Wounded Knee in North America
Wounded
Knee, South Dakota represents the last major clash between American
Indians and white U.S. troops in North America.
On the morning of 29 December 1890, the Sioux chief Big Foot and 350 of
his followers camped on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek, surrounded by US
troops with orders to arrest him and disarm his warriors.
This tense moment had been building for years, as the once proud Sioux, a
nomadic people, had found their way of life destroyed, as they were
confined to reservations and dependent on Indian Agents for their
existence, especially after the government reneged on a treaty in order
to grab more of their land.
In a desperate attempt to return to the days of their glory, many sought
salvation in a new mysticism called the 'Ghost Dance', or a version of
it, preached by a Paiute shaman called Wovoka. Emissaries from the Sioux
in South Dakota travelled to Nevada to listen to this self-proclaimed
Messiah, who prophesied that the dead would soon join the living in a
world where the Indians could return to their old way of living with
plentiful game, fertile soil, no white men and a restored prairie.
The Sioux were encouraged to dance the Ghost Dance, wearing brightly
coloured shirts emblazoned with images of eagles and bison. These 'Ghost
Shirts' were believed to protect the Indians from the white men's
bullets. During the autumn of 1890, the Ghost Dance spread through the
Sioux villages of the Dakota reservations, revitalizing the Indians and
bringing fear to the whites. A desperate Indian Agent at Pine Ridge
contacted his superiors in Washington to warn that an uprising was on the
horizon. The order went out to arrest Chief Sitting Bull at the Standing
Rock Reservation. Sitting Bull was killed on 15 December and Chief Big
Foot was next on the list.
When he heard of Sitting Bull's death, Big Foot led his people to the
Pine Ridge Reservation to seek protection. The US army intercepted them
on 28 December and brought them to the edge of the Wounded Knee to camp.
The next morning the dying chief met the army officers, but a shot
sounded nearby and within seconds the scene erupted as Indians and US
troops exchanged fire.
Approximately 200 Sioux were killed that day, including Big Foot, as well
as 25 US soldiers. Many others on both sides were wounded. The massacre
at Wounded Knee effectively ended the Ghost Dance movement as well as the
Indian Wars.
The site of the Wounded Knee Battleground includes the cemetery with the
graves of those Indians who died that day.
