On December 29, 1890 at Wounded Knee Creek, on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, some 500 soldiers of the United States Seventh Cavalry opened fire on approximately 350 Lakota (Sioux) Indians of Chief Big Foot’s Miniconjou band. At the end of the confrontation, between 150 and 300 Sioux men, women, and children, including Chief Big Foot, were dead. This event marked the end of Lakota resistance until the 1970s. Apart from the few minor skirmishes that followed, the Wounded Knee massacre ended the Indian Wars.
In many ways, the massacre resulted from the Ghost Dance movement. The movement was led by a Paiute named Wovoka who claimed to have had a vision that the “Old Earth” would be destroyed and a new one created in which Native Americans could live as they had before the coming of the European. He preached that the only way to survive the impending apocalypse would be to faithfully perform the Ghost Dance and the ceremonies associated with it.
Wovoka’s movement began as a peaceful one, which did not exclude other races from participating. Unfortunately, certain followers, most notably Kicking Bear, a member of the original Lakota delegation sent to learn of Wovoka’s teachings, changed the non-violent message into a call for the destruction of the white man that resonated with many members of the Lakota tribes of South Dakota. Many of the more traditional Lakota, with memories of better times still fresh in their minds, took up the Ghost Dance on these violent terms. In October 1890, the Ghost Dance movement reached Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapa Lakota nation on the Standing Rock Reservation in Northern South Dakota. Although it is unlikely that the powerful Lakota chief took an active role in spreading the Ghost Dance doctrine, he was pleased that the movement banded his people together and he allowed its practice.
U.S. government officials became deeply concerned about the popularity of the Ghost Dance movement and its increasingly destructive message. And because of Sitting Bull’s notoriety, the government mistakenly identified him as a major leader of the movement. On December 12, days after Sitting Bull asked for permission to leave the Standing Rock Reservation to visit with uncooperative Ghost Dancers, General Nelson Miles issued the order for his capture. Hearing of the warrant for Sitting Bull’s arrest, Buffalo Bill Cody, a confidant of Sitting Bull’s, volunteered to facilitate the arrest, presumably, to assure Sitting Bull’s safety. He was rebuffed by the Standing Rock Indian Agent, James McLaughlin. Then on December 15, a scuffle erupted outside of Sitting Bull’s home between Ghost Dancers and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) officers sent to arrest the Lakota chief. During the fight Sitting Bull was shot and killed by BIA officer Red Tomahawk. In the aftermath eight Lakota and six BIA officers lay dead.
Sitting Bull’s death created confusion and anger among many Lakota bands. Big Foot, leader of one of the most fervent bands of Ghost Dance practitioners, feared that the Army was ready to retaliate forcefully against the movement’s practitioners. To avoid capture, he and his followers wandered through the South Dakota Badlands for several days. Once his people’s supplies became scarce, he began a trek toward the Pine Ridge agency. His ultimate goal was to reach the protection of Chief Red Cloud, who had a reputation for negotiating well with the U.S. government. On December 28, during what would have been the last leg of their journey to Pine Ridge, Big Foot and his followers were intercepted by cavalry troops under Major Samuel Whitside and escorted to the Wounded Knee army camp. There the Lakota camped under a flag of truce, surrounded by Seventh Cavalry troops under the command of Colonel James W. Forsyth.
On the morning of December 29, Colonel Forsyth ordered the disarmament of Big Foot’s band. The disarmament proceeded slowly as the Miniconjou were reluctant to give up their only means of protection. The slow progress of disarmament frustrated the cavalry officers, increasing the already heightened tension. The conflict came to a head when a young deaf Sioux named Black Coyote resisted the seizure of his brand new rifle. In the ensuing struggle between Black Coyote and the two cavalrymen who were attempting to disarm him, the rifle discharged into the air. Almost immediately after this first shot, the cavalrymen returned fire with an opening volley that struck and killed Big Foot. Hearing the fire in the Sioux camp, soldiers posted on the ridges overlooking the camp opened fire with light artillery. The soldiers fired indiscriminately on men, and women and children who were unarmed and fleeing the battle scene. The Lakota suffered hundreds of casualties; twenty-five soldiers perished mostly due to their own crossfire. One Lakota survivor was an infant who was found at her dead mother’s side. Named Lost Bird she was adopted by Brigadier General Leonard W. Colby, commander of the Nebraska National Guard.
The Wounded Knee massacre was the last major confrontation between Indians and the American military until the late twentieth century. On February 27, 1973, conflict erupted again near the site of the massacre eighty-three years earlier. This time members of both the Lakota tribe and the American Indian Movement seized control of Wounded Knee to protest the U.S.-sanctioned Lakota tribal government, and to demand a government review of all Indian treaties. The protestors were confronted by officers of several federal agencies including the FBI, U.S. Marshals, Bureau of Indian Affairs police, as well as the National Guard. By the end of the ensuing seventy-one-day stand off two protestors were dead and twelve others injured, including two marshals. Over 1,200 people were arrested.
Source: The Library of Congress