A SEMINAL DAY IN "AMERICAN" HISTORY: DECEMBER 29, 1890- BURY MY HEART AT WOUNDED KNEE

[Orwellian_Ghost]

Miniconjou Chief Big Foot lies dead in the snow. He was among the first to die on December 29, 1890

An Introduction

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.

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKIntro.html


An Army officer looking at the dead

[truedelphi]

1. A very sad anniversary.

The hoop finally broken.

The nation massacred because of the white soldiers' fears and prejudice.

And revivals from time to time to try and build on the promise of the True Culture.
(The Menominee Wisconsin and the Wounded Knee Uprisings in the 1970's.

Oh and Alcatraz Island as well.)

[HardWorkingDem]

2. Hey....but all the whitees out there...

have all these grand mascots to remember these people by.

This fucking country makes me want to puke when it comes to Native Americans.

[Swamp Rat]

3. The U. S. Government committed genocide..... k&r

We must never forget what was done in the name of "progress."

edit: a pic I found:

[truedelphi]

5. That is a wonderful print. I recognize Geronimo and Sitting Bull

But who are the other two? The ones on either side?

[hlthe2b]

8. Chief Joseph, Sitting Bull, Geronimo, and Red Cloud

I'm a bit of a N. American history buff and certainly admirer.

[troubleinwinter]

9. I recognize Chief Joseph, "I will fight no more forever." Nez Perce. A great man.

(on the far left)

[troubleinwinter]

12. Chief Joseph

Hearts that were friendly

Chief Joseph recounted late in his life how "the first white men of your people who came to our country were named Lewis and Clark. They brought many things which our people had never seen. They talked straight and our people gave them a great feast as proof that their hearts were friendly. They made presents to our chiefs and our people made presents to them. We had great many horses of which we gave them what they needed, and they gave us guns and tobacco in return. All the Nez Percé made friends with Lewis and Clark and agreed to let them pass through their country and never to make war on white men. This promise, the Nez Percé has never broken".

His own father, Joseph the Elder, was one of the first Nez Percé to convert to Christianity and was an active supporter of the tribe's long-standing peace with the white man. He even assisted the Washington territorial governor to set up the Nez Percé Indian reservation that encompassed an area stretching from Oregon to Idaho. But in 1863, following a gold rush into Nez Percé territory, the federal government took nearly 6 million acres of land, and forced the Nez Percé tribe onto a reservation in Idaho only one tenth its original size.

Joseph the Elder denounced the United States, destroyed his American flag and his Bible. He refused to move his people to that location and would not sign any treaty regarding the newly proposed boundaries (ibid.).

The die is cast!

It is in this setting that Chief Joseph (the younger) had leadership thrust upon him in 1871. Tensions continued to mount with the ever-growing numerical onslaught of new settlers from the east. The federal government for a brief while seemed to reverse itself, discouraging settler development and allowing the Wallowa band of Nez Percé to remain in their ancestral home. But the government again reversed itself two years later and threatened a cavalry attack if Chief Joseph's people did not move to the reservation.

At first, recognizing that fighting would be futile, he begrudgingly began to move his people to Idaho. But matters were taken out of his hand when 20 of his young braves took their revenge by killing several of the settlers.

What followed was one of the most brilliant military episodes on the North American continent. In a course of maneuvers stretching in circles extending 1,400 miles, this band of 700 Native American men, women and children, with only 200 male warriors, would successfully confront 2,000 U.S. cavalry and Indian auxiliaries in four major battles and countless skirmishes.

The American headlines of the time described Chief Joseph as the "Red Napoleon." General Sherman of Civil War fame chronicled: "The Indians throughout displayed a courage and skill that elicited universal praise... fought with almost scientific skill, using advance and rear guards, skirmish lines and field fortifications" (ibid.).

"Hear me, my chiefs"

After a long list of skirmishes, Chief Joseph and his people were stopped just 30 miles short of their goal of reaching Canada and allying themselves with friendly tribes there. Chief Joseph came to the clear reality that you can win many battles, but lose the war. It is his surrender speech of Oct. 5, 1877, that immortalized his wisdom.

"I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed. Looking Glass is dead. Toohoolhoolzote is dead. The old men are all dead. He who led the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets. The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are—perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs; I am tired. My heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands I will fight no more forever." ~Chief Joseph / Thunder Traveling to the Loftier Mountain Heights

Chief Joseph's famous declaration served him little in his lifetime. He spent many years being transferred from reservation to reservation in Kansas, Indian Territory (Oklahoma) and ultimately to a reservation back in the Northwest, but not to his tribal homeland.

http://www.ucgstp.org/bureau/wnp/wnp0059/theway0406.htm

[EFerrari]

14. That's beautiful and true.

[scarletwoman]

23. sfexpat2000 -- I love you dearly, so here's an FYI

That picture you posted of the scale model of the "Crazy Horse" sculpture is truly ironic and awful.

Most Indians I've known hate and resent that thing. Some white guy shows up one day, declares that *he* intends to "right the wrongs done to the Indians" and supposedly balance out the outrage of Mount Rushmore, by dynamiting yet another natural (and sacred) feature of the landscape, and then proceeds to construct an aesthetically hideous and culturally offensive "monument" that honors nothing except the perpetuation of the concept of "the White Man's Burden".

The Lakota don't need another mountain blown up to "honor" them. They would much prefer that the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty were honored -- the Treaty that granted them exclusive rights to the Black Hills "for as long as the grass grows." Were that treaty honored, no whites would have been allowed to dynamite mountains in the first place.

That Crazy Horse monstrosity is so hideously wrong on so many levels, it's truly a massive insult.

(1): Crazy Horse (Tashunkewitko), during his lifetime, was adamant about never being photographed. He specifically made his wishes clear that he wanted no images of himself made, ever.

(2): Traditionally enculturated American Indians NEVER point! It is considered the height of rudeness and sign of a poor upbringing. "Over there" is indicated by head gestures only -- as in a raising of the chin toward the direction being referred to. To portray Crazy Horse at all is bad enough, to portray him pointing is really beyond all bounds of respect.

(3): Permanent "monuments" have NEVER been feature of Lakota culture. It does not "honor" a culture to build something that they themselves would never have built, or ever desired in the first place.

(4): The land is sacred. One honors the sacredness of the land by doing as little damage to it as possible. That means, at minimum, you don't go destroying the natural harmony and beauty of the land by blowing up part of a mountain to make a stupid sculpture that actually dishonors everything that the real person it purports to represent stood for.

(5): The (white) family of the now-dead (white) originator of this abomination has been raking in money from tourists for years -- "donations" for finishing this monstrosity. No whites have ever gone broke from exploiting the culture of the indigenous people of this land who were nearly genocided out of existence. That alone ought to be reason enough for understanding how disgusting this sculpture is.

Please understand, sfexpat, I wish in no way to seem to be putting you down in this post. I know your heart is good, and you meant no harm. We members of the dominant culture generally have had little contact with the Indian viewpoint.

It just so happens that the path of my own life has brought me into close contact with both individual members of various Native Nations, and several reservation communities as a whole, for the past four-plus decades.

My last partner, who died suddenly seven years ago, was an Ojibwe, a member of the Lac Coute Oreilles band, who was a traditional herbalist and worked as a cultural liason in the regional public school system. Shortly before he died, he had begun working on a book on Indian treaty rights -- I was acting as editor, proofreader, and research assistant.

I have always felt extremely grateful to have been given such an education and opportunity to immerse myself in a completely different worldview. I try to pass on what I've learned as best I can. I hope you will have not taken offense.

:loveya:
sw

[EFerrari]

26. Omigod! I'm so glad you told me. It was weird to see those people

in the background. On the other hand, I'm so used to real things being commercialized, I thought this was just another instance -- like the exhibit at Yosemite that is trampled by tourists every day with no notion of what they're doing.

I also didn't realize the mofos did blow up a mountain. That's unbelievably PREDICTABLE.

[scarletwoman]

31. It takes alot of dynamite to sculpt a mountain. (nt)

[Kucinich4America]

29. There's a t-shirt out with that pic on it.

caption reads "The ORIGINAL Founding Fathers".

[humus]

4. Lakota Iroquis Iraqis

same crimes different century

[hlthe2b]

6. I just finished watching the HBO movie on DVD....

I hadn't realized this was the anniversary... It is such important history that has been denied for so long... I wish it were required viewing (or reading) for all schools.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Native Americans 12 million - Four centuries later 237 thousand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gQcoOSKx7M

"By conservative estimates, the population of the United states prior to European contact was greater than 12 million. Four centuries later, the count was reduced by 95% to 237 thousand.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2EyPWqXpVg




ROBBIE ROBERTSON - Showdown At Big Sky
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kebhBIoTb50

Ghost Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTY2pmKguDg

Robbie Robertson - fallen angel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOmkW-BEYKQ

Coyote Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNJmwHO2PBQ

[EFerrari]

18. That's right. There was no vast empty continent

as it is imaged all over our culture, from The Great Gatsby to Warner Bros. animations.

You can't found a democracy on a genocide.

[truedelphi]

22. Thank you for that post. I have constantly heard that

TWo (2) million Native Amerians lived here at the time of the Revolution.

THat always seemed wrong to me - everywhere the white settlers went, they encountered Native AMericans

[Orwellian_Ghost]

10. A Backdrop

Ghost Dance Religion


By the late 1880s, many Indian tribes, desperate and facing a dire existence of poverty, hunger and disease, sought a means of salvation to revitalize their traditional culture. The evolution of a new religion, the Ghost Dance, was a reaction to the Indians being forced to submit to government authority and reservation life. In early 1889, a Paiute shaman, Wovoka, (son of the mystic, Tavibo, whose teachings influenced the new religion) had a vision during an eclipse of the sun in which he saw the second coming of Christ and received a warning about the evils of the white man.

Knowledge of the vision spread quickly through the Indian camps across the country. Word began to circulate among the people on the reservations that a great new Indian Messiah had come to liberate them, and investigative parties were sent out to discover the nature of these claims. On one of the excursions, it is said that the messiah appeared to an Arapaho hunting party, crowned with thorns. They believed him to be the incarnation of Jesus, returned to save the Indian nations from the scourge of white people. Delegations were sent to visit Wovoka in western Nevada and returned to their camps disciples, preaching a new religion that promised renewal and revitalization of the Indian nations. Among those who met with Wovoka, Good Thunder, Short Bull, and Kicking Bear became prominent leaders of the new religion which was called the Ghost Dance by white people because of its precepts of resurrection and reunion with the dead.

According to Wovoka, converts of the new religion were supposed to take part in the Ghost Dance to hasten the arrival of the new era as promised by the messiah. Although the Bureau of Indian Affairs banned the Ghost Dance (as they did all other Indians spiritual rituals), the Lakotas adopted it and began composing sacred songs of hope:

The whole world is coming,
A nation is coming, a nation is coming,
The eagle has brought the message to the tribe.
The Father says so, the Father says so.
Over the whole earth they are coming,
The buffalo are coming, the buffalo are coming,
The crow has brought the message to the tribe,
The Father says so, the Father says so.

The Ghost Dance religion promised an apocalypse in the coming years during which time the earth would be destroyed, only to be recreated with the Indians as the inheritors of the new earth. According to the prophecy, the recent times of suffering for Indians had been brought about by their sins, but now they had withstood enough under the whites. With the earth destroyed, white people would be obliterated, buried under the new soil of the spring that would cover the land and restore the prairie. The buffalo and antelope would return, and deceased ancestors would rise to once again roam the earth, now free of violence, starvation, and disease. The natural world would be restored, and the land once again would be free and open to the Indian peoples, without the borders and boundaries of the white man. The new doctrine taught that salvation would be achieved when the Indians purged themselves of the evil ways learned from the white man, especially the drinking of alcohol. Believers were encouraged to engage in frequent ceremonial cleansing, meditation, prayer, chanting, and most importantly, dancing the Ghost Dance. Hearing rumors of the prophecy and fearing that it was a portent of renewed violence, white homesteaders panicked and the government responded.

The government agent at Standing Rock, James McLaughlin, described the Ghost Dance as an "absurd craze" -- "demoralizing, indecent, disgusting." Reservation agents described the Indians as "wild and crazy," and believed that their actions warranted military protection for white settlers. But while one of the primary goals of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was to convert the Indians to Christianity, they did not recognize that the fundamental principles of the Ghost Dance were indeed Christian in nature and had the effect of converting many to a belief in the one Christian God. In addition, Wovoka preached that, to survive, the Indians needed to turn to farming and to send their children to school to be educated. Ironically, while these efforts would appear to coincide with the goals of the Bureau, the Ghost Dance was outlawed by the agency. The Bureau feared the swelling numbers of Ghost Dancers and believed that the ritual was a precursor to renewed Indian militancy and violent rebellion.

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKghost.html

[Orwellian_Ghost]

11. Lakota Accounts of the Massacre at Wounded Knee

Lakota Accounts of the Massacre at Wounded Knee



From the Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs for 1891, volume 1, pages 179-181. Extracts from verbatim stenographic report of council held by delegations of Sioux with Commissioner of Indian Affairs, at Washington, February 11, 1891.


TURNING HAWK, Pine Ridge (Mr. Cook, interpreter). Mr. Commissioner, my purpose to-day is to tell you what I know of the condition of affairs at the agency where I live. A certain falsehood came to our agency from the west which had the effect of a fire upon the Indians, and when this certain fire came upon our people those who had farsightedness and could see into the matter made up their minds to stand up against it and fight it. The reason we took this hostile attitude to this fire was because we believed that you yourself would not be in favor of this particular mischief-making thing; but just as we expected, the people in authority did not like this thing and we were quietly told that we must give up or have nothing to do with this certain movement. Though this is the advice form our good friends in the east, there were, of course, many silly young men who were longing to become identified with the movement, although they knew that there was nothing absolutely bad, nor did they know there was anything absolutely good, in connection with the movement.

In the course of time we heard that the soldiers were moving toward the scene of trouble. After awhile some of the soldiers finally reached our place and we heard that a number of them also reached our friends at Rosebud. Of course, when a large body of soldiers is moving toward a certain direction they inspire a more or less amount of awe, and it is natural that the women and children who see this large moving mass are made afraid of it and be put in a condition to make them run away. At first we thought the Pine Ridge and Rosebud were the only two agencies where soldiers were sent, but finally we heard that the other agencies fared likewise. We heard and saw that about half our friends at Rosebud agency, from fear at seeing the soldiers, began the move of running away from their agency toward ours (Pine Ridge), and when they had gotten inside of our reservation they there learned that right ahead of them at our agency was another large crowd of soldiers, and while the soldiers were there, there was constantly a great deal of false rumor flying back and forth. The special rumor I have in mind is the threat that the soldiers had come there to disarm the Indians entirely and to take away all their horses from them. That was the oft-repeated story.

So constantly repeated was this story that our friends from Rosebud, instead of going to Pine Ridge, the place of their destination, veered off and went to some other direction toward the "Bad Lands." We did not know definitely how many, but understood there were 300 lodges of them, about 1,700 people. Eagle Pipe, Turning Bear, High Hawk, Short Bull, Lance, No Flesh, Pine Bird, Crow Dog, Two Strike, and White Horse were the leaders.

Well, the people after veering off in this way, many of them who believe in peace and order at our agency, were very anxious that some influence should be brought upon these people. In addition to our love of peace we remembered that many of these people were related to us by blood. So we sent out peace commissioners to the people who were thus running away from their agency.

I understood at the time that they were simply going away from fear because of so many soldiers. So constant was the word of these good men from Pine Ridge agency that finally they succeeded in getting away half of the party from Rosebud, from the place where they took refuge, and finally were brought to the agency at Pine Ridge. Young-Man-Afraid-of-his-Horses, Little Wound, Fast Thunder, Louis Shangreau, John Grass, Jack Red Cloud, and myself were some of these peace-makers.

The remnant of the party from Rosebud not taken to the agency finally reached the wilds of the Bad Lands. Seeing that we had succeeded so well, once more we sent to the same party in the Bad Lands and succeeded in bringing these very Indians out of the depths of the Bad Lands and were being brought toward the agency. When we were about a day's journey from our agency we heard that a certain party of Indians (Big Foot's band) from the Cheyenne River agency was coming toward Pine Ridge in flight.



CAPTAIN SWORD. Those who actually went off of the Cheyenne River agency probably number 303, and there were a few from the Standing Rock reserve with them, but as to their number I do not know. There were a number of Ogalallas, old men and several school boys, coming back with that very same party, and one of the very seriously wounded boys was a member of the Ogalalla boarding school at Pine Ridge agency. He was not on the warpath, but was simply returning home to his agency and to his school after a summer visit to relatives on the Cheyenne river.



TURNING HAWK. When we heard that these people were coming toward our agency we also heard this. These people were coming toward Pine Ridge agency, and when they were almost on the agency they were met by the soldiers and surrounded and finally taken to the Wounded Knee creek, and there at a given time their guns were demanded. When they had delivered them up, the men were separated from their families, from the tipis, and taken to a certain spot. When the guns were thus taken and the men thus separated, there was a crazy man, a young man of very bad influence and in fact a nobody, among that bunch of Indians fired his gun, and of course the firing of a gun must have been the breaking of a military rule of some sort, because immediately the soldiers returned fire and indiscriminate killing followed.



SPOTTED HORSE. This man shot an officer in the army; the first shot killed this officer. I was a voluntary scout at that encounter and I saw exactly what was done, and that was what I noticed; that the first shot killed an officer. As soon as this shot was fired the Indians immediately began drawing their knives, and they were exhorted from all sides to desist, but this was not obeyed. Consequently the firing began immediately on the part of the soldiers.



TURNING HAWK. All the men who were in a bunch were killed right there, and those who escaped that first fire got into the ravine, and as they went along up the ravine for a long distance they were pursued on both sides by the soldiers and shot down, as the dead bodies showed afterwards. The women were standing off at a different place form where the men were stationed, and when the firing began, those of the men who escaped the first onslaught went in one direction up the ravine, and then the women, who were bunched together at another place, went entirely in a different direction through an open field, and the women fared the same fate as the men who went up the deep ravine.



AMERICAN HORSE. The men were separated, as has already been said, from the women, and they were surrounded by the soldiers. Then came next the village of the Indians and that was entirely surrounded by the soldiers also. When the firing began, of course the people who were standing immediately around the young man who fired the first shot were killed right together, and then they turned their guns, Hotchkill guns, etc., upon the women who were in the lodges standing there under a flag of truce, and of course as soon as they were fired upon they fled, the men fleeing in one direction and the women running in two different directions. So that there were three general directions in which they took flight.

There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce, and the women and children of course were strewn all along the circular village until they were dispatched. Right near the flag of truce a mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing, and that especially was a very sad sight. The women as they were fleeing with their babes were killed together, shot right through, and the women who were very heavy with child were also killed. All the Indians fled in these three directions, and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys who were not wounded came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there.

Of course we all feel very sad about this affair. I stood very loyal to the government all through those troublesome days, and believing so much in the government and being so loyal to it, my disappointment was very strong, and I have come to Washington with a very great blame on my heart. Of course it would have been all right if only the men were killed; we would feel almost grateful for it. But the fact of the killing of the women, and more especially the killing of the young boys and girls who are to go to make up the future strength of the Indian people, is the saddest part of the whole affair and we feel it very sorely.

I was not there at the time before the burial of the bodies, but I did go there with some of the police and the Indian doctor and a great many of the people, men from the agency, and we went through the battlefield and saw where the bodies were from the track of the blood.



TURNING HAWK. I had just reached the point where I said that the women were killed. We heard, besides the killing of the men, of the onslaught also made upon the women and children, and they were treated as roughly and indiscriminately as the men and boys were.

Of course this affair brought a great deal of distress upon all the people, but especially upon the minds of those who stood loyal to the government and who did all that they were able to do in the matter of bringing about peace. They especially have suffered much distress and are very much hurt at heart. These peace-makers continued on in their good work, but there were a great many fickle young men who were ready to be moved by the change in the events there, and consequently, in spite of the great fire that was brought upon all, they were ready to assume any hostile attitude. These young men got themselves in readiness and went in the direction of the scene of battle so they might be of service there. They got there and finally exchanged shots with the soldiers. This party of young men was made up from Rosebud, Ogalalla (Pine Ridge), and members of any other agencies that happened to be there at the time. While this was going on in the neighborhood of Wounded Knee-the Indians and soldiers exchanging shots-the agency, our home, was also fired into by the Indians. Matters went on in this strain until the evening came on, and then the Indians went off down by White Clay creek. When the agency was fired upon by the Indians from the hillside, of course the shots were returned by the Indian police who were guarding the agency buildings.

Although fighting seemed to have been in the air, yet those who believed in peace were still constant at their work. Young-Man-Afraid-of-his-Horses, who had been on a visit to some other agency in the north or northwest, returned, and immediately went out to the people living about White Clay creek, on the border of the Bad Lands, and brought his people out. He succeeded in obtaining the consent of the people to come out of their place of refuge and return to the agency. Thus the remaining portion of the Indians who started from Rosebud were brought back into the agency. Mr. Commissioner, during the days of the great whirlwind out there, those good men tried to hold up a counteracting power, and that was "Peace." We have now come to realize that peace has prevailed and won the day. While we were engaged in bringing about peace our property was left behind, of course, and most of us have lost everything, even down to the matter of guns with which to kill ducks, rabbits, etc, shotguns, and guns of that order. When Young-Man-Afraid brought the people in and their guns were asked for, both men who were called hostile and men who stood loyal to the government delivered up their guns.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

13. "I did not know then how much was ended"

The Wounded Knee Massacre

December 29, 1890

An Account of The Massacre

By August of 1890, the U.S. government was fearful that the Ghost Dance was actually a war dance and, in time, the dancers would turn to rioting. By November, the War Department sent troops to occupy the Lakota camps at Pine Ridge and Rosebud, convinced that the dancers were preparing to do battle against the government. In reality, the Indians were bracing themselves to defend their rights to continue performing the sacred ceremonies. In reaction to the military encampment, the Lakotas planned various strategies to avoid confrontation with the soldiers, but the military was under orders to isolate Ghost Dance leaders from their devotees.

The Hunkpapa Sioux Chief, Sitting Bull, had returned from Canada with a promise of a pardon following the Battle at Little Bighorn and was an advocate of the Ghost Dance. At his request, Kicking Bear traveled to the Standing Rock reservation to preach and made numerous Hunkpapa Sioux converts to the new religion.



Kicking Bear:
"My brothers, I bring to you the promise of a day in which there will be no white man to lay his hand on the bridle of the Indian horse; when the red men of the prairie will rule the world . . . I bring you word from your fathers the ghosts, that they are now marching to join you, led by the Messiah who came once to live on earth with the white man, but was cast out and killed by them."

Kicking Bear (quoting Wovoka):
"The earth is getting old, and I will make it new for my chosen people, the Indians, who are to inhabit it, and among them will be all those of their ancestors who have died...I will cover the earth with new soil to a depth of five times the height of a man, and under this new soil will be buried the whites...The new lands will be covered with sweet-grass and running water and trees, and herds of buffalo and ponies will stray over it, that my red children may eat and drink, hunt and rejoice."

(Source: Eyewitness at Wounded Knee, 1991)

Reservation agents began to fear that Sitting Bull’s influence over other tribes would lead to violence. By December reservation official grew increasingly alarmed by the Ghost Dance outbreak, and the military was called upon to locate and arrest those who were considered agitators, such as the Sioux Chiefs, Sitting Bull and Big Foot.

On December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull and eight of his warriors were murdered by agency police sent to arrest him at the Standing Rock reservation. The official reason given for the shooting claimed that he had resisted arrest. Fearing further reprisal, some of his followers fled in terror to Big Foot’s camp of Miniconjou Sioux. While many of Big Foot’s group were devout Ghost Dancers, others had already begun to leave the religion. Old Big Foot was a peaceful leader and was not attempting to cause further agitation of the situation. But after the slaying of Sitting Bull, Big Foot was placed on the list of "fomenters of disturbances," and his arrest had been ordered. Upon arrest, his group was to be transferred to Fort Bennett.

Under cover of the night on December 23, a band of 350 people left the Miniconjou village on the Cheyenne River to begin a treacherous 150-mile, week-long trek through the Badlands to reach the Pine Ridge Agency. Although Chief Big Foot was aged and seriously ill with pneumonia, his group traversed the rugged, frozen terrain of the Badlands in order to reach the protection of Chief Red Cloud who had promised them food, shelter, and horses. It is reported that both Big Foot and Red Cloud wanted peace. On December 28, the group was surrounded by Major Samuel M. Whitside and the Seventh Calvary (the old regiment of General George Custer). Big Foots band hoisted a white flag, but the army apprehended the Indians, forcing them to the bank of Wounded Knee Creek. There, four large Hotchkiss cannons had been menacingly situated atop both sides of the valley overlooking the encampment, ready to fire upon the Indians.

A rumor ran through the camp that the Indians were to be deported to Indian Territory (Oklahoma) which had the reputation for its living conditions being far worse than any prison. The Lakotas became panicky, and historians have surmised that if the misunderstanding had been clarified that they were to be taken to a different camp, the entire horrific incident might have been averted.

....

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKmscr.html

Black Elk:


"I did not know then how much was ended. When I look back now from this high hill of my old age, I can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the crooked gulch as plain as when I saw them with eyes young. And I can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the blizzard. A people's dream died there. It was a beautiful dream . . . . the nation's hoop is broken and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead."

(Source: Black Elk Speaks, c. 1932)

[Orwellian_Ghost]

15. Nothing is forgotten

Only left behind


Civilian grave diggers bury the Lakota dead in a mass grave.

[EFerrari]

16. Massacre At Wounded Knee, 1890

Philip Wells was a mixed-blood Sioux who served as an interpreter for the Army. He later recounted what he saw that Monday morning:

"I was interpreting for General Forsyth (Forsyth was actually a colonel) just before the battle of Wounded Knee, December 29, 1890. The captured Indians had been ordered to give up their arms, but Big Foot replied that his people had no arms. Forsyth said to me, 'Tell Big Foot he says the Indians have no arms, yet yesterday they were well armed when they surrendered. He is deceiving me. Tell him he need have no fear in giving up his arms, as I wish to treat him kindly.' Big Foot replied, 'They have no guns, except such as you have found.' Forsyth declared, 'You are lying to me in return for my kindness.'

During this time a medicine man, gaudily dressed and fantastically painted, executed the maneuvers of the ghost dance, raising and throwing dust into the air. He exclaimed 'Ha! Ha!' as he did so, meaning he was about to do something terrible, and said, 'I have lived long enough,' meaning he would fight until he died. Turning to the young warriors who were squatted together, he said 'Do not fear, but let your hearts be strong. Many soldiers are about us and have many bullets, but I am assured their bullets cannot penetrate us. The prairie is large, and their bullets will fly over the prairies and will not come toward us. If they do come toward us, they will float away like dust in the air.' I turned to Major Whitside and said, 'That man is making mischief,' and repeated what he had said. Whitside replied, 'Go direct to Colonel Forsyth and tell him about it,' which I did.

Forsyth and I went to the circle of warriors where he told me to tell the medicine man to sit down and keep quiet, but he paid no attention to the order. Forsyth repeated the order. Big Foot's brother-in-law answered, 'He will sit down when he gets around the circle.' When the medicine man came to the end of the circle, he squatted down. A cavalry sergeant exclaimed, 'There goes an Indian with a gun under his blanket!' Forsyth ordered him to take the gun from the Indian, which he did. Whitside then said to me, 'Tell the Indians it is necessary that they be searched one at a time.' The young warriors paid no attention to what I told them. I heard someone on my left exclaim, 'Look out! Look out!' I saw five or six young warriors cast off their blankets and pull guns out from under them and brandish them in the air. One of the warriors shot into the soldiers, who were ordered to fire into the Indians. I looked in the direction of the medicine man. He or some other medicine man approached to within three or four feet of me with a long cheese knife, ground to a sharp point and raised to stab me He stabbed me during the melee and nearly cut off my nose. I held him off until I could swing my rifle to hit him, which I did. I shot and killed him in self-defense.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm

[truedelphi]

24. How sad all these accounts are.

And one can only imagine the horror those on the scene must have experienced.

[EFerrari]

28. They are very sad. The pain of something that has never been made right

that can't be made right.

[Orwellian_Ghost]

17. Too few care about their nation's origins. And then they wonder...

The Massacre at Wounded Knee


After Sitting Bull's death, Big Foot feared for the safety of his band, which consisted in large part of widows of the Plains wars and their children. Big Foot himself had been placed on the list of "fomenters of disturbances," and his arrest had been ordered. He led his band toward Pine Ridge, hoping for the protection of Red Cloud. However, he fell ill from pneumonia on the trip and was forced to travel in the back of a wagon. As they neared Porcupine Creek on December 28, the band saw 4 troops of cavalry approaching. A white flag was immediately run up over Big Foot's wagon. When the two groups met, Big Foot raised up from his bed of blankets to greet Major Samuel Whitside of the Seventh Cavalry. His blankets were stained with blood and blood dripped from his nose as he spoke.

Whitside informed him of his orders to take the band to their camp on Wounded Knee Creek. Big Foot replied that they were going that way, to Pine Ridge. The major wanted to disarm the Indians right then but was dissuaded by his scout John Shangreau, in order to avoid a fight on the spot. They agreed to wait to undertake this until they reached camp. Then, in a moment of sympathy, the major ordered his army ambulance brought forward to accept the ill Minneconjou chief, providing a warmer and more comfortable ride. They then proceeded toward the camp at Wounded Knee Creek, led by two cavalry troops with the other two troops bringing up the rear with their Hotchkiss guns. They reached the camp at twilight.

At the camp, the Indians were carefully counted; there were 120 men and 230 women and children. Major Whitside decided to wait until morning to disarm the band. They were assigned a camp site just to the south of the cavalry camp, given rations, and provided with several tents as there was a shortage of tepee covers. A stove was provided for Big Foot's tent and the doctor was sent to give aid to the chief. To guarantee against escape from the camp, two troops of cavalry were posted around the Indian tents and the Hotchkiss guns were placed on the top of a rise overlooking the camp. The guns were aimed directly at the lodges.

During the night the rest of the Seventh Cavalry marched in and set up north of Major Whitside's troops. Two more Hotchkiss guns were placed beside the two already aimed at the lodges. Colonel John Forsyth took over command of the operation and informed Major Whitside that he had orders to take the band to the railroad to be shipped to a military prison in Omaha.

In the morning a bugle call awakened the camp and the men were told to come to the center of the camp for a talk. After the talk they would move to Pine Ridge. Big Foot was brought out and seated before his tent. The older men of the band gathered around him. Hardtack was issued for breakfast. Then the Indians were informed that they would be disarmed. They stacked their guns in the center, but the soldiers were not satisfied. The soldiers went through the tents, bringing out bundles and tearing them open, throwing knives, axes, and tent stakes into the pile. Then they ordered searches of the individual warriors. The Indians became very angry but only one spoke out, the medicine man, Yellow Bird. He danced a few steps of the Ghost Dance and chanted in Sioux, telling the Indians that the bullets would not hurt them, they would go right by.

The search found only two rifles, one brand new, belonging to a young man named Black Coyote. He raised it over his head and cried out that he had spent much money for the rifle and that it belonged to him. Black Coyote was deaf and therefore did not respond promptly to the demands of the soldiers. He would have been convinced to put it down by the Sioux, but that option was not possible. He was grabbed by the soldiers and spun around. Then a shot was heard; its source is not clear but it began the killing. The only arms the Indians had were what they could grab from the pile. When the Hotchkiss guns opened up, shrapnel shredded the lodges, killing men, women and children, indiscriminately. They tried to run but were shot down "like buffalo," women and children alike.

.....

http://www.hanksville.org/daniel/lakota/Wounded_Knee.html

[Orwellian_Ghost]

19. Kicking

[bbgrunt]

20. our legacy of shame and barbarity. k and r

[scarletwoman]

21. How many DUers know that 20 "Medals of Honor" were awarded to military personnel in the wake

of the Wounded Knee massacre?

Let me repeat that: 20 Medals of Honor were awarded to U.S. soldiers who participated in this atrocity.

For years, Indian activists and their allies have been petitioning Congress to have these Medals of Honor rescinded -- to no avail, unsurprisingly.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-giago/the-lakota-will-never-for_b_78176.html

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/21425.html

Or see this google search page: wounded knee rescind the medals of honor

sw

[scarletwoman]

25. k&r (nt)

[EFerrari]

27. Can I ask a question? I remember now reading that Crazy Horse

refused to be photographed -- don't remember where, perhaps in Bury My Heart. I have seen sketches of his assassination although, it's been so long now, I don't remember if they were contemporaneous or just illustrative.

So, why is it that when I search for his image, several come up? Do you know?

[scarletwoman]

30. "why is it that when I search for his image, several come up?" Do an image search for Jesus...

;)

Seriously, Tashunkewitko's own family has steadfastly insisted that he never allowed himself to be photographed, period. It's a white thing to want to claim to have a photograph of him -- most claims have either been outright disproved or have no supporting evidence whatsoever to back them up.

As for the assasination sketches; if they are the same ones I have seen, they are little more than cartoons. They were made by a witness after the fact, but they in no way represent a portrait-type of likeness of Tashunkewitko.

I hope that answers your questions sufficiently.

sw

(edited for a mispelling and a grammatical error)

[EFerrari]

32. Thank you, sw.

What a strange obsession that is, to claim to have an image. It puts me in mind of the idea of "killing into art" -- of capturing your opponent via paint or words, or in this case, photography. It's a form of aggression, of disrespect however unthinking.

[scarletwoman]

33. It's a form of ownership. And ownership is essentially "power over" something.

Asserting ownership is asserting power and control over that which is owned. Ownership is the driving force of capitalism, of course, and western (white) culture in general.

The Lakota name for the non-native invaders of their land is "wasichu", which translates as "taker of the fat" -- i.e. "greedy".

sw

[EFerrari]

34. Yes, the fat eaters. The Lakota were likely the first to diagnose

(or observe) the underlying flaw of this culture. Some things don't change very much over time.

My family is meztizo, so we've unknowingly incorporated a lot of values from a distant culture we'd no longer recognize. Like pointing. Or, like shushing children. Or, like saying "no" to anyone directly. It's the mixed blood situation but occluded by propaganda and rewritten "history".

Lol, and sometime, dear sw, it comes home very directly. My new neighbor downstairs has been slamming his door every fifteen minutes for hours. I can't bring myself to go ask him to stop even though he's shaking the whole building.

lol

:hi: