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This day in history

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waltesefalcon

waltesefalcon

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On this day in 1894 the US 7th Cavalry valiantly murdered some 300 unarmed Lakota near Wounded Knee creek,SD, official Army count: 90 men and approximately 200 women and children. According to General Nelson Miles commanding officer, Military Division of the Missouri, a "scuffle occurred between one warrior who had [a] rifle in his hand and two soldiers. The rifle was discharged and a battle occurred, not only the warriors but the sick Chief Spotted Elk, and a large number of women and children who tried to escape by running and scattering over the prairie were hunted down and killed." He was was very critical of Col. James Forsyth who was in command at the massacre and had him relieved of command following what he called in a letter to his wife, "The most abominable criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children." The war department did not agree with Gen. Miles, however, and Forsyth was exonerated of any wrongdoing and eventually obtained the rank of Major General. In total twenty Congressional Medals of Honor were bestowed upon troopers of the 7th Cav. for their meritorious conduct during the "battle."

For some more background you can look here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre
 
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Sadly they did. The National Congress of American Indians have sent several formal requests to the U.S. Government to rescind the CMHs given out for the Pine Ridge campaign. In 1999 the U.S. Army responded to NCAI. Here is are a couple of excerpts from the Army response: "The loss of life suffered by Native Americans at Wounded Knee was not the result of deliberate plans or policy of the U.S. Army. The Army commitment of a large number of soldiers at Wounded Knee was intended to awe the encampment into quiet submission and thereby avoid casualties on both sides... To characterize Wounded Knee as a massacre – the killing of considerable number of human beings under circumstances of atrocity or cruelty, or mercilessly – overlooks the absence of premeditation, efforts to peacefully pacify the encampment, attempts to spare women and children once the melee began, and the Army’s sincere efforts to investigate charges of wanton killing of noncombatants after the incident." and "We do have reason to believe that the Pine Ridge Campaign is appropriately characterized as a campaign, that the Medals of Honor won therein were deserved, and that Wounded Knee was an isolated and unintended incident."
To date the government still defends its position that the soldiers who received CMHs for the Battle of Wounded Knee deserved the medals.
To see the full document go here:
https://www.dickshovel.com/smith4.html
 
It's always blame the Indians! It's been that way from the beginning. To give someone a medal for killing them, just because they were there, is totally disgusting! When someone's centuries old way of life is threatened, driven off their land, family's murdered/massacred, they will fight back and rightfully so! All in the name of the white mans greed for land, power and control. Yes, I am 1/4th Lenape and the wife is 1/4 Cherokee, so we know a little about the other side of the story! :frown: PJ
 
Treatment of Native Americans is a deplorable part of our history that we should all be ashamed. It 's hard to ignore driving around the Western US, seeing what's left and imagining what once was.
 
And to my understanding the Ghost dance that seemed to the issue wsan't a call for war but more of an "if you believe hard enough and dance correctly" then one day you'll wake up to find the white man gone and everything back the way it was. In short, a non violent call for a higher intervention.
 
Read "Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee"...can't be done without crying several times.
 
The Ghost Dance was a complicated ritual that was intended to bring about peace and prosperity for those who engaged in it, i.e. a peaceful end to White expansion; to the government it didn't matter if the purpose of the dance was peaceful or not. All forms of Native culture, especially religion, were brutally suppressed by the U.S. Government at the end of the nineteenth century through the first half of the twentieth century.

Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee is a good read.
 
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