Īccording to Wovoka, the white invaders would disappear from Native lands, the ancestors would lead them to good hunting grounds, the buffalo herds and all the other animals would return in abundance, and the ghosts of their ancestors would return to Earth-hence the "Ghost Dance". He had a vision that the Christian Messiah, Jesus Christ, had returned to Earth in the form of a Native American. ĭuring this time, news spread among the reservations of a Paiute prophet named Wovoka, founder of the Ghost Dance religion. As a result, there was unrest on the reservations. Treaty promises to protect reservation lands from encroachment by settlers and gold miners were not implemented as agreed. The once-large bison herds, a staple of the Great Plains indigenous peoples, had been hunted to near-extinction. government had continued to seize Lakota lands. In the years leading up to the conflict, the U.S.
Congress passed a resolution on the historical centennial formally expressing "deep regret" for the massacre. The Wounded Knee Battlefield, site of the massacre, has been designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions condemning the military awards and called on the federal government to rescind them. Twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor. Twenty-five soldiers also died and thirty-nine were wounded (six of the wounded later died). īy the time the massacre was over, more than 250 men, women and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 were wounded (4 men and 47 women and children, some of whom died later) some estimates placed the number of dead as high as 300. The Lakota warriors fought back, but many had already been stripped of their guns and disarmed. Black Coyote's rifle went off at that point the U.S. Simultaneously, an old man was performing a ritual called the Ghost Dance. One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it.
Cavalry troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota. The regiment was supported by a battery of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. Forsyth, arrived and surrounded the encampment. The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James W. Whitside approached Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them 5 miles (8.0 km) westward to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made camp. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. The previous day, a detachment of the U.S. state of South Dakota, following a botched attempt to disarm the Lakota camp. It occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek ( Lakota: Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála) on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. The Wounded Knee Massacre, also known as the Battle of Wounded Knee, was a massacre of nearly three hundred Lakota people by soldiers of the United States Army.