by Lorie Liggett
The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 (which was originally
referred to by the United States army as the Battle of Wounded Knee -- a
descriptive moniker that remains highly contested by the Native American
community) is known as the event that ended the last of the Indian wars in
America. As the year came to a close, the Seventh Cavalry of the United States
Army brought an horrific end to the century-long U.S. government-Indian armed
conflicts.
On the bone-chilling morning of December 29, devotees of the
newly created Ghost Dance religion made a lengthy trek to the Pine Ridge
Reservation in southwestern South Dakota to seek protection from military
apprehension. Members of the Miniconjou Sioux (Lakota) tribe led by
Chief
Big Foot and the Hunkpapa Sioux (Lakota) followers of the recently slain
charismatic leader, Sitting Bull, attempted to escape arrest by fleeing south
through the rugged terrain of the Badlands.
There,
on the snowy banks of Wounded Knee Creek (Cankpe Opi Wakpala), nearly 300 Lakota
men, women, and children -- old and young -- were massacred in a highly charged,
violent encounter with U.S. soldiers. The memory of that day still evokes
passionate emotional and politicized responses from present-day Native Americans
and their supporters. The Wounded Knee Massacre, according to scholars,
symbolizes not only a culmination of a clash of cultures and the failure of
governmental Indian policies, but also the end of the American frontier.
Although it did bring an end to the Ghost Dance religion, it did not, however,
represent the demise of the
Lakota
culture, which still thrives today.
Return to
1890s America: A Chronology
Cankpe Opi Official Wounded Knee Website
PBS Archives of The West 1887-1914 Documents
Wesbites Devoted to Wounded Knee :
(1), (2)
Lyric's to Buffy
Sainte-Marie's Ballad "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"
The Native Voice
Dee Brown's Book "Bury
My Heart at Wounded Knee"
Native American Protest
Site
NativeNet Resources about Wounded Knee
Workers World
News Article about the 1890 and 1973 Wounded Knee Incidents