Red Snow

On December 29, 1890, Sioux Indians living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota were cold, hungry, and at the end of their rope. Their independent way of life had been all but destroyed by capricious government policies.

Like other Native American bands, the Sioux ended up on reservations by a combination of military force, dishonesty, and coercion. The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, which guaranteed the Sioux would have land without encroachment from white settlers, was nullified when gold was discovered in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1874. The Sioux were compelled to move to smaller reservations were farming was difficult or impossible. But their problems didn't matter in the corridors of power in Washington. There was land to seize and fortunes to make.

There was no reason for the Sioux to trust the whites. However, they did trust one man: Wovoka. A shaman from the Paiute band, Wovoka claimed to have had a vision in which the Sioux returned to their land without interference from the white man. In order for this to become reality, they needed to practice the Ghost Dance. If any group of Native Americans needed a ray of hope it was the Sioux. So they chanted, danced, and prayed to spirits. This made the whites nervous, edgy. The chasm of mistrust and suspicion was widening, and it would have lethal consequences.

It was time to do something about the Indian "problem" and if they weren't dealt with soon they would revolt, and perhaps the Cheyenne and Arapaho would join them. What if the Ghost Dance inspired other bands like the Kiowa, Apache, and Navajo? In a panic, agents of the Bureau of Indian Affairs called for reinforcements to Pine Ridge near Wounded Knee Creek.

Troops of the U.S. 7th Cavalry showed up with rifles and four Hotchkiss guns, a forerunner of the machine gun. When the soldiers ordered the Sioux to drop their weapons one of them, apparently deaf, misunderstood and resisted. His rifle discharged, and it's uncertain if it was accidental or on purpose. The army opened fire.

Bullets ripped through tipis as the Sioux responded with fierce war cries. The frozen South Dakota ground turned red. When the shooting stopped, 25 U.S. soldiers were killed by friendly fire and the number of dead Sioux was reported to be as high as 300. It's not known how many died because there is no single, accurate record. Unarmed Sioux women and children were given no quarter.

Depending on who was asked, the events of that day were either a victory or a massacre. In 1876, George Custer was killed by the Sioux at Bighorn Creek in Montana. It was known many people wanted to avenge his death. Remember the Black Hills fiasco? Custer was the man who led the miners into that territory to collect gold.

Wounded Knee was the last major confrontation of the Indian Wars. Medals of Honor were awarded to twenty men for their gallantry at the battle site. The U.S. government refuses to quash those medals. A century later in 1990, Congress expressed "deep regret" for the bloodshed at Wounded Knee but no formal apology was given.

Philip Sheridan, a Union veteran of the Civil War, said, "The only good Indian is a dead Indian." He denied making that statement but witnesses confirmed that he did and Sheridan's hatred of Native Americans was no secret. If he had been at Wounded Knee, he probably would have been overjoyed.