The Massacre At Wounded Knee: A Final Act Of Genocide

 

Dec. 29, 1890, U.S. Cavalry troops went into the Lakota encampment on Wounded Knee Creek on the Pineridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota. They were supposedly there to collect weapons and the Lakota were being peaceful when an altercation between an old man named Black Coyote and two troopers broke out and his rifle went off. This sudden weapons fire reportedly caused the frightened soldiers, who were already disturbed by a man named Sits Straight starting to dance the Ghost Dance, to begin randomly firing. When they were done between 150 and 300 Sioux were dead, more than half women, children, and elderly. 25 cavalry troops were also killed, it is believed by friendly fire the way the army had circled the camp and began firing. The Ghost Dance religion had swept the plains natives over the last two years as it contained the promise of removal of the whites from the native land. This and raids on white settlements had made the Bureau of Indian Affairs take a very hard stand against the Lakota. The Lakota themselves were also on edge because of the assignation of the great chief Tatanka Iyotake (Sitting Bull) on December 15th.

The Massacre at Wounded Knee proved to be one of the last incidents in the repression of the First Nations of the Plains. The BIA attempted to portray the devastation at Wounded Knee as a battle, but later investigations and eyewitness accounts clearly established the event as a mass murder. There was no significant armed resistance, because of the weapons confiscation, and the U.S. Army combatants significantly outnumbered the Lakota.

For some reason, 20 Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded for action during the massacre. In June 2019, a bill was proposed by the United States Congress to rescind the medals that were received for this action. In 1990, the United States Congress apologized to the descendants of those killed at Wounded Knee

Sources:

https://www.britannica.com/event/Wounded-Knee-Massacre

https://historyguild.org/wounded-knee-shame-or-honour/