Wounded Knee Massacre

Wounded Knee Massacre
Part of the Ghost Dance War and Native American genocide
Mass grave at Wounded Knee, 1891
Perpetrators	United States of America
Defending side	Lakota Sioux
Date	29 December 1890
Location	Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota
Victims	Lakota (men, women, children)
Deaths	250–300 (4 men and 47 women and children)

The Wounded Knee Massacre was a massacre in which about 300 Lakota men, women, and children were murdered by the United States Army. 19 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor for the massacre. Although in 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions condemning the military awards, none of the Medals of Honor have been revoked. On September 25, 2025, the imperialist chieftain and lapdog of the United States, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, made a disgusting and colonialist remark about the massacre:

Under my direction, the soldiers who fought at the Battle of Wounded Knee will keep their medals. This decision is final. Their place in history is settled.

Prelude

In 1889, the Ghost Dance had been born on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Born from the vision of a Paiute named Wovoka (aka Jack Wilson), stories were told of the return of the Messiah to relieve the suffering of Native Americans and promised that if they would live righteous lives and perform the Ghost Dance, the European American invaders would vanish, the bison would return, and the living and the dead would be reunited in an Edenic world. The Ghost Dance spread rapidly among the Lakota Sioux. The U.S. government agents and settlers, ignorant of its true nature, believed it was a war dance. On December 23, Big Foot (also known as Spotted Elk), a Minneconjou Lakota chief, led the Miniconjous to leave their reservation in the dead of night and flee south toward the Badlands in fear of settler soldiers. Big Foot was ill, which slowed down the evacuation.

Massacre

But on December 28, the Seventh Cavalry intercepted them and forced them into confinement on Wounded Knee Creek. On the morning of December 29, the Lakota were surrounded by 470 U.S. soldiers and four Hotchkiss guns (rapid-fire artillery). Col. James W. Forsyth convened a council with the Miniconjous. He demanded that they surrender all their firearms and told them that they would be relocated to a new camp. While these discussions proceeded in the Lakota camp, a number of Indians began singing Ghost Dance songs, with some rising to throw handfuls of dirt in the air. The troops who surrounded them saw the singing and dirt throwing as signals to attack.

A Lakota man named Black Coyote (or Black Fox), who was deaf, refused to give up his rifle. A struggle ensued, and the gun discharged; the U.S. soldiers immediately and indiscriminately started firing. The Hotchkiss guns rained explosive shells into the camp. Lakota men, women, and children tried to flee, but many were hunted down. Killing continued for hours, as Bigfoot was killed and was unable to move due to his illness. Victims were found as far away as three miles from the camp. Once the massacre was basically over, they buried 146 Lakotas in a single mass grave. Other murdered victims were accounted for later.

Aftermath

For the 1890 campaign generally, the U.S. Army awarded 31 Medals of Honor, 19 specifically for the massacre at Wounded Knee.

See also

• Ghost Dance War
• Native American genocide
• Imperialism
• Fascism
• Genocide