The Wounded Knee Massacre took place in the United States of America (South Dakota) on December 29, 1890. About 200 Native Americans from the Lakota Minneconjou Tribe of the Sioux (including several dozen women and children) were killed by the United States Army. The term "massacre" was used by General Nelson A. Miles in a March 13, 1917 letter to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs.
Five hundred soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States supported by four Hotchkiss machine guns surrounded a camp of Lakota Indians with the order to convey them by train to Omaha in Nebraska. The commander of the 7th had received the order to carry out a preliminary disarmament. There are different versions of the massacre but historians agree that the shooting began during the disarmament of the Indians. A gunshot rang out and the Indians, disarmed and surrounded, were machine-gunned. Twenty-five troopers and 153 Sioux Indians were killed, including 62 women and children. The Indian corpses were buried in a mass grave at the site of the massacre. Other Sioux died of their wounds later. Soldiers firing from four sides at once, some of the military casualties were probably hit by their comrades.
In February 1890, the United States government broke a treaty with the Lakota by dividing the Great Sioux State Reservation of South Dakota (which encompassed most of the state) into five reservations, all of which was smaller. This was done to satisfy the interests of the landowners in the East and was in accordance with the government's clearly stated policy "to sever tribal relations" and to compel "the Indians to conform to the white man's way of life. , peacefully if possible or otherwise by force".
Once the reservations were "adjusted", the tribes were separated into family units on 320-acre plots of land. Due to the drought, the harvests of 1890 were insufficient to provide food for the Sioux. Unfortunately for the Indians, the government had also cut the rations in half, as the Indians were deemed "lazy". As the bison had also been practically eradicated from the plain a few years earlier, the Sioux cried famine.
Ghost Dance
In 1890, Jack Wilson, a Native American religious leader known as Wovoka said that during the total solar eclipse of January 1, 1889 he received the revelation to be the Messiah of his people. The spiritual movement he created became known as the Ghost Dance, a syncretic blend of Paiute Spiritualism and Shaker Christianity. Although Wilson predicted the demise of white men, he also taught that until Doomsday, Native Americans should live in peace and not refuse to work for white people.
Among the Sioux, the first two converts to this new religion were Kicking Bear and Short Bull, of the Pine Ridge reservation. Both acknowledged that Wilson had levitated in front of them but they interpreted his words differently. They rejected Wilson's claim to be the Messiah and believed that the Messiah would not arrive until 1891. They also rejected Wilson's pacifism and felt that special clothing, "ghost shirts" ") would protect them from bullets.
The Spirit Dance spreads rapidly among the demoralized and starving Sioux. Frightened, the Indian agents ask for the help of the army. Although probably a majority of the Indians on the Pine Ridge reservation were converted, Chief Sitting Bull was not one of them. However, he guaranteed religious freedom; however, federal officials interpreted this tolerance as full support and General Nelson Miles ordered his arrest. 43 Indian police tried to arrest him on December 15, 1890 at the "Standing Rock Agency". For unclear reasons, a shootout ensued and Sitting Bull was among the twelve killed.
400 Hunkpapa Lakota fled to the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation of the Lakota Minniconjou. 38 Hunkpapa Lakota from the village of Sitting Bull find refuge in the camp of the Lakota Minniconjou of Big Foot in the Cheyenne River reservation. Miles immediately ordered Big Foot's arrest, but the army stalled, hoping that his reputation as a pacifist would prevent hostilities. When the Hunkpapa arrived, and frightened by the arrival of many soldiers in the reserve, the 300 Minniconjous decided to abandon their village and join Chief Red Cloud (who was not part of the Dance of the Spirits movement) at the Pine Ridge Agency.
Unaware of the Indians' intentions, and fearing that Big Foot's destination was the Spirit Dancers' stronghold in the Bad Lands, General Miles deployed the 6th and 9th Cavalry Regiments to blockade the Minniconjou.
Big Foot's clan is intercepted by Major Samuel Whitside and about 200 men of the 7th Cavalry Regiment (massacred at Little Big Horn by the Sioux 14 years before). Whitside transferred Big Foot, who was suffering from severe pneumonia, to a field ambulance and escorted the Lakota to their camp for the night at Wounded Knee Creek. The army provides the Lakota with tents and rations. The Indians are counted:there are 120 men and 230 women and children in the village.
The next morning the Lakota found the rest of the regiment facing them, with its commander, Colonel James W. Forsyth, having arrived during the night, as well as a battery of Hotchkiss guns from the 1st Artillery Regiment. The weapons were placed on a small hill overlooking the camp. Forsyth informed Whitside that the Lakota were to be transferred to an army camp in Omaha, Nebraska.
The massacre
The 7th Cavalry had been ordered by the Platte Department commander, General John Brooke, to disarm the Big Foot clan prior to transfer to Nebraska. The evening before, after being escorted to the camp and surrounded on all sides, the Lakota were considered virtual prisoners. Forsyth chose not to try to disarm them that evening.
In the morning, the Lakota men are rounded up and told that they must surrender all their firearms. Soldiers fearing that weapons remained hidden begin to search the tents, angering the Lakota, who the army says were under the influence of a Minniconjou shaman, Yellow Bird.
When the soldiers try to disarm a Lakota named Black Coyote, a gunshot goes off. A general firefight ensues. Most of the Lakota men, surrounded by the soldiers, are shot. The survivors emerge. It was then that the guns bombarded the village of women and children.
When the firing stopped, 146 Lakota had been killed along with 25 United States troopers. Big Foot is among the dead. Soldiers firing from all sides, it is believed that some of the soldiers were killed by their own regiment but no investigation has revealed the truth.
Consequences
When the snowstorm that has fallen in the meantime has calmed down, the soldiers hire civilians to bury the Lakota victims. 146 Lakota were thus buried in a mass grave:84 men and boys, 44 women, and 18 children. Additionally, 7 injured Lakota died at Pine Ridge Hospital from their wounds.
Colonel Forsyth, disavowed by General Nelson Miles, was immediately relieved of his command. A thorough military investigation conducted by Miles criticizes the tactical arrangements made by Forsyth while absolving him of responsibility. The Secretary of War then restored Forsyth to his command of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. The court ruled that, for the most part, the troopers tried to avoid harm to noncombatants. Nevertheless Miles continued to criticize Forsyth who he claimed had deliberately disobeyed orders. It was from General Miles that the opinion that Wounded Knee was a deliberate massacre rather than a tragedy caused by unfortunate decisions (American public opinion then being generally favorable to Forsyth) originated.
Twenty "Medals of Honor" were awarded to soldiers of the 7th Cavalry for their conduct during the massacre. Currently, Native Americans still insist that they be reclassified as "medals of dishonor".
Many non-Lakota living near the reservations interpreted the battle as the defeat of a murderous "Spirit Dance" cult, conflating followers of that cult with Native Americans in general. Shortly after the massacre, a young newspaper editor, L. Frank Baum, who would later become famous as the author of The Wizard of Oz, wrote in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer newspaper for Saturday, January 3, 1891:
"The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer has once said that our safety depends on the extermination of the Indians. After having wronged them for centuries, we should, in order to protect our civilization, insist again and rid the earth of these creatures "
Towards the end of the 20th century, the criticisms became more lively. Many consider the event one of the greatest atrocities in US history. He was commemorated by the committed song "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee" ("Bury my heart at Wounded Knee") written by Buffy Sainte-Marie. It is also the subject of a best-selling book by historian Dee Brown published in 1971:"Bury my heart at Wounded Knee, an Indian history of the American West). New York:Holt, Rinehart &Winston.
Last armed conflict with Native Americans?
Wounded Knee is generally considered the event that ended 400 years of Indian warfare. Strictly speaking, however, the massacre was not the last conflict between Native Americans and the United States. A skirmish took place at Mission Drexel the day after the Wounded Knee Massacre, which resulted in the death of one trooper and the injury of six others from the 7th United States Cavalry. This event at the Drexel Mission was almost totally overshadowed by the tragedy of the day before. The Lakota dancers who had been persuaded to surrender instead fled upon learning of what had happened at Wounded Knee. They burned down several mission buildings and then ambushed a squadron of the 7th Cavalry and harassed it until reinforcements from the 9th United States Cavalry arrived. Lt. James D. Mann, a major gunnery at Wounded Knee, died of his wounds seventeen days later, January 15, 1891, at Ft. Riley, Kansas.
February 1973:revival of the Indian cause[edit]
More than eighty years after the massacre, on February 27, 1973, Wounded Knee was the scene of a confrontation between federal authorities and activists of the "American Indian Movement".
That day, nearly three hundred Oglala Sioux and sympathizers of the Indian cause went to the village of Wounded Knee and occupied it to demand recognition of their rights and their land.
This event is recounted in a book published by the "Akwesasne Notes" in 1973:"Voices from Wounded Knee". It was filmed in Lakota Woman, Siege at Wounded Knee, through participation in the Mary Crow Dog event.
Within hours, more than 2,000 FBI agents, federal police and representatives of the Bureau of Indian Affairs surround the city and organize a blockade with armored vehicles, machine guns etc.
The siege lasted 71 days and caused two deaths, including Franck Clearwater, an Indian who was resting in a church. A peace was signed and both sides agreed to disarm. The Indians had established a remarkable community, with community canteens, a health service and a hospital, within the besieged territory. A Navajo Indian, veteran of the Vietnam War then said:
"The calmness of the people was really amazing given that we were being shot at all the time.. but they stayed because they had a cause to defend. That's why we lost in Vietnam, because the cause was bad. We fought a war of the rich for the rich... At Wounded Knee we did a good job and the morale was good. We kept laughing despite everything."