| Wounded Knee Massacre, Sitting Bull, Sioux Indians, 7th US Cavalry, Big Foot
Wounded Knee Massacre
The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek about twenty five miles west of current day town of Martin, South Dakota on December 29, 1890
The events leading up to the Wounded Knee Massacre need to only be prefaced that tension was running high due to the murder of Sitting Bull on December 15 which caused some of the Miniconjou Sioux Indians and Hunkpapa Sioux Indians to leave the reservations and head toward the Badlands
On December 28, the 7th U. S. Cavalry had arrested a village led by Big Foot of the Hunkpapa Sioux Indians. The count arrested was 230 Sioux Indian women and children with only 120 Sioux Indian men. Early in the morning on December 29th 1890, four Hotchkiss guns were aimed on the Wounded Knee Village. 500 Cavalry Troops under the command of Colonel James W. Forsyth began the process of disarming the Indians of any guns, knives, axes and stakes which could be construed to be a weapon. These were placed in a guarded pile
No one knows what caused the disturbance, no one claims the first shot, the Wounded Knee Massacre began fiercely with the Hotchkiss guns raining fragmentation shells into the village at a combined rate of 200 or more rounds a minute. The 500 well armed Cavalry Troopers were well positioned using crossing fire to methodically carry out what is know as the Wounded Knee Massacre
Almost immediately most of the Sioux Indian men were killed. A few Sioux Indians mustered enough strength barehanded to kill 29 soldiers and wound 39 more. The bravery of these people was to no avail for as long as an Indian moved, the guns kept firing. Unarmed Sioux Indian Women and children were Mercilessly Massacred. A few ran as far as three miles only to be chased by the long knives of the Cavalry and put to death
Of the original 350 Indians one estimate stated that only 50 survived. Almost all historical statistics report over 200 Indians being killed on that day but government figures only reported the Indian dead as 64 men, 44 women and girls, and 18 babies. All of the bodies were buried in one communal grave
If the Battle of the Little Big Horn had been the beginning of the end, Wounded Knee was the finale for the Sioux Indians. This was the last major engagement in American history between the Plains Indians and the U. S. Army. Gone was the Indian dream, pride and spirit |
