sitting Bull and the Sioux, was adapted into Woman Walks Ahead, a historical drama released in June 2018.
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Caroline Weldon was a Swiss immigrant who became a social outcast for her unconventional views and actions. She traveled to Standing Rock Reservation to help Sitting Bull and the Sioux people, but her efforts were futile and she died in poverty.
- 4 min
Jun 29, 2018 · One of history’s most famous Native American leaders, he’s most well known today for defeating General George Custer’s army at The Battle of the Little...
- 2 min
- Olivia B. Waxman
Jun 24, 2019 · It wasn’t until artist Caroline Weldon (December 4, 1844–March 15, 1921) became the celebrated protagonist of the 2018 motion picture Woman Walks Ahead that I—and many of our museum visitors—learned the fascinating story of this unusual woman’s courage and determination.
Oct 7, 2018 · Learn about the real Caroline Weldon, a Swiss-born activist who befriended Sitting Bull in the Dakota Territory. Discover how the movie A Woman Walks Ahead deviates from history and what really happened to the Lakota chief and his people.
- Michelle Shocklee
Feb 16, 2019 · Caroline Weldon was an Indian rights activist who decided she wanted to help the Sioux in their fight against the Indian Affairs people. She also wanted to paint Sitting Bull, the head of the Hunkpapa Sioux tribe and one of the most famous Native Americans of all time.
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The Indian police who had shot and killed him earlier that day were tearing through his cabins when they found two of the chief's wives and several other women hiding his son under a...
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