Today in military history: Battle of Wounded Knee

Big Foot's frozen body in the snows at Wounded Knee. The Battle of Wounded Knee is considered the last battle of the Indian Wars - and a sobering reminder of the United States' relentless persecution of Native Americans during the 19th century. The photographer scrawled onto Big Foot's pant leg in the photo negative: "Big Foot, Copy Righted by the Worth Western Photo Co., Chadron Neb." (National Archives 111-SC-82412)

On December 29, 1890, the Battle of Wounded Knee (also known as the Massacre of Wounded Knee) occurred. Typically acknowledged as the last battle of the “Indian Wars,” Wounded Knee resulted largely from white Americans’ anxiety about a widespread phenomenon known as the Ghost Dance. Participants in the Ghost Dance wore shirts that ostensibly protected them from bullets. Dancing to exhaustion, they hoped to thereby revive their ancestors, who they believed would then defeat the white man and restore Sioux culture. But white settlers and elected officials believed the Ghost Dance posed a serious threat to efforts to subdue Native American tribes. Federal forces were ordered to keep a close eye on potential Ghost Dance participants, which included the approximately 350 members of Big Foot’s camp.

Big Foot was the half-brother of Sitting Bull, a spiritual and political Lakota leader whose death at the hands of federal forces on December 15, 1890, jarred his people and prompted them to seek shelter with Big Foot. (See December 15th's Today in military history for more on Sitting Bull.) When Big Foot fell ill, his tribe began to make their way to Pine Ridge reservation but were intercepted by the 7th Cavalry Regiment, which escorted them to Wounded Knee Creek.

According to most credible accounts, battle broke out when a medicine man made motions that indicated he might begin the ghost dance and, shortly thereafter, a deaf man misunderstood the 7th Cavalry’s order to turn over weapons. As the deafman struggled with soldiers from the 7th, his weapon discharged accidentally. The 7th opened fire, and while some Sioux men were able to grab their weapons and fight back (25 federal troops were killed and 39 were wounded), almost all were eventually killed. Approximately 200 Sioux were killed; 150 went missing. Today, Wounded Creek is widely reviled as a tragic end to the persecution of Native Americans, one of the worst human rights tragedies in U.S. history.

http://www.examiner.com/