Battle at Wounded Knee
Date: December 29, 1890
Location: South Dakota
1890 In Standing Rock Reservation, Chief Sitting Bull was murdered. In reaction to his death, Big Foot and his Minneconjou band looked for refuge in Pine Ridge under Chief Red Cloud. Approximately 300 members of the Big Foot band were massacred by the 7th Calvary Army on Dec. 29 at Wounded Knee. This clash has often been called the last major conflict between the U.S. Army and the Great Sioux Nation.
Mass grave at Wounded Knee.
On the morning of December 29, 1890, the army demanded the surrender of all Sioux weapons. Amid the tension, a shot rang out, possibly from a deaf brave who misunderstood his chief's orders to surrender.
The Seventh Cavalry — the reconstructed regiment lost by George Armstrong Custer — opened fire on the Sioux. The local chief, Big Foot, was shot in cold blood as he recuperated from pneumonia in his tent. Others were cut down as they tried to run away. When the smoke cleared almost all of the 300 men, women, and children were dead. Some died instantly, others froze to death in the snow.
This massacre marked the last showdown between Native Americans and the United States Army. It was nearly 400 years after Christopher Columbus first contacted the first Americans. The 1890 United States census declared the frontier officially closed
Reasons For The War:
The United States government and Dakota Sioux leaders (Sitting Bull) negotiated a treaty about the massive amount of land in the Minnesota territory in exchange for reasourses and goods for Indian populations. However, the government never made an effort to complete the payment. Due to inefficiency and corruption within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and American traders. Dakota Cheifs returned to Washington to urge further action, and left with less land than they had had before. In the meantime the land was being divided into townships, forests were cleared, and game was hunted to the point where the Native way of life was threatened. These awful events combined with a season of crop failure in 1862 pushed the Sioux to death and starvation. The failure of the US government to live up to their side of the deal on supplying resources for the Natives, pushed some young Native American men to a violent anger. Most accounts trace the beginning of the violence to the killing of five white settlers by four Native men on August 17. In the days that followed, violence eructed in South Central and Northwestern Minnesota, with the white settlers and soldiers having the most casualties. Several requests for federal help finally convinced President Lincoln to divert troops from the Civil War to Minnesota, where six weeks of fighting occurred. 500 settlers and soldiers died in the conflict. Six weeks later, 300 Sioux prisoners were convicted of murder and rape by military officers and put to death. Some Natives were put to trials lasting less than 5 minutes, and the Indians had no way to express the charges they were being blamed for due to the language difference. President Lincoln reviewed the trial records and approved of the execution of 38 of the convicted Sioux . The 38 were executed by public hanging on December 26, 1862, in Mankato. It remains the largest execution in the history of the United States as a country. As a result of the battle, the U.S. government abolished the reservation, declared all previous treaties with the Natives null and void, and undertook proceedings to expel the people entirely from Minnesota. To this end, a bounty of $25 per scalp was placed on virtually any Native found free within the boundaries of the state. The only exceptions to this were 208 Mdewakanton "friendlies" who sat out and even helped to protect a few white settlers in the conflict. But even these who were loyal to the US were deemed too untrustworthy and were moved. 1,300 to 1,700 Dakota people were rounded up and held through the winter of 1862–1863 in a compound that some historians have called a "concentration camp." This compound was located on Pike Island below Fort Snelling. Prior to the mass removal of these people to Nebraska and South Dakota including the Crow Creek Indian Reservation on the Missouri River on May 4, 1863. More than 130 Dakota died in the camp and subsequent removal.
Location: South Dakota
1890 In Standing Rock Reservation, Chief Sitting Bull was murdered. In reaction to his death, Big Foot and his Minneconjou band looked for refuge in Pine Ridge under Chief Red Cloud. Approximately 300 members of the Big Foot band were massacred by the 7th Calvary Army on Dec. 29 at Wounded Knee. This clash has often been called the last major conflict between the U.S. Army and the Great Sioux Nation.
Mass grave at Wounded Knee.
On the morning of December 29, 1890, the army demanded the surrender of all Sioux weapons. Amid the tension, a shot rang out, possibly from a deaf brave who misunderstood his chief's orders to surrender.
The Seventh Cavalry — the reconstructed regiment lost by George Armstrong Custer — opened fire on the Sioux. The local chief, Big Foot, was shot in cold blood as he recuperated from pneumonia in his tent. Others were cut down as they tried to run away. When the smoke cleared almost all of the 300 men, women, and children were dead. Some died instantly, others froze to death in the snow.
This massacre marked the last showdown between Native Americans and the United States Army. It was nearly 400 years after Christopher Columbus first contacted the first Americans. The 1890 United States census declared the frontier officially closed
Reasons For The War:
The United States government and Dakota Sioux leaders (Sitting Bull) negotiated a treaty about the massive amount of land in the Minnesota territory in exchange for reasourses and goods for Indian populations. However, the government never made an effort to complete the payment. Due to inefficiency and corruption within the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and American traders. Dakota Cheifs returned to Washington to urge further action, and left with less land than they had had before. In the meantime the land was being divided into townships, forests were cleared, and game was hunted to the point where the Native way of life was threatened. These awful events combined with a season of crop failure in 1862 pushed the Sioux to death and starvation. The failure of the US government to live up to their side of the deal on supplying resources for the Natives, pushed some young Native American men to a violent anger. Most accounts trace the beginning of the violence to the killing of five white settlers by four Native men on August 17. In the days that followed, violence eructed in South Central and Northwestern Minnesota, with the white settlers and soldiers having the most casualties. Several requests for federal help finally convinced President Lincoln to divert troops from the Civil War to Minnesota, where six weeks of fighting occurred. 500 settlers and soldiers died in the conflict. Six weeks later, 300 Sioux prisoners were convicted of murder and rape by military officers and put to death. Some Natives were put to trials lasting less than 5 minutes, and the Indians had no way to express the charges they were being blamed for due to the language difference. President Lincoln reviewed the trial records and approved of the execution of 38 of the convicted Sioux . The 38 were executed by public hanging on December 26, 1862, in Mankato. It remains the largest execution in the history of the United States as a country. As a result of the battle, the U.S. government abolished the reservation, declared all previous treaties with the Natives null and void, and undertook proceedings to expel the people entirely from Minnesota. To this end, a bounty of $25 per scalp was placed on virtually any Native found free within the boundaries of the state. The only exceptions to this were 208 Mdewakanton "friendlies" who sat out and even helped to protect a few white settlers in the conflict. But even these who were loyal to the US were deemed too untrustworthy and were moved. 1,300 to 1,700 Dakota people were rounded up and held through the winter of 1862–1863 in a compound that some historians have called a "concentration camp." This compound was located on Pike Island below Fort Snelling. Prior to the mass removal of these people to Nebraska and South Dakota including the Crow Creek Indian Reservation on the Missouri River on May 4, 1863. More than 130 Dakota died in the camp and subsequent removal.