Wounded Knee is the name of a creek on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. It is significant in history for one date and one brief winter . The date for which Wounded Knee is most remembered is December 29, 1890. The winter in question was 1973. To be exact 72 days of the winter of '73. In this report the events leading up to December 29th will be discussed as well as what happened on that dreadful day. The time in 1973 will not be discussed.
To begin with, it is necessary to understand what happened on December 29, 1890. In order to understand exactly what happened on this day one must review the events leading up to the 29th. It all started with a clash between the United States government and the Native American Indians-Oglala Lakota and others Sioux tribes. The clash in question began because the Oglala Lakota felt that the United States government or "white man" was coming and stealing their land and taking over the country from its original inhabitants. There were several brief clashes between the Sioux Indians and the United States Government for this reason. The Oglala Lakota wanted no part of the civilized "white man" and the federal government wanted to expand and explore its territories. In these brief clashes the Oglala Lakota held their own forcing the federal government to pass the Fort Laramie treaty of 1868. This treaty gave the Oglala Lakota and other Sioux tribes the right to occupy and inhabit the Black Hills of South Dakota (Young p.71). The Oglala Lakota had thought they had gained significant ground in their attempt to rid themselves of the federal government and live as they were before the "white man" came. Their brief victory was dulled by the discovery of gold in the Black Hills given to them by the federal government. Naturally the federal government wanted this land back. This is where the real clash begins.
The Oglala Lakota refused to give up the land they were given. The federal government sent in military force to try to evict the Oglala Lakota. The most remembered battle from this use of force would be the Battle at Little Big Horn in which the Oglala Lakota led by warriors such as Sitting Bull, Red Cloud and Crazy Horse defeated and killed General George Armstrong Custer. This defeat set the stage for Wounded Knee.
By the time 1890 rolls around the Oglala Lakota and other tribes of the Sioux had been well defeated. Most of their leaders had died or been killed. They had no hope of things returning to the way they were. The federal government had won.
Around this time the government was becoming increasingly concerned about the Oglala Lakotas participating in ghost dances. These were ritual dances which the Oglalal believed would return things to the way they were. For example, the white man would leave the land they had stolen from the Sioux, the buffalo would return to roam the great plains and so forth, the dead Indians would return to life and world which the white man had created would be forgotten and the old ways of the Sioux world would return.
These ghost dances bothered the federal government so much that they sent in troops to put a stop to them. This is where we get the importance of Wounded Knee in history. At Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation the American government’s troops slaughtered and killed some 200 unsuspecting women and children. The cavalry that did this was the 7th. The significance of that is that it is the same cavalry Gen. Custer commanded. The needless killing was thought to avenge Custer's death.
Grolier's 1993 Multimedia Encyclopedia
Matthiessen, Peter, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (1991)
Welch, James and Paul Stekker, Killing Custer (1994)
Young, William A., The World's Religion's (1995)