Gordon G

Wounded Knee Text Book Entry

In the last few decades of the 19th century, the US governments Indian policy was changing. The process of Assimilation, in which Indians were taught to live like Whites, was well under way in boarding schools, and more and more land was being cut off the fringes of the various Indian reservations. Between May of 1889 and early in 1891, about 23,000,000 acres of land were taken off of the reservations. This angered many of the Indian tribes for obvious reasons. Sometime during this time period, some Indians had started practicing a new religion which was centered on the idea of a Messiah who would come down and help the Indians eliminate the Whites. This movement, called the Ghost Dancers, frightened settlers with their violent practices. In addition, partially due to the recent decreases in land and partially due to an extreme drought, Indians of all tribes were low on food. Some tribes, including the Cheyenne, were forced to kill cattle belonging to white settlers, which was also interpreted as an act of violence. In response, the Government sent multiple groups of soldiers to various points in different reservations to disarm the Natives and keep the peace. This frightened the natives, and many of them fled in to the Badlands, near the edge of the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. Some soldiers, including the 7th cavalry were posted near the agency, not far from Wounded Knee creek. Ambassadors at the agency convinced most of the Indians to come out of the Badlands and set up a camp near the agency itself, not far from the soldiers camp. On December 28th, 1890, Chief Big Foot arrived with his people, fleeing some other group of soldiers that had occupied their home. Upon arriving at the agency, they were intercepted by the soldiers of the 7th cavalry and taken to a field near Wounded Knee Creek, where they set up camp. The following morning, on December 29th, the soldiers set about disarming Big Foot and his people. Several of the other tribes camped near the agency had sent scouts to observe the soldiers that morning, so there are multiple eyewitness accounts of what happened next. The soldiers separated the men from the women and children and requested that the Indians give up their weapons. While most of the Indians complied as they were completely surrounded by soldiers, one panicked and fired a shot. This shot reportedly hit and killed one of the soldiers. The other Indians began drawing knives, in spite of the soldiers continued warnings. At this point, the soldiers opened fire, decimating the group of Indian Men. In the process, as they had encircled the Indians, some of the soldiers accidentally hit their comrades standing across the circle. The soldiers also fired upon the Indians using Hotchkiss guns, which are light artillery capable of firing either explosive or canister shot every sixty seconds. Seeing the men come under fire, the women and children panicked and ran. Many of them fled up a dry gulch near the camp. The soldiers pursued them along the gulch on either side, firing down in to it and killing indiscriminately, regardless of whether their victim was a grown man or a baby. As the fighting died down, one eyewitness reported that the soldiers called out, saying that anyone who wasnt dead or wounded could come out and they wouldnt be hurt. Several children crawled out of their various hiding places and were promptly dispatched by the soldiers. All told, as many as 300 Sioux

Indians died that day. In the aftermath after the massacre, the Indians camped near the agency launched several minor attacks, burning a few outbuildings but not causing a great number of casualties. This Massacre marked the end of the main conflict between the Indians and the United States. Reflection: 1. I had a hard time with this assignment. Concentrating on each individual document with equal focus was a big challenge, and not one that I particularly enjoyed. I thought that it was interesting to hear about all of the different perspectives about Wounded Knee, but that after the first few, the sources were all very similar, just with some siding with the Indians and some with the Government. In the end, it was rewarding to write a passage that combined all of my new learning about a topic that I didnt really know much about before. The most enlightening part was probably the process. I had no idea how much work it is to write one short text book passage, especially when considering that real historians have to look at many more sources than we did. 2. My bias, which I know is against the whites, is most obvious in my description of the massacre itself. This is probably the most emotional part of my passage, and it shows through my descriptions of the women and children being slaughtered. I think its hard to talk about Wounded Knee without showing this same bias, but it is still my most obvious bias in the piece. 3. This has definitely convinced me that history is a collection of stories. After reading the different accounts and deciding what to leave out and what to include, its much more obvious to me that history isnt reliable; its just the stories of many told through the perspective of one.