Today in History

December 29, 1890

Massacre at Wounded Knee

After years of the United States seizing Native American lands and forcing tribes onto reservations, as well as treaty provisions that were never honored, tensions finally came to a head on December 29, 1890 at Wounded Knee.

European settlers were growing concerned over a new movement with the Lakota tribe called the "Ghost Dance"; this religion assured the Native American people that soon their ancestors would return and the white man would be swept from the land and the wildlife returned. Settlers feared the Ghost Dance followers were preparing for war, and the government took swift action.

Reservation police believed Sitting Bull was a follower of the Ghost Dance movement and attempted to arrest him, but an altercation broke out. Sitting Bull, as well as six officers and eight of his supporters, were killed.

On December 29 at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, the US Cavalry cornered and surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee Creek, demanding their surrender. A fight broke between an Indian and a cavalryman resulting in a shot being fired, though history is unsure of which side it came from. The fight escalated, resulting in a bloody massacre in which 146 Indians were killed, almost half women and children, and 25 cavalrymen.

83 years later, Wounded Knee would again come to prominence in the early 1970's as the center of the 71-day occupation by American Indian Movement, raising awareness for Native American civil rights.

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