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The Wounded Knee Massacre

By the end of the nineteenth century, the US government had permanently transformed Native American life across the United States through broken treaties, bison hunting to near-extinction, and reservation containment. Native Americans were also deleteriously affected by government agents, assimilationist educational and religious programs, and military conflict. At the end of the nineteenth century, tribes across reservations practiced the “Ghost Dance” ritual, which called a new Messiah to bring back ancestors, show new hunting grounds, and remove white settlers from their lands. As ghost dancing spread, it compounded tensions between Native Americans and US government officials. After the death of Sitting Bull, a Lakota holy man, at the hands of the US military, a band of Lakota fled the Standing Rock Agency and made for the Pine Ridge Agency to seek protection. En route, they were stopped near the Wounded Knee Creek on December 29, 1890, and forcibly disarmed by the Seventh Cavalry, who came with an arsenal of weapons and a thirst for action.

The disarming turned quickly to a massacre, as the US Army slaughtered ninety Lakota men and two hundred women and children. After three days of blizzard, the Army buried the frozen corpses of the Lakota slain in mass graves. Although there was conflict within the army about the actions of Colonel James W. Forsyth,

Created By

Franky Abbott, Digital Public Library of America

Time Period

The Development of the Industrial United States (1870-1900)

Subjects

US History Native Americans

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Primary Source Sets

The Wounded Knee Massacre

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https://dp.la/primary-source-sets?timePeriod=the-development-of-the-industrial-united-states-1870-1900
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets?subject=us-history
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets?subject=native-americans
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who led the Seventh Cavalry and was responsible for the massacre, many soldiers at Wounded Knee were honored for their bravery. In 1973, Wounded Knee was again the site of conflict as residents on Pine Ridge and members of the American Indian Movement occupied the village to protest their treatment on the reservation by local officials and the Bureau of Indian Affairs as well as to shed light on the history of US government atrocities committed against Native American communities. This primary source set uses documents, photographs, government records, and news reporting to explore the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee and its historical impact.

SOURCE SET ADDITIONAL RESOURCES TEACHING GUIDE

An affidavit from US Indian agents about supply delivery to families at the Pine Ridge Agency, December 31, 1889.

A photograph of Lakota in Ghost Dance costumes, ca. 1880.

A memorandum from James McLaughlin, Indian Agent at Pine Ridge Agency, regarding the reasons for the Ghost Dance uprising, November 6, 1890.

Correspondence from officers at the Pine Ridge Agency cautioning against military response to ghost dancing, November 24, 1890.

https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/additional-resources#tabs
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/teaching-guide#tabs
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/743
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/744
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/745
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/746
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/747
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/748
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/749
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/750
A telegram from Pine Ridge Agency reporting on the response to Sitting Bullʼs death, December 20, 1890.

A photograph of the Rose Bud and Lakota “war dance” at Pine Ridge, December 25, 1890.

An 1891 illustration by Frederic Remington depicting the “the opening of the fight at Wounded Knee.”

A photograph of the Seventh Cavalry at Pine Ridge returning from the fighting at Wounded Knee.

A photograph of a civilian burial party loading the frozen bodies of fallen Lakota on carts and moving them to mass graves.

A photograph of officers and civilians unloading the frozen bodies of Lakota men, women and children into a mass grave at Wounded Knee.

A US Army situation report about conditions at Wounded Knee in the aftermath of the massacre, 1891.

An excerpt from a report from an inspection of government schools on Pine Ridge Reservation, May 1891.

A patch created by the American Indian Movement to commemorate events at Wounded Knee in 1890 and 1973.

A news story about life on the Pine Ridge Reservation during the occupation of Wounded Knee, September 1973.

A speech by American Indian Movement activist Dennis Banks on the first anniversary of the Wounded Knee occupation, February 27, 1974.

RELATED PRIMARY SOURCE SETS

https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/747
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/748
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/749
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/750
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/751
https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/752
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https://dp.la/primary-source-sets/the-wounded-knee-massacre/sources/754
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These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee. Explore resources and ideas for Using DPLA's Primary Source Sets in your classroom.

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