🦅The American Indian Wars1890
Wounded Knee Massacre
The 7th Cavalry surrounded Chief Big Foot's band of 350 Miniconjou Lakota at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Big Foot, ill with pneumonia, had been traveling to Pine Ridge to seek peace. As soldiers attempted to disarm the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote struggled to surrender his rifle, and a shot was fired. The 7th Cavalry opened fire with rifles and four Hotchkiss artillery pieces, killing approximately 250–300 men, women, and children. Some victims were found miles away, having been cut down while fleeing.
Wounded Knee is considered the final chapter of the Plains Wars and a defining tragedy of American history. The killing of Big Foot's peaceful band, many of them Ghost Dance spiritual practitioners seeking cultural renewal, marked the violent suppression of even spiritual resistance. Twenty soldiers received the Medal of Honor for the engagement — a decision many historians and Native advocates have called an outrage. Efforts to rescind these medals continue.
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