The Wounded Knee Massacre
Battle Between U.S. 7th Cavalry and Sioux Indians Left Scores Dead
Apr 22, 2009
The events that led to this unfortunate encounter were set in motion years earlier. The U.S. government divided South Dakota into smaller reservations to accommodate white homesteaders from the east, and there was also the introduction of the Ghost Dance. Tribal relationships were actively discouraged and the U.S. Congress cut beef rations in half, starving the already hungry bands of Sioux Indians. The ongoing antagonism between the Native Americans and white government officials culminated in a bloodbath on December 29, 1890.
Life on the Indian Reservations
The government's policies were a volatile mixture of indifference, inefficiency and corruption. Indian land was being reduced in size with each passing year and with the disappearance of the American bison the Sioux were becoming increasingly desperate.
Wovoka and the Ghost Dance
A Paiute Indian from Nevada named Wovoka reported in early 1889 he had a glorious vision in which he was taken into the spirit world and shown a land with plentiful food and rejuvenated soil. Buffaloes and antelopes reappeared as did the deceased ancestors of the Indian tribes. The Ghost Dance was exactly what it implied. Songs, chanting and frequent ceremonial cleansing were integral to this new belief system introduced by Wovoka.
Indian groups from all over the western United States came to regard Wovoka as a kind of messiah and believed that by practicing the Ghost Dance the white man's rule and all the forced submission that went along with it would end forever. Wovoka, who was hardly a radical or violent man, was dedicated to peace.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs
The white agents at this government bureau viewed the Ghost Dance with suspicion and fear. Believing this was a clever disguise for an organized rebellion, it was outlawed. This didn't stop the Indians from performing these activities. This escalated the panic of the agents and they called for army reinforcements.
Sitting Bull's Death and the Surrender of Big Foot
Sitting Bull was one of the most influential Sioux leaders of his time and a supporter of the Ghost Dance movement. He was shot and killed at the Standing Rock Indian Reservation by U.S. troops when they tried to arrest him. An arrest warrant had also been issued for Big Foot, Sitting Bull's half brother who was considered to be a troublemaker.
He and a large group of followers were on their way to the Pine Ridge Reservation to meet another Sioux chief named Red Cloud. Together with Big Foot he wanted to persuade some militant Indians who had gathered at Pine Ridge for a fight to surrender.
Porcupine Creek – December 28, 1890
Big Foot and his people never made it to Pine Ridge. They were surrounded by the U.S. 7th Cavalry and Maj. Samuel Whitside took them to Wounded Knee Creek. Col. James W. Forsyth arrived that evening and took command of the operation. His orders were to take the Indians to the nearest railroad, at which point they would be shipped to Omaha, Nebraska.
That's not what the Indians heard. A rumor was going around that they would be deported to Indian Territory which had unbearable living conditions (present day Oklahoma). This lack of communication was due to language barriers and it raised the level of tension considerably.
The Day of the Wounded Knee Massacre
Five hundred U.S. Army soldiers were now in the camp and demanded the Indians relinquish their weapons. Historians are divided when it comes to what exactly set the whole thing off. Some are convinced a Sioux medicine man, Yellow Bird, began dancing the Ghost Dance and telling his people that the white man's bullets would not hurt them. Other reports claim a deaf Indian named Black Coyote didn't hear the order to give up his rifle and when the white soldiers became annoyed and tried to take it from him it accidentally discharged.
Bullets started to fly from four Hotchkiss guns that had been placed around the camp and a huge cloud of smoke engulfed the area. Sioux men, women and children were cut down like wild buffaloes. Some of them were pursued several miles into the countryside. About an hour later it was over. One hundred and fifty three Sioux were dead, Big Foot among them. Twenty-five U.S. troops were killed mostly from their own bullets. The Indian wars had ended.
Sources:
What Every American Should Know About American History Dr. Alan Axelrod and Charles Phillips, Zenda, Inc 1992.
Death at Wounded Knee Time Magazine, March 12, 1976.
pbs.org
woundedkneemuseum.org
uneco.org
