Ghost Dance Aftermath: Slaughter At Wounded Knee

Sitting Bull was dead, the Ghost dance cult was in disarray, and rumors spread through the Dakota reservations in mid-December 1890 that the government would take reprisals against the Indians. In fear for their future, about 400 of Sitting Bull's followers fled their homes to seek shelter among the Sioux under chief Big Foot at the Cheyanne River Reservation. Most never made it; they were talked into surrendering to authorities at Fort Bennett. But a handful arrived at Big Foot's village. Soon it was surrounded by troopers, but because they were waiting orders, they made no immediate move to attack. Now fear spread among Big Foot's people, and on december 23, 1890, under cover of darkness, about 350 of them, (fully two-thirds of them were women and children) with their chief, abandoned the village and set off toward Pine Ridge. The soldiers, with their arsenal of small arms and light artillery, followed in hot pursuit. On December 28 the Indians surrendered and, under the eyes of 500 soldiers, made camp at a place called Wounded Knee. The next morning the Indians recieved orders to hand in their weapons, but they refused. Soldiers began a search. There was a scuffle; a shot rang out. Suddenly the peaceful camp was transformed into a scene of horror. From the hills the troopers raked the Indians with their Hotchkiss guns and probably killed many of their own men caught in the crossfire. The Indians fought back with whatever they had, stones or sticks or bare hands, but it was an unequal battle from the start. In the heat of combat many of the soldiers - some of them from the 7th Calvary, Custer's old command - went berserk, cutting down defenseless women with babes in arms as they tried to flee. In all, 25 soldiers were killed, 39 wounded, within an hour  least 200 Indians - some say as many as 300 - died. A few women got as far as three miles away before being caught and killed. The rest, about 100 souls, fled and later froze to death in the hills.The military dead were buried with full honors, but days later after a blizzard, a hired civilian crew dumped the bodies of the Indians into a mass grave (picture above). One of the civilian workers remembered the scene: "It was a thing," he said, "to melt the heart of a man, if it was of stone, to see those little children, with their bodies shot to pieces, thrown naked into the pit." Wounded Knee marked the end of the Plains Indian's armed resistance, but the slaughter remains a symbol to the Indians of their treatment by whites.

The following is a true story about a senseless slaughter of my brothers and sisters. It saddens my heart to post this TRUE HISTORY of what our white forefathers did to the Indians at Wounded Knee. If you wish to learn more, read the book, "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee." Your local Library should have a copy.                                                            My Heart Is Sad ~ Cougar Heart

This page was last updated on: February 20, 2004

Music, Sacred Ground, by elan Michaels

Slaughter At Wounded Knee

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After the Slaughter at Wounded Knee

Hired civilians picking up the Slaughtered Indians

Mass burial of the Slaughtered Indians in pit

Wounded Knee   Remembered