Guide Note:

The Wounded Knee Massacre was an 1890 tragedy which resulted in the deaths of over 153 Lakota Sioux men, women, and children and the deaths of 25 United States soldiers.

Fast Facts:

Date: December 29, 1890
Location: Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota
Casualties: 153+ Lakota, 25 U.S. soldiers
Sparked by the Ghost Dance religious movement
Fighting sparked when United States Cavalry attempted to disarm the Sioux

Origins of the Dance

The massacre at Wounded Knee has become, in the century since its occurrence, a symbol for the tragic treatment of Native Americans by the United States government and armed forces. The actual massacre was the result of a mix of cultural misunderstanding, fear, and desperation. In 1889, Native Americans across the western United States began performing a "Ghost Dance", inspired by the syncretic Christian and Native American religious vision of a Paiute holy man named Wovoka. Performing the dance, claimed Wovoka, would cleanse the world of evil and reunite the living and the dead.

The Sioux Adopt the Dance

When the dance spread to the Oglala Sioux, its visions of a world free of evil began to include a world free of whites, and many Sioux began performing the dance in the belief it would have this effect. When white soldiers and settlers became alarmed at the implications of the dance (despite there being no violent incident connected with it), they attempted to halt its performance. In mid-December 1890, an incursion onto the Standing Rock Reservation resulted in the shooting death of Sitting Bull, and later that month an attempt by U.S. forces to disarm a group of Lakota dancers resulted in the massacre.

Categories

History | U.S. History | Native American History

View Note History

Wounded Knee Massacre

The Mahalo Top 7

Wikipedia: Wounded Knee Massacre
EyeWitness to History.com: Massacre At Wounded Knee, 1890
PBS.org: The West: Lakota Accounts of the Massacre at Wounded Knee
University of Virginia: Religious Movements: Ghost Dance
HistoryNet.com: Wounded Knee Massacre: United States versus the Plains Indians
Everything2: Massacre at Wounded Knee (2001)
HBO Films: Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee

Wounded Knee Massacre Images and Media

Google Images: Wounded Knee
Yahoo! Image Search: Wounded Knee Massacre
YouTube: Wounded Knee (9:54)
YouTube: "Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee" image montage (4:32)
Flickr: Wounded Knee Massacre

Wounded Knee Massacre Books and Research

Library of Congress: Disaster at Wounded Knee
Amazon.com: Wounded Knee Massacre Books
Nebraska State Historical Society: Eli Ricker interviews Wounded Knee survivors
Bowling Green State University: An Account of The Massacre

Wounded Knee Massacre Blogs and Commentaries

Daily Kos: Defend The Black Hills (June 16, 2007)
TV Bloggin: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: A Jumble of History (May 28, 2007)
Never In Our Names: My Journey To Wounded Knee (2007)
Books Blogs: Wounded Knee's Legacy (2007)
Backyard Traveler: Final Resting Place of the Paiute Messiah (2007
Genuine Writing: Essay: Wounded Knee Massacre
Northern State University: Editorials of Frank L. Baum on the Sioux Nation
Spokesman Review: "Wounds still fester after more than 100 years" (2003)
Indian Country Today: Big Foot Riders draw support from around the world (2003)
Google Blog Search: Wounded Knee Massacre

Wounded Knee Massacre Central Figures

Big Foot
- Wikipedia: Big Foot
- PBS.org: The West: Big Foot biography

James Forsyth
- Wikipedia: James W. Forsyth
- Yale University Rare Book and Manuscripts: James W. Forsyth Papers

Lakota People
- Wikipedia: Lakota People
- The Huffington Post: Wounded Knee and the Moon of Popping Trees (2006)

Wovoka
- Wikipedia: Wovoka
- Legends of America: Wovoka & the Ghost Dance
- Amazon.com: The Ghost-Dance Religion and Wounded Knee by James Mooney

Wounded Knee Massacre Timeline

1874: Black Hills Gold Rush brings prospectors to the Dakotas
1876: General George Custer loses all his men at Battle of Little Bighorn
1889: Congress split the Sioux into 6 bands
1889: Ghost Dance religious movement forms
December 29, 1890: Wounded Knee Massacre closes out the Indian Wars

Wounded Knee Massacre in Pop Culture

Amazon.com: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
YouTube: Johnny Cash sings "Big Foot" (Time: 2:03)
Note: The majority of the links in this timeline are to IMDb, which has pop-ups.
1992: Thunderheart
1994: Lakota Woman: Siege at Wounded Knee TV movie
2004: Hidalgo
2005: Into the West TV miniseries
2007: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee TV movie

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