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The Beginning of the End |
| First of all the battle of Wounded Knee was in fact not a battle . It was a massacre. Killing between 150 to 400 Sioux women, children, men, and warriors. Between all that most of the casualties were women and children. |
| Two years earlier on a reservation in Nevada, a Paiute named Wovoka, also known as Jack Wilson, had a dream. He said, "That an Indian messiah would come and restore the land, bring the buffalo back, fresh soil that would bury the white men, and reunite them with their dead families. This was called the Ghost Dance. |
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The Ghost Dance |
| From Wovoka's teachings a grew a cult. Started in 1888, the Ghost Dance also taught to reject white man's culture and alcohol. At the dances the Indians would dance like crazy. They felt that they could glimpse the future by these frenzied dances. The word spread across the nation. Soon Indians across the country were doing this. |
| They also thought that the ghost shirts could protect them from the blue coats bullets. Finally the Indians had something to look forward to. But, the U.S. army was very alarmed at this trend. they thought that this trend would bring an movement. But, a movement was already brewing. They were confined to all Indian reservations. They were crowded together. Their food, if they got any at all, was poor and in small amounts. Nationwide, on all reservations, the conditions were getting worse. |
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Starvation, coldness, no room, they couldn't hunt, and couldn't even leave the reservation without permission. With everything they had to go through, there was no surprise that there could possibly be an uprising. White's wanted all the chiefs arrested. The first one on the list was Sitting Bull. Lt. Bull Head and his army set out arriving at Sitting Bull's cabin. Sitting Bull went with them without a struggle. But, one of his supporters shot Lt. Bull Head, testing whether or not the army could withstand. |
| While off balance Bull Head shot, accidentally wounding Sitting Bull. Then Red Tomahawk shot Sitting Bull the back of the head. Sitting Bull and 13 others were dead, leaving the other Hunkpapas to surrender after the resistance. Next on the list was Big Foot, his warriors, and the 400 other Sitting Bull followers. This was the beginning of the end. |
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December 29,1890 |
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On the early morning of December 29,1890, the U.S. army was on a mission. That mission was to arrest Big Foot and disarm his warriors. Led by Forsyth and the new 7th Calvary. They carried 4 Hotchkiss guns, which was very lethal, fast firing, shooting a small cannon. They went up the Wounded Knee river, which according to legend Crazy Horse' heart was buried. They surrounded the Sioux camp. The Indians tried to surrender, but one of the guns accidentally discharged. Causing a violent shooting, resulting in the Wounded Knee massacre. During the brutal battle, bullets were flying every where. Smoke from guns, causing people to be running in every direction without seeing where they were going. Women and children were running into the next valley for safety. After the battle they counted up 400 women, children, men, and the warriors were dead. Big Foot was among the first of the causalities. They counted up only 25 soldiers dead. Most of the Indian casualties were women and children. Some saw this as a revenge for the Battle of Little Big horn. And it was, it was the last time the Indians and the whites would ever have contact again. |
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Second Encounter |
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On February 27,1973 the supporters of AIM (American Indian Movement) seized and held the Indians who lined at Wounded Knee, also known as Pine Ridge Reservation. During the seize that lasted 70 days, several people on both sides were injured and 2 Native American were actually killed. |
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From the Eyes Who Lived It |
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" Indians are dancing in the snow wild and crazy...we need protection and we need it now. The leaders should be arrested and confined at some military post until the matters are quieted, and this should be done now." - McLaughlin, Indian agent " That women and children were the causalities was unfortunate, but unavoidable, and most have been killed from Indian bullets... the Indians have brought other own destruction as surely as any people ever did. Their attack on the troops was astrocacherous as any in the history of Indian warfare, and that they were under a strange religious hallucinations is only an explanation not an excuse." - General E.D. Scott.
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