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Wounded Knee Massacre
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WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE

United States history [1890]
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By Myles Hudson • Edit History

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Wounded Knee Massacre
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Date: December 29, 1890 ...(Show more) Location: South Dakota United States
Wounded Knee ...(Show more) Participants: Sioux Teton United States ...(Show
more) Context: Dawes General Allotment Act Treaties of Fort Laramie ...(Show
more) Key People: Sitting Bull ...(Show more)
See all related content →


Wounded Knee Massacre, (December 29, 1890), the slaughter of approximately
150–300 Lakota Indians by United States Army troops in the area of Wounded Knee
Creek in southwestern South Dakota. The massacre was the climax of the U.S.
Army’s late 19th-century efforts to repress the Plains Indians. It broke any
organized resistance to reservation life and assimilation to white American
culture, although American Indian activists renewed public attention to the
massacre during a 1973 occupation of the site.




CONTEXT

For much of the United States’ period of westward expansion, white settlers’
attempts to claim plots of land were met with fierce and sometimes violent
resistance from indigenous peoples. This resistance intensified in the latter
half of the 19th century as the U.S. federal government repeatedly signed and
violated treaties with various Plains tribal leaders. Most prominent among these
were the Sioux Indians, of which the Lakota are a subgroup. The Treaty of Fort
Laramie in 1868 established the 60-million-acre Great Sioux Reservation and
created agencies to represent the federal government among each tribe. If the
Lakota stayed on the reservation and refrained from attacking white settlers,
they would be provided with food rations, education, and other state-funded
benefits. However, U.S. interest in natural resources on the reservation
resulted in a series of conflicts that saw the Great Sioux Reservation shrink
from 60 million acres to 21.7 million acres by 1877. The General Allotment Act
of 1887 further reduced the acreage to a mere 12.7 million, barely 20 percent of
the original allotment. The unbroken tract of land now consisted of six separate
reservations centred on existing federal agencies.


Sherman, William T.; Sioux
Gen. William T. Sherman and his staff negotiating the Treaty of Fort Laramie
with representatives of the Sioux and Arapaho tribes in what is now Wyoming.
National Archives, Washington, D.C. (Identifier no. 531079)

Fort Laramie, Treaty of; Sioux
Treaty of Fort Laramie, 1868.
National Archives, Washington, D.C.
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Reservation life was an abrupt and difficult adjustment for the Lakota who
acquiesced to the U.S. government. Federal agents encouraged them to raise
livestock and grow crops, a lifestyle that was unsuited to the semiarid
environment of the northern Great Plains and largely foreign to a nomadic people
who hunted game. The Lakota were required to adopt Western dress, learn English,
observe Christian principles, and abandon traditional religion. This process of
forced assimilation hacked away at Lakota culture and identity, and the
government rations program in particular made reservation life impractical to
escape. Without access to their large swaths of hunting grounds, the Lakota were
forced to rely on government-issued rations for survival. In 1889 the U.S.
Congress slashed the annual Lakota rations budget. When combined with the harsh
winter and drought of 1889–90, the tribe was pushed to the brink of starvation.



Lakota camp
Lakota camp near Pine Ridge Reservation, southwestern South Dakota, U.S., 1891.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Sioux
Idealized depiction of life for the Sioux at the Standing Rock Agency.
Government-issued cattle were enclosed in a pen and shot, a practice introduced
by U.S. officials as a replacement for the traditional bison hunt.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Such was the state of the Lakota when the Ghost Dance religious movement swept
across the Plains in 1890. The Ghost Dance was not a new movement: the first
iteration took hold around 1870 among the Northern Paiute in Nevada, but it
faded out after a few years. It experienced a revival in 1889 under the
leadership of a Paiute prophet named Wovoka, whose father, Tavibo, had been a
prominent devotee of the first Ghost Dance and taught his son about the
religion. Wovoka was also raised among white ranchers who exposed him to
Christianity. During a total solar eclipse on January 1, 1889, Wovoka fell
unconscious and experienced a dream that he believed was prophetic. According to
his millenarian interpretation, God told him that the Indians needed to remain
peaceful and regularly perform a ritual circle dance. If they followed these
instructions, then in 1891 God would return the earth to its natural state prior
to the arrival of European colonists. He would bury the white settlers under 30
feet (9 metres) of soil and would raise Indian ancestors from the dead. This was
an enticing promise for many of the Plains Indians, but Wovoka’s prophetic
message struck an especially strong chord among the destitute Lakota. They
modified the Ghost Dance to address the intense violence they had endured at the
hands of white settlers and the U.S. Army, incorporating white "ghost shirts"
painted with various symbols that they believed would protect them from bullets.
Not all Lakota took up the Ghost Dance, but it grew in popularity on the
reservations throughout much of 1889 and 1890.


Ghost Dance
Oglala Sioux performing the Ghost Dance.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-3726)

In August 1890 Daniel F. Royer became head of the Pine Ridge Agency; he arrived
at his post in October. Many of the Oglala Lakota on his reservation had become
passionate Dancers, and he was both displeased with and fearful of their
religion. Whereas some federal agents and officials were more tolerant of the
practice, Royer was convinced that the Ghost Dancers were militant and
threatened to destroy the U.S. government’s decades-long effort to “civilize”
the Lakota. When the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) requested a list of Indian
“troublemakers” to be slated for relocation, Royer placed influential Dancers at
the top of his list and demanded that the military address the matter.



letter from Buffalo Bill
Letter from Buffalo Bill to Brig. Gen. Leonard Wright Colby describing the
situation at the Pine Ridge Agency. It reads, “Great change today prospects for
peace but would advise strick [sic] vigilance Will keep you advised by telegraph
Cody.”
Bureau of Indian Affairs, National Archives, Washington, D.C. (ARC Identifier
901939)

In November the U.S. Army arrived on Lakota reservations with the goal of
stopping the rise of the Ghost Dance. One source indicates that it was the
largest deployment of federal troops since the end of the Civil War in 1865.
Near the Standing Rock Agency lived Sitting Bull, a powerful Hunkpapa Lakota
chief and spiritual leader who had led the Lakota and Northern Cheyenne to
victory in 1876 against the U.S. Army at the Little Bighorn. Many of his 250
followers were Dancers, and, though he personally was not a practitioner, he
refused to let the federal government repress them any further. Maj. James
McLaughlin, the reservation’s agent, resolved to arrest Sitting Bull for his
role in permitting the spread of the religion. Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles
commanded U.S. Army forces on the Lakota lands and hoped to take a peaceful
approach to removing the Hunkpapa leader from the reservation. McLaughlin chose
to undermine that plan, instead dispatching 43 tribal policemen to Sitting
Bull’s cabin on December 15. Sitting Bull was compliant, but his followers would
not relinquish him without protest. A vicious struggle ensued, and roughly nine
Hunkpapa were killed; among the dead was Sitting Bull.


Sitting Bull
Sitting Bull, 1884.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (LC-USZ62-122859)

The death of Sitting Bull struck fear into the hearts of those Lakota who had
been opposed to reservation life. Some, numbering in the thousands, gathered in
the Stronghold region of the South Dakota Badlands in preparation for a U.S.
attack. Others rushed to Pine Ridge, where the Oglala chief Red Cloud was
attempting to negotiate the preservation of Lakota traditions without bloodshed.
Miniconjou Lakota chief Sitanka, known to the white Americans as Big Foot, hoped
to join those at Pine Ridge and help find a peaceful resolution to this tense
matter. Although he was not a Ghost Dancer, many of his people were, and he had
been placed on the BIA’s list of hostiles. As he was leading some 350 Miniconjou
southwest from the Cheyenne River reservation to Pine Ridge reservation, the
U.S. Army grew fearful of his intentions. Miles ordered a detachment of the 7th
Cavalry to intercept Big Foot, confiscate all weapons in his band, and escort
them to a military prison at Fort Omaha, Nebraska.


Red Cloud and American Horse
Sioux chiefs Red Cloud and American Horse.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.



MASSACRE

On December 28, 1890, the 7th Cavalry, commanded by Col. James W. Forsyth,
reached the Miniconjou camp near Wounded Knee Creek, located roughly 20 miles
northeast of the Pine Ridge Agency. The late Gen. George Armstrong Custer had
led the 7th Cavalry to its demise at the Little Bighorn less than 15 years
earlier. Big Foot saw Forsyth’s scouts and informed them that he would surrender
without resistance. On December 29 Forsyth convened with the Miniconjou to begin
the process of weapons confiscation. He herded them into a nearby clearing, had
their men form a council circle, and surrounded the circle with his cavalry. He
also positioned four Hotchkiss guns on a hilltop bordering the clearing.



Wounded Knee Massacre reenactment
U.S. troops surrounding the Lakota at Wounded Knee, South Dakota; reenactment
dated November 10, 1913.
Miller Studio, Gordon, Nebraska; Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
(reproduction no. LC-USZ62-133722)

Forsyth was clear in his terms: the Miniconjou must surrender all their weapons.
Big Foot was hesitant, but he surrendered a few guns as a token of peace.
Forsyth was not satisfied and ordered a complete search of the people and their
camp, where his men discovered a host of hidden weapons. The increasingly
intrusive search angered some of the Miniconjou. A man named Sits Straight began
to dance the Ghost Dance and attempted to rouse the other members of the band,
claiming that bullets would not touch them if they donned their sacred ghost
shirts. The soldiers grew tense as Sits Straight’s dance reached a frenzy. When
a deaf Miniconjou named Black Coyote refused to give up his gun, the weapon
accidentally went off, and the fraught situation turned violent as the 7th
Cavalry opened fire. Because many of the Miniconjou had already given up their
weapons, they were left defenseless. Scores of Miniconjou were shot and killed
in the first few moments, among them Big Foot. Some women and children attempted
to flee the scene and sought protection in a nearby ravine, but the Hotchkiss
guns fired on their position at a rate of 50 2-pound (0.9-kg) shells per minute.
The Miniconjou who were able to make it a little farther were cut down by the
mounted soldiers. The 7th Cavalry did not discriminate.


Wounded Knee Massacre
Aerial view of the ravine at Wounded Knee, where Lakota women and children
sought refuge from the 7th Cavalry's Hotchkiss guns, 1891.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-USZ62-42550)



CASUALTIES AND AFTERMATH

Immediately following the massacre, Forsyth ordered the transportation of 51
wounded Miniconjou to the Pine Ridge Agency. Hundreds of Lakota who lived there
fled the area in horror; some even ambushed the 7th Cavalry in retaliation,
prompting Miles to dispatch more troops to the area to quell further resistance.
On January 2, 1891, a band of Lakota went to the site of the massacre and
rescued a few survivors from the snow. The following day the U.S. Army
unceremoniously buried 146 Miniconjou in a mass grave where the Hotchkiss guns
had been placed, a location today known as Cemetery Hill. Many of the corpses
were naked. Modern scholars estimate that between 250 and 300 Miniconjou were
killed in total, almost half of whom were women and children. At least 25 U.S.
soldiers also died, many likely fallen to friendly fire.



Wounded Knee Massacre
Unburied dead at Big Foot's camp roughly three weeks after the Wounded Knee
Massacre, January 1891.
Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (reproduction no. LC-DIG-ppmsca-15849)

The BIA attempted to portray the destruction at Wounded Knee as a battle, but
later investigations and eyewitness accounts clearly established the event as a
massacre. There was no significant armed resistance, because of the weapons
confiscation, and the U.S. Army combatants significantly outnumbered the
Miniconjou present. It is plausible that the 7th Cavalry committed this atrocity
to avenge their humiliation at the Little Bighorn. Miles was appalled at their
actions, stripped Forsyth of his command, and conducted an investigation of the
events. However, Forsyth was deemed innocent and restored to his former post.
Furthermore, 20 U.S. cavalrymen received a Congressional Medal of Honor, the
highest honour conferred upon a member of the U.S. armed forces. In June 2019
several members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced the Remove the
Stain Act, a bill that would rescind those awards. The measure was cosponsored
by Rep. Deb Haaland, one of the first American Indian women to serve in
Congress.


Wounded Knee Massacre monument
Monument at the site of a mass grave for the victims of the Wounded Knee
Massacre, Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
© Mark Edward Harris—Stockbyte/Getty Images

The Wounded Knee Massacre marked the last major armed conflict between the
United States and the Plains Indians. The Ghost Dance religion sputtered out,
with Wovoka himself begging his people to follow “the only trail now open—the
white man’s road.” In February 1973, however, some 200 American Indian Movement
activists occupied the hamlet at Wounded Knee to alert the public to persistent
civil rights violations on the Pine Ridge Reservation. They declared it the
“Independent Oglala Sioux Nation” and refused to leave until the U.S. federal
government ousted the presiding Sioux chairman, promised to honour all Indian
treaties, and corrected the treatment of American Indians throughout the
country. Federal troops besieged the area for 71 days, reaching a half-hearted
settlement only after two deaths and several exchanges of gunfire. Despite the
hundreds of arrests that followed, the activists achieved their goal of drawing
attention to the United States’ repeated infringement upon American Indian
rights and sovereignty.


1973 standoff at Wounded Knee
American Indian Movement members and U.S. authorities meeting to resolve the
1973 standoff at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
Jim Mone—AP Images/Shutterstock.com
Myles Hudson



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