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 7th 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 7th 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
