The Wounded Knee Massacre, a profoundly regrettable and tragic clash of arms that transpired on December 29, 1890, stands as the last significant engagement between Native Americans and U.S. soldiers on the North American Continent, marking the conclusion of nearly four centuries of warfare between westward-expanding Americans and indigenous peoples. This devastating event, widely recognized as the Wounded Knee Massacre rather than a battle, remains a potent symbol of national guilt regarding the historical mistreatment of Native Americans.
Far from being a premeditated conflict, the events leading to Wounded Knee were largely precipitated by individual indiscretion and a cascade of misunderstandings in an increasingly tense environment. While the majority of participants on both sides harbored no intention of engaging in armed combat, the volatile and confusing situation ultimately culminated in tragedy. The lingering gun smoke over the battlefield obscured some facts, yet the harrowing scale and nature of the casualties underscored that the action bore the hallmarks of a massacre.
The Ghost Dance and Mounting Tensions
The arrival of U.S. troops on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in 1890, aimed at quelling the growing unrest surrounding the Ghost Dance movement, set the stage for the tragic events. This spiritual revitalization movement, which promised a return of traditional ways and the disappearance of white settlers, had spread rapidly among various Plains tribes, including the Lakota, causing alarm among U.S. government officials.
Tensions escalated dramatically after Indian police, attempting to arrest the revered Hunkpapa Lakota leader, Chief Sitting Bull, killed him on December 15 on the Standing Rock Reservation. His death ignited widespread agitation among his band, prompting further troop reinforcements to be dispatched to the region. Many Hunkpapa, fearing reprisal and seeking safety, fled southward towards the Cheyenne River.
Chief Big Foot’s Journey to Wounded Knee
Military officials, apprehensive about the potential for a formidable Hunkpapa-Miniconjou coalition, closely monitored the movements of the fleeing Hunkpapa. While many of the Standing Rock fugitives eventually allied with the Miniconjou Chief Hump and his 400 followers, surrendering at Fort Bennett, South Dakota, a more militant group emerged.
Approximately 38 Hunkpapa joined a band of about 350 Miniconjou Ghost Dancers led by Chief Big Foot (Sitanka). Big Foot, already gravely ill with pneumonia, initially defied military demands but eventually informed authorities of his willingness to surrender. However, when he failed to appear at the designated time and place, General Nelson A. Miles ordered his immediate arrest. On December 28th, a detachment of the 7th Cavalry under Major Samuel M. Whitside intercepted Big Foot and his band southwest of the Badlands at Porcupine Creek. They were then escorted approximately five miles westward to Wounded Knee Creek, where Big Foot reiterated his intention to surrender peacefully.
Later that night, Colonel James W. Forsyth arrived to oversee the operation, planning to move the captives by train to Omaha, Nebraska, via the Pine Ridge Agency. Forsyth’s force was substantial, comprising more than 500 men, including the entire 7th Cavalry Regiment, a company of Oglala scouts, and a crucial artillery detachment equipped with Hotchkiss guns.
The Disarmament and the Spark of Violence
The decision to disarm the Miniconjou band the following day proved to be a critical misjudgment. The Native Americans had shown no aggressive inclination, viewing their firearms as both cherished personal possessions and essential tools for survival. The stage was set between the teepees and the soldiers’ tents in a council ring, with a Hotchkiss battery ominously positioned on a nearby low hill, its guns trained directly on the Indian camp. The troops formed two cordons, completely encircling the council ring.
The warriors were reluctant to yield their weapons, prompting a detachment of troops to search the teepees, where they uncovered approximately 40 rifles. Tension escalated as soldiers disrupted the teepees and alarmed the women and children. Officers feared that the Native Americans were still concealing additional firearms. Meanwhile, Yellow Bird, a militant medicine man, moved among the warriors, urging resistance and reaffirming their belief that their “ghost shirts” rendered them invulnerable to bullets.
When troops attempted to physically search the warriors, a rifle belonging to a man named Black Coyote, whom many in his tribe considered mentally unstable, reportedly discharged accidentally as he resisted the search. Yellow Bird seized the moment, signaling for retaliation. Several warriors immediately leveled their rifles at the troops, some perhaps firing. The soldiers, perceiving this as an act of treachery, unleashed a volley into the Native American ranks. What followed was a brief but horrifying struggle, with combatants ferociously wielding rifles, knives, revolvers, and war clubs.
The Horrific Aftermath and Casualties
Within moments, the Hotchkiss guns on the hill opened fire indiscriminately, mowing down men, women, and children who had gathered to observe the proceedings. The field quickly became a horrific scene, littered with Native American dead and wounded. Teepees ignited, and panic-stricken survivors scrambled desperately for the meager shelter of nearby ravines, relentlessly pursued by soldiers and continuously raked with fire from the Hotchkiss guns. Bodies of men, women, and children were discovered scattered over a distance of two miles from the initial encounter site. The frenzy of the struggle, the density of participants, and the poor visibility caused by gun smoke undoubtedly led to the deaths of many innocents, with both soldiers and Native Americans tragically taking the lives of their own.
Out of the estimated 230 Native American women and children and 120 men in the camp, a grim count revealed 153 dead and 44 wounded. However, many wounded likely escaped, and numerous dead were quickly removed by relatives, suggesting the true toll was higher. U.S. Army casualties were 25 dead and 39 wounded. The total casualties rendered the Wounded Knee Massacre one of the deadliest engagements in Plains Indian warfare, rivaling even the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The horrific event further ignited the Brules and Oglala on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations, though by January 16, 1891, troops had rounded up the last of the hostiles, who ultimately recognized the futility of further armed opposition.
The Lingering Shame and Legacy
Following the massacre, the soldiers left many of the wounded Native Americans to perish in a brutal three-day blizzard that descended upon the region. Civilians were later hired to collect the bodies and inter them in a mass grave. A photograph, taken afterward, shows soldiers lined up beside this mass grave, an image that continues to evoke profound historical discomfort. Shockingly, twenty Medals of Honor were later awarded to U.S. soldiers who participated in the Wounded Knee Massacre, a decision that has been widely condemned.
Despite these commendations, General Nelson Miles, one of the commanding officers, vehemently denounced Colonel Forsyth, relieving him of command. Although an Army Court of Inquiry criticized Forsyth for his tactical dispositions, it largely exonerated him of direct responsibility, leading to his reinstatement. General Miles, however, persisted in his criticism, publicly asserting that Wounded Knee was a deliberate massacre.
Beyond the immediate casualties, the Wounded Knee Massacre also symbolized the profound end of an era for the Sioux Nation. By this point, its people fully grasped the irreversible totality of the white conquest. Before Wounded Knee, despite more than a decade of restricted reservation life, many had clung to dreams of liberation and a return to their ancestral ways — a sentiment powerfully articulated through the Ghost Dance religion. But the nightmare of Wounded Knee brutally forced a harsh reality upon them. They, and all other Native American tribes, understood that the era of resistance had finally ended, and that conformity to the white man’s ways was the stark price of survival. It is perhaps no mere coincidence that the same year as Wounded Knee, the U.S. Census Bureau officially declared the closing of the American frontier.
Commemoration and Calls for Justice
In 1903, surviving relatives erected a monument at the site of the mass grave, a poignant tribute to the many innocent women and children killed in the massacre. Decades later, Native American activists began urging the U.S. government to officially withdraw the Medals of Honor, but these efforts were initially unsuccessful. However, in 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two powerful resolutions condemning the Medal of Honor awards and reiterated their call for the U.S. Government to rescind them, highlighting the ongoing demand for historical justice.
The battlefield itself was designated a National Historic Site on December 21, 1965. Despite the scars of modern buildings and a fragmented road system, it remains an immensely powerful and solemn reminder of the last major military-Indian clash. Located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the site features a series of interpretive markers detailing the massacre and a privately operated museum displaying battlefield artifacts. On a low hill, near the approximate location of the Hotchkiss battery, stands a simple white frame church. Behind it lies the cemetery, which encompasses the mass grave of the Native Americans who perished and the 1903 monument. The site is privately owned by both individuals and the Sioux tribe, ensuring its enduring significance as a place of memory and contemplation.
