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KF5JRV > TODAY 29.12.23 20:41l 34 Lines 2415 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 15465_KF5JRV
Read: DJ6UX GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Dec 29
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Sent: 231229/0858Z 15465@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.23
On December 29, 1890, in one of the final chapters of America’s long Indian wars, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux at Wounded K
nee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.
Throughout 1890, the U.S. government worried about the increasing influence at Pine Ridge of the Ghost Dance spiritual movement
, which taught that Native Americans had been defeated and confined to reservations because they had angered the gods by abando
ning their traditional customs. Many Sioux believed that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and rejected the ways of the white m
an, the gods would create the world anew and destroy all non-believers, including non-Indians.
On December 15, 1890, reservation police tried to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux leader, who they mistakenly believed wa
s a Ghost Dancer, at the Standing Rock reservation and killed him in the process.
On December 29, the U.S. Army’s 7th cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under the Sioux Chief Big Foot near Wounded Knee
Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier
and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side. A brutal massacre followed, in which it’s estimated almost 150 Na
tive Americans were killed (some historians put this number at twice as high), nearly half of them women and children. The cava
lry lost 25 men.
The conflict at Wounded Knee was originally referred to as a battle, but in reality it was a tragic and avoidable massacre. Sur
rounded by heavily armed troops, it’s unlikely that Big Foot’s band would have intentionally started a fight. Some historians s
peculate that the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were deliberately taking revenge for the regiment’s defeat at the Little Bighorn
in 1876. Whatever the motives, the massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was the last major confrontation in America’s de
adly war against the Plains Indians.
Conflict came to Wounded Knee again in February 1973 when it was the site of a 71-day occupation by the activist group AIM (Ame
rican Indian Movement) and its supporters, who were protesting the U.S. government’s mistreatment of Native Americans. During t
he standoff, two Native Americans were killed, one federal marshal was seriously wounded and numerous people were arrested.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
Email KF5JRV@gmail.com
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