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N0KFQ > TODAY 29.12.14 16:00l 68 Lines 3274 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 43303_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Dec 29
Path: IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<CX2SA<N9PMO<N3XPD<KQ0I<N0KFQ
Sent: 141229/1455Z 43303@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.62
Dec 29, 1890:
U.S. Army massacres Sioux at Wounded Knee
In the tragic final chapter of America's long war against the
Plains Indians, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux Indians at
Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
Tensions had been running high on Pine Ridge Reservation in South
Dakota for months because of the growing popularity of a new
Indian spiritual movement known as the Ghost Dance. Many of the
Sioux at Pine Ridge had only recently been confined to
reservations after long years of resistance, and they were deeply
disheartened by the poor living conditions and deadening tedium
of reservation life. The Ghost Dance movement taught that the
Indians were defeated and confined to reservations because they
had angered the gods by abandoning their traditional ways. If
they practiced the Ghost Dance ritual and rejected white ways,
many Sioux believed the gods would create the world anew, destroy
the unbelievers, and bring back murdered Indians and the giant
herds of bison.
By late 1890, Pine Ridge Indian agent James McLaughlin was
alarmed by the movement's increasing influence and its prediction
that all non-believers_presumably including whites_would be wiped
out. McLaughlin telegraphed a warning to Washington, D.C. that:
"Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy. We need
protection now." While waiting for the cavalry to arrive,
McLaughlin attempted to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux
chief, who he mistakenly believed was a Ghost Dance supporter.
U.S. authorities killed Sitting Bull during the arrest,
increasing the tensions at Pine Ridge rather than defusing them.
On December 29, the 7th Cavalry under Colonel James Forsyth
surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under the Sioux Chief Big Foot
near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their
weapons. Big Foot and his followers had no intentions of
attacking anyone, but they were distrustful of the army and
feared they would be attacked if they relinquished their guns.
Nonetheless, the Sioux agreed to surrender and began turning over
their guns. As that was happening, a scuffle broke out between an
Indian and a soldier, and a shot was fired. Though no one is
certain which side fired it, the ensuing melee was quick and
brutal. Without arms and outnumbered, the Sioux were reduced to
hand-to-hand fighting with knives, and they were cut down in a
withering rain of bullets, many coming from the army's rapid-fire
repeating Hotchkiss guns. By the time the soldiers withdrew, 146
Indians were dead (including 44 women and 18 children) and 51
wounded. The 7th Cavalry had 25 dead and 39 wounded.
Although sometimes referred to as a battle, the conflict at
Wounded Knee is best seen as a tragic and avoidable massacre.
Surrounded by heavily armed troops, it is highly unlikely that
Big Foot's band would have deliberately sought a confrontation.
Some historians speculate that the soldiers of Custer's old 7th
Cavalry were deliberately taking revenge for the regiment's
defeat at Little Bighorn in 1876. Whatever the motives, the
army's massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was the final
major confrontation in America's deadly war against the Plains
Indians.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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