29 December 1890: Wounded Knee Massacre Ends Indian Wars
On December 29, 1890, the United States Army carried out the Wounded Knee Massacre, the last major armed conflict between federal forces and the Lakota Sioux. The killing of between 250 and 300 Lakota men, women, and children marked the end of the Indian Wars and stands as one of the darkest chapters in American history, a symbol of the violence and betrayal that characterized the government’s treatment of Native peoples.
The tragedy grew out of the Ghost Dance movement, a spiritual revival that had spread among Native American tribes. Followers believed that performing the Ghost Dance would bring back dead relatives, restore the buffalo herds, and cause the white settlers to disappear. Government officials, already nervous about any Native resistance, viewed the movement as a dangerous uprising and moved to suppress it by force.
On December 28, the 7th Cavalry intercepted a band of Miniconjou Lakota under Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. Big Foot was ill with pneumonia and had already agreed to surrender. The soldiers surrounded the Lakota camp and the next morning began confiscating weapons. During the disarmament, a shot was fired, though accounts differ about who fired first.
The soldiers opened fire with rifles and rapid-fire Hotchkiss guns positioned on the surrounding hills. The Lakota, most of whom had already surrendered their weapons, had little means to resist. The killing continued for an hour as soldiers pursued and shot fleeing women and children across the frozen landscape. Bodies were found as far as two miles from the camp.
The aftermath revealed the extent of the horror. Soldiers loaded wounded survivors into wagons and took them to a makeshift hospital in a nearby church, still decorated for Christmas. A blizzard delayed burial of the dead, whose frozen bodies were eventually dumped into a mass grave. Twenty soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their actions that day, decorations that many have since called for revoking.
Wounded Knee marked the definitive end of armed Native American resistance to federal authority. More than that, it symbolized the systematic destruction of Native peoples, cultures, and ways of life that had occurred over centuries. The massacre remains a painful memory and a call for recognition of historical injustices that continue to shape Native American life today.
