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The military said Chief Sitting Bull started the Ghost Dance Religion.
So men were sent to out to catch him. They found him and they
captured him. When he was caught he shouted out.
One of his fellow Indians heard the shout. That Indian fired a
rifle at a former fellow Sioux Lieutenant Bull Head. As the chief
of police was falling to the ground he managed to fire a shot and hit
Sitting Bull. After the gunfire stopped six policemen, Sitting
Bull, and eight of his men were killed. |
| The death of Sitting Bull
made Chief Big Foot want to get to Fort Bennett for safety and to
procure rations. Colonel E.V. Sumner found the Indians and he sent
them to Camp Cheyenne where the soldiers would keep a very close eye on
them. The Indians obeyed the order without protest until they came
across their old camp. Then they announced," We won't go any
further." Big Foot advised the colonel that they intended to
return home and that they had done nothing to justify their
removal. |
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| During the night, alarmed by
reports of additional troops coming from the east Big Foot's people fled
toward refuge in the Badlands. Another Calvary unit caught up with
them on December 28. They were carrying a white flag. Big Foot
approached Major Whitside to negotiate. Whitside demanded |
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surrender. Big Foot, knowing his band was in no condition to fight
gave in. Whitside made them go to the edge of the Wounded Knee
Creek. While they set up camp Whitside surrounded the Indian
camp. On four sides of the camp were Hotchkiss guns. |
That night Big Foot
came down
with pneumonia. Colonel Forsyth gave Big Foot a camp stove.
In the morning Col. Forsyth prepared to disarm the captives.
Outside an uneasiness edged into hair-triggered tension. Then a
medicine man called Yellow Bird began blowing on an eagle-bone
whistle, exhorting them to resist. When the solders began to
search the warriors themselves, the situation erupted. A
young Indian pulled out a gun from under his robe and fired it like a
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maniac. Big Foot died when he rose from his sickbed. The Indians
that fled were all killed in the blizzards that occurred after
the attack. The wagons of the wounded arrived only 4
Indian men and 47 women and children. The burial was held
on New Years Day 1891. One by one the frozen bodies of
the dead were pulled from the snow and thrown into a pit.
Four babies were found still alive.
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