1890 - THE YEAR OP THE MASSACKB AT WOUNDED KNEE - THE INDIAN WAS DRIVEN OPF THE WESTERN PLAINS POR ©OOD. IT WAS THE CUMAX TO MOO YEARS OF VIOLENCE THAT BESAN WITH CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS.
YEARS OF WAR AND SOVERNMENT SUPPRESSION DECIMATED THE BEA4AININ6 INDIANS OF THE WEST. THE BUFFALO, ON WHICH THEIR FOOD, SHELTER, AND EVEN RELI9ION DEPENDED, SUFFERED THE SAA4E FATE, DECUNING FROM GO MIUJON TO FEWER THAN tOO BY 1809. MOURNING THE DEMISE OF THEIR PEOPLE, THE THEFT OF THEIR LANDS, AND THE DESTRUCTION OF THEIR WAY OF UFE, THE INDIANS TURNED TO A NEW
SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT: THE QHOST DANCE. A BLEND OF INDIAN MYSTICISM AND CHRISTIANITY TAUGHT BY THE PAILTTE HOLY MAN WOVOKA. THE SIOUX ADOPTED THE RITUAL, WHICH PROMISED TO RESURRECT ALL THE INDIANS AND BUFFALO SLAIN BY THE WHITE INVADER. THE EARTH, THEY BEUEVED, WOULD BE DESTROYED AND RE-CREATED, THE WHITE MAN WOULD BE NO MORE, AND THE INDIANS WOULD REIGN ONCE AGAIN.
THE U. s. SOVECNMENT BANNED THE GHOST DANCE. BRANDINS IT A SAVAGE SPECTACLE THAT FRISHTENED WHITE SETTLERS. THE SIOUX'S NEW RITUAL SPURRED A U. S. ASENT AT THE PINE RIDGE RESERVATION IN SOUTH DAXOTA TO WIRE WASHINGTON, ‘INDIANS ARE DANCING IN THE SNOW AND ARE WILD AND CRAZY WE NEED PROTECTION.*
THE ARMY WAS SENT TO ROUND UP THE SIOUX GHOST DANCERS. FEARFUL OF THE SOLDIERS, A BAND OF 350 OGLALA SIOUX LED BY BIG FOOT BEGAN A 150-MILE TREK THROUGH THE BADLANDS TO REACH THE PROTECTION OF CHIEF RED CLOUD. WHO HAD PROMISED FOOD, SHELTER, AND HORSES. THEY SOUGHT REFUGE NEAR WOUNDED KNEE CREEK A GROUP OF ABOUT 500 TROOPERS FOLLOWED THEM.
IT WAS DURING THE MOON OF POPPING TREES, WHEN I WAS 27 YEARS OLD, THAT I SAW THE SOLDIERS RIDING OFF IN THE EVENING.
I FELT THAT SOMETHING TERRIBLE WAS GOING TO HAPPEN THAT NIGHT, AND I COULD HARDLY SLEEP.
THE NEXT MOHNINS I WENT OUT AFTER MY HORSE.
IN THE MORNING THE SOLDIERS BEGAN TO TAKE AWAY ALL OUR GUNS. THE PEOPLE HAD STACKED MOST OF THEIR GUNS BY THE TEEPEE WHERE BIG FOOT WAS LYING SICK. SOLDIERS WERE ON THE LiTTLE HILL THE PEOPLE WERE NEARLY SURROUNDED, WITH WAGON GUNS POINTING AT THEM.
R WAS fN Bfs poors teepee
SUDDENLY THE SOLDIERS WERE ALL SHOOTINQ AND THE WASON SUNS BESAN FIRING ON OUR PEOPLE...
WE COULD SEE CAVALRYMEN SHOOTING.
. . ...AND THEN AN OFPICER BURST L. V A IN AND KJLLED BIS FOOT'
............. —
Rr WAS DECEMBER 29. tS90. A SUNNY WINTER DAY. BUT A BUZZARD SWEPT OVER THE COUNTRYSIDE THAT NISHT. DAYS LATER. WHEN THE WEATHER CLEARED. THE VALLEY WAS STREWN WITH FROZEN AND CONTORTED BODIES.
AMONG THEM WAS BIG FOOT. THE OLD CHIEF. WHO HAD ALWAYS ADVOCATED PEACE WITH THE WHITE A4AN. HIS BODY WAS FROZEN IN DEATH.
THE BRUTAL, UNNECESSARY VIOLENCE LASTED LESS THAN AN HOUR. THE SOLDIERS KU?0 250 INDIANS AND WOUNDED 50.
ARMY CASUALTIES WERE 25 DEAD, 39 WOUNDED, MANY BY THEIR OWN CROSSFIRE
I DID NOT KNOW HOW MUCH WAS ENDED. WHEN I LOOK BACK NOW FROM THIS WISH HILL OF MY OLD ASE, X CAN STILL SEE THE BLITCHERED WOMEN AND CHILDREN LYINS HEAPED AND SCATTERED ALL ALONS THE CROOKED SULCH AS PLAIN AS WHEN I SAW THEM WITH EYE STILL YOUNG. AND I CAN SEE THAT SOMETHING ELSE DIED THERE IN THE BLOODY MUD AND WAS BURIED IN THE BUZZARD. A PEOPLE'S DREAM DIED THERE. IT WAS A BEAUTIFUL DREAM.
AND I, TO WHOM A GREAT VISION WAS GIVEN IN MY YOUTH, YOU SEE ME NOW A PITIFUL OLD MAN WHO HAS DONE NOTHING, FOR THE NATION'S HOOP IS BROKEN AND SCATTERED. THERE IS NO CENTER ANY LONGER, AND THE SACRED TREE IS DEAD.
- eUC SPEAKS
A CIVajAN BURIAL PARTY RETURNED TO THE MASSACRE SITE ON NEW YEAR'S DAY, GRAVE DIGGERS PULLED m BODIES PROM THE SNOW AND THREW THEM INTO A SINGLE BURIAL PfT THEY EARNED $2 A BODY
World History
