Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)
On December 29, 1890, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, soldiers of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment killed between 250 and 300 Lakota men, women, and children in what became known as the Wounded Knee Massacre. The bloodshed erupted after a struggle over a rifle triggered a chaotic barrage of gunfire and cannon fire against a largely disarmed encampment. Often cited as the last major armed conflict of the American Indian Wars, Wounded Knee has come to symbolize the violent end of Native American resistance on the Great Plains.
The Ghost Dance and Rising Tensions
By late 1890, the Lakota Sioux on reservations across South Dakota faced devastating conditions: broken treaty promises, shrinking land, failed crops, and government rations cut to starvation levels. Amid this despair, many Lakota embraced the Ghost Dance, a spiritual movement founded by the Paiute prophet Wovoka. Its followers believed that ritual dancing would restore the buffalo, resurrect deceased ancestors, and cause white settlers to vanish, returning the land to Native peoples. Reservation agents, alarmed by the movement's growing intensity and unfamiliar with its peaceful intentions, viewed it as a precursor to armed uprising. Tensions escalated further on December 15, 1890, when Lakota police, acting on orders to arrest the revered leader Sitting Bull for allegedly encouraging the Ghost Dance, killed him during a struggle at his cabin on the Standing Rock Reservation. Fearing further violence, a band of roughly 350 Miniconjou Lakota led by Chief Spotted Elk (also known as Big Foot), along with some Hunkpapa refugees, fled toward the perceived safety of Pine Ridge. On December 28, the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment, the same unit devastated at Little Bighorn in 1876, intercepted the band and escorted them to a camp along Wounded Knee Creek, setting the stage for the following day's catastrophe.
Did You Know?
Chief Spotted Elk, known to the Army as Big Foot, was gravely ill with pneumonia and reportedly flying a white flag of truce when the shooting began at Wounded Knee. He was among the first killed, his frozen body later photographed half-buried in snow, an image that became one of the massacre's most haunting visual records.
The Massacre of December 29, 1890
On the morning of December 29, 1890, roughly 500 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry, under Colonel James W. Forsyth, surrounded the Lakota encampment and positioned four rapid-fire Hotchkiss guns on a nearby ridge, aimed directly at the camp. Soldiers began disarming the Lakota, searching tents and confiscating weapons. During the search, a deaf Miniconjou man named Black Coyote resisted surrendering his rifle, and in the ensuing struggle the weapon discharged. Soldiers immediately opened fire on the largely disarmed Lakota, and the Hotchkiss guns unleashed devastating explosive shells into the camp at a rate of nearly fifty rounds per minute. The fighting, if it can be called that, quickly became a slaughter, as soldiers pursued fleeing men, women, and children across the surrounding ravines and prairie, killing many more than a mile from the original campsite. When the gunfire ceased, between 250 and 300 Lakota lay dead, including Chief Spotted Elk himself, along with many women and children caught in the crossfire or deliberately shot. Twenty-five U.S. soldiers died, many likely from friendly fire during the chaotic close-quarters engagement, and 39 more were wounded. A blizzard soon buried the battlefield, and when burial parties returned days later, they found bodies frozen into the snow, which they interred in a mass grave.
Aftermath and Historical Legacy
In the immediate aftermath, the U.S. Army portrayed Wounded Knee as a battle rather than a massacre, and remarkably, 19 soldiers received the Medal of Honor specifically for their actions that day, with 31 awarded overall for the broader Pine Ridge Campaign. This official recognition has remained deeply controversial, and in recent decades numerous historians, tribal leaders, and members of Congress have called for the medals to be rescinded, arguing they honor the killing of largely unarmed civilians. Wounded Knee effectively marked the end of large-scale armed Native American resistance against the United States government, closing a chapter of conflict that had spanned much of the 19th century. The site later became a place of profound symbolic significance, most notably in 1973 when members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest federal policies and demand accountability for historical injustices against Native peoples. Today, Wounded Knee is recognized as a National Historic Landmark, and survivors' descendants continue to hold annual memorial rides and ceremonies honoring those killed. The massacre remains a pivotal and painful touchstone in American history, emblematic of the broader devastation inflicted upon Native American nations during westward expansion.