Happy New Year.....

 

 

 

Hello from the Hovel...2012 will soon be history and a new year will take it's place. I wish you all a Happy New Year for 2013....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until next time, Take care...Hugs Chrissy xx

In Memory of Wounded Knee.....

 

Hello from the Hovel on this very wet and windy day here in Cornwall. The only good thing to say about the weather is that it’s not cold!!!!! Hope you all had a good Christmas, which appeared to come and go very quickly. New Year’s Eve will soon be upon us and 2013 will begin. Had to believe how fast this century is going.....

 

The weather may be wet today but on this day 122 years ago the snow lay thick on the ground in South Dakota, USA. A day that will be forever etched in the hearts of every Native American. For it was on December 29 1890 that the Lakota Sioux were massacred near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.....

 

Years before the massacre the US government continued to take land belonging to the Lakota...

 

 

The bison herds had been hunted to near extinction by the white settlers and the Treaty promises to feed and clothe the Lakota and protect their lands were not kept...Naturally there was unrest on the reservations. A General Nelson A. Miles was aware of this, so much so that on December 19 1890 he sent a telegram to General John Schofield in Washington, D.C....

 

General Nelson A Miles

 

 

"The difficult Indian problem cannot be solved permanently at this end of the line. It requires the fulfillment of Congress of the treaty obligations that the Indians were entreated and coerced into signing. They signed away a valuable portion of their reservation, and it is now occupied by white people, for which they have received nothing."...

"They understood that ample provision would be made for their support; instead, their supplies have been reduced, and much of the time they have been living on half and two-thirds rations. Their crops, as well as the crops of the white people, for two years have been almost total failures."...

"The dissatisfaction is wide spread, especially among the Sioux, while the Cheyennes have been on the verge of starvation, and were forced to commit depredations to sustain life. These facts are beyond question, and the evidence is positive and sustained by thousands of witnesses.".......

 

Paiute Prophet Wovok

 

During this time word spread around the reservations about a Paiute prophet named Wovoka, the founder of the Ghost Dance religion. Wovoka said that he’d had a vision that the Christian messiah Jesus Christ had returned to earth in the form of a Native American. All Native American believers would rise above the earth, the white man would disappear and all animals would return in abundance. The ghosts of their ancestors would return to the earth and all would live in peace. To achieve this the ‘Ghost Dance’ would be performed.......

Kicking Bear (March 18, 1846–May 28, 1904)

 

Heȟáka Sápa (Black Elk) (December 1863 – August 19, 1950)

 

Wovoka, Kicking Bear and Short Bull taught the Sioux that they would wear special Ghost Dance Shirts, as seen in a vision by Black Elk. Kicking Bear said that the shirts had a special power to repel bullets......

The Ghost Dance

 

The European settlers became alarmed by the many tribes performing the Ghost Dance and suspected that it was a prelude to an armed attack. In response to this the US officials decided to take some of the chiefs into custody. On December 15 1890 40 Indian policemen went to the house of Chief Sitting Bull to arrest him. Crowds gathered in protest and as Sitting Bull attempted to flee his captors a shot was fired which was quickly followed by many more. This resulted in the death of Sitting Bull, eight of his supporters and six policemen......

 

Sitting Bull (Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake 1831 – December 15, 1890)

 

Fearing of reprisals, 200 of Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapa band fled to join Chief Spotted Elk and his Miniconjou band at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation......

Red Cloud (Maȟpíya Lúta), (1822 – December 10, 1909)

 

On December 28 1890 Spotted Elk and 350 of his followers were southwest of the Badlands near Porcupine Butte when they were intercepted by the 7^th Cavalry led by Major Samuel M Whiteside. The troopers then escorted the Lakota 5 miles to Wounded Knee Creek where they made camp......

Badlands in the northern portion of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

Gen. S. M. Whitside

 

Later that evening Col. James W. Forsyth and the rest of the 7^th cavalry surrounded Spotted Elk’s encampment and set up four Hotchkiss guns. By this time there were 500 soldiers and only 350 Native Americans, of which 120 were men, the rest being women and children....

On the morning of December 29 1890 shots were fired on to Spotted Elk and his followers. There has been many speculations as to why this occurred but General Nelson A. Miles said ‘’a scuffle occurred between a warrior who had a rifle and two soldiers. The rifle was discharged and a battle occurred’’...By this time Spotted Elk was very sick but he and a large number of women and children tried to escape across the prairie but they were hunted down and killed.......

Chief Spotted Elk

 

This caption claims that this is "The Medicine Man" {i.e. Yellow Bird} However the presence of the rifle points to the possibility that this is the body of Black Coyote....

The officers soon lost control of their men. While Native American warriors and soldiers were shooting at close range, other soldiers used the Hotchkiss guns against a camp full of women and children...Of the original 350 Lakota that had camped the night before 300 were either wounded or killed. Many of the wounded were taken to the Holy Cross Episcopal Mission......

 

Holy Cross Episcopal Mission, used as hospital for wounded Lakota...

Following a three-day blizzard local civilians were hired to bury the dead Lakota, who by this time were frozen. They were gathered up and buried in a common grave on the hill overlooking the encampment.......

View of canyon at Wounded Knee, dead horses and Lakota bodies are visible

Wounded Knee hill, location of Hotchkiss guns during battle and subsequent mass grave of Native American Dead......

 

It was reported that four infants were found alive, wrapped in their dead mother’s shawls......

 

Gen. L. W. Colby holding Zintkala Nuni (Little Lost Bird), found on the Wounded Knee battlefield

In all, 84 men, 44 women, and 18 children reportedly died on the field, while at least seven Lakota were mortally wounded. General Miles denounced Colonel Forsyth and relived him of his command. Despite a court enquiry Forsyth was exonerated....

 

Brothers, (left to right) White Lance, Joseph Horn Cloud, and Dewery Beard, Wounded Knee Survivors; Minneconjou Lakota

Soon after the massacre, Dewey Beard, his brother Joseph Horn Cloud and others formed the Wounded Knee Survivors Association, which came to include descendants.

"What's left of Big Foot's band": John Grabill, 1891

 

A church was built on the hill behind the mass grave in which the victims had been buried. In 1903, descendants of those who died in the battle erected a monument at the gravesite....

The memorial lists many of those who died at Wounded Knee along with an inscription that reads:

"This monument is erected by surviving relatives and other Ogalala and Cheyenne River Sioux Indians in memory of the Chief Big Foot massacre December 29, 1890. Col. Forsyth in command of US troops. Big Foot was a great chief of the Sioux Indians. He often said, 'I will stand in peace till my last day comes.' He did many good and brave deeds for the white man and the red man. Many innocent women and children who knew no wrong died here.’’.....

 

Dewey Beard one of the models for the Indian Head Nickel

Not content with stealing the land from the Native Americans at this time the US government continued to do so. In 1942 the Department of War annexed 341,725 acres of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for use by the US Army Air Force as an aerial gunnery and bombing range. It condemned privately held land owned by tribal members and leased communally held tribal land. Dewey Beard, a survivor of the Wounded Knee Massacre, was one of the 125 families to lose their homes. After living in his home for 35 years and at the age of 84 the US government took it from him...

The Wounded Knee Battlefield was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1965 and was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1966.....

In memory of all the Native Americans who lost their lives that day. Their only crime was the wish to live in peace on their own lands. Their fight continues today.....

Until next time, take care...Hugs Chrissy xx

 

 

Season greetings from The Hovel. I wish you all a Merry Christmas.....

No snow here in Cornwall but watching Christmas films will make up for it....

The magic of Christmas through the eyes of a child....

A Christmas candle for all my family and friends who are no longer here....

I wish you peace and happiness. Enjoy your Christmas.....

Until next time, take care....Hugs Chrissy xx

 

Hello there on this cold, cold evening. Glad I'm inside all snug and warm....Just a quick visit to remember my dad on his birthday, he would have been 88 if he had lived. Wish you were here dad so I could tell you but Happy Birthday. Always thinking about you.......

My dad, oh how young he is here....

 

 

Love you lots dad, always there just not seen....

 

 

Until nest time, take care...Hugs Chrissy xx