Following the death of Sitting Bull on Dec,15 1890, Chief Big Foot and his Minnicoujou band set out for Pine Ridge. They were intercepted by the 7th Cavalry and brought, under a white flag of truce, to Wonded Knee.
It was the 29th day of the Moon of Popping Trees (December) in 1890. Peace was sleeping within the warm winter wind under the murderous eyes of the Gatling and Hotchkiss guns, dug into the ridges surrounding the Lakota encampment.
Chief Spotted Elk ("Bigfoot" was the name the soldiers gave him), flying the flag of truce within his encampment, was dying from pneumonia. His people were dying from fear of the white soldiers who had come to take revenge for the defeat of their unit, the 7th Cavalry, at Little Bighorn in The Moon. When the Chokecherries are Ripe (june) in 1876. All the soldiers needed was the smallest excuse to begin the massacre.
A single shot, according to a reporter on the scene, was fired from the soldiers, and with that, the smallest excuse was manufactured. When the rain of ammunition ceased, over 300 Souix lay dead from gunfire, cannon fire, or manual butchering within the encampment and within adjacent ravines up to two miles away.
The dead were Souix men who had been disarmed before the weapons fire began, women, many with babes in arms or waiting to be born, and children. The soldiers walked away from their crime against humanity and left the dead where they lay.
That night, the sky cried snow and the warm winter wind of peace was supplanted by the cold winter wind of grief. For four days, the dead laid where they were, frozen into grotesque shapes of lifelessness. Finally, the soldiers came and loaded the dead like cordwood in wagons, and hauled their loads to hastily dug mass graves, where the dead were thrown in- the bodies of men, women, and children whose spirits walked the encampment and ravines, wailing.
The mass graves were filled and the soldiers left. Twenty-seven Congressional Medals of Honor (sic) for "bravery" were awarded to the soldiers who participated in that heinous muder for their parts in fighting the allegedly hostile "war parties" attacking them that day.
The spirits of the slain continue their walking and wailing. Red Willow in great profusion, grown from the blood of all those who fell along the banks of the creek that day, still grows thickly along Wonded Knee Creek. Peace never again slept within the winds that blew along Wonded Knee Creek.
The Massacre of Wonded Knee became a symbol for the Souix Nation, of the lies and deciet of the "Great White Father in Washington" and the U,S, Government.
Their words of encouragement and promises of help and peace were seen for the malevolent intent hidden behind the facade. As more and more land promised to us forever was taken away on the whims of Congress, our place to live became smaller and our pain and confusion grew.
The mass graves at Wonded Kneebecame a symbol to the Souix to never forget and never to trust again. The voices of our slain relatives can still be heard, crying out from the soil, the waters, the air, and we vow time and time again to never forget, to be strong, to help our nation heal and live well again.
Today, a solitary stone monument stands on the mass grave site. The Indian community, the National Park Service, and the State of South Dakota are working to create a national memorial park to honor the victims of the Wonded Knee massacre.
1800-Present
1800
By early 19th century, the Great Sioux Nation dominates the nothern Plains, an area including most of the Dakotas, nothern Nebraska, eastern Wyoming, and southeastern Montana.
1803
The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France. The westward expansion that follows eventually leads to depletion of the buffalo, an animal central to the Lakota way of life.
1866-68
Red Cloud leads the successful fight to close off the Bozeman Trail, a pass leading to the gold mines of Montana. The trail crosses over the traditional hunting grounds of the Teton.
1868
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 establishes the Great Sioux Reservation, encompassing most of present-day South Dakota west of the Missouri River, including the Black Hills. The U.S.Government pledges to keep whites out of this teritory.
1874
An expedition led by Lt. Col. George A. Custer discovers gold in the Black Hills, sending a rush of prospectors to the area. As more and more whites enter the area, the Indian people defend their homes and way of life.
1876
On June 25, Custer attacks a large Indian encampment. Sitting Bull, Gall, Crazy Horse, and several Cheyenne leaders defeat Custer and the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of Little Big Horn. Custer loses his entire command of more than 200 men in the battle.
1889
An act by the U,S.Congress in March 1889 splits the Great Sioux Reservation into six smaller reservations. Some of the tribes begin performing the Ghost Dance, a religious ceremony thought to extinguish the whites, return the buffalo, and the former way of life. South Dakota is admitted to the union in November.
1890
Sitting Bull is murdered on the Standing Rock Reservation. Folling this event, Big Foot and his Mnikowoju band flee to Pine Ridge to seek protection under Red Cloud. More than 250 members of Big Foot's band are massacred by the 7th Cavalry on Dec. 29 at Wonded Knee. The event is often described as the last major conflict between the U.S.Army and the Great Sioux Nation.
1924
The Citizenship Act of 1924 naturalizes Indians born within the Territorial limits of the United States.
1934
The Indian Reorganization Act recognizes tribal governments as soverign nations.
1973
Members of the American Indian Movement seize the village of Wonded Knee and occupy it for 71 days.
1990
South Dakota Governor George S.Mickelson and representatives of the state's nine tribal governments proclaim 1990 a Year of Reconciliation. A Century of Reconciliation is declared in 1991.
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