The Plains Indians were the last stumbling blocks to white control of the West. When an effort was launched to confine them to reservations in the 1870’s, the Sioux and Northern Cheyenne refused and the Army was sent to corral them. At first the Oglala Sioux under Crazy Horse repulsed General George Crook’s forces at Rosebud Creek, Montana, and when Lt. Col. George Custer and the Seventh Cavalry rashly attacked an Indian camp at Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876, he and 225 of his men were killed by the combined forces of Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Gall and other chiefs. But during the next winter the Army hounded the bands until, driven by hunger, they sought the food and shelter of the reservations.
The seven tribes of the Teton Sioux, numbering about 16,000 in 1880, were placed on a reservation in South Dakota. There they faced a more deadly enemy than the military: the “civilizing” methods of the Indian Agents. “To allow them to drag along,” said the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1881, “in their old superstitions, laziness and filth, when we have the power to elevate them in the scale of humanity, would be a lasting disgrace to our government.” They were forced to give up customs related to war and to sacrifice their traditional economy based on the buffalo hunt in favor of goverment doles; their political and religious structures, thus far largely intact, were destroyed. The power of the chiefs was undermined. Children were put in schools run by whites, and parents who balked found their food rations cut off. Sioux religious customs, particularly the Sun Dance, were outlawed as “demoralizing and barbarous,” and missionaries flocked to the reservation. This situation was worsened by governmental chicanery over the land question. Settlers were demanding the further restriction of reservation territory, and in 1889, Congress passed the Sioux Act, which when ratified by the Indians would take half their land in return for some cash payment, continued rations, and various other promises. It was bitterly resisted by many Sioux, but in the end, faced with the certainty of ultimate expropriation, they agreed. Two weeks afterwards, the promised ration levels were cut back, and numerous other promises soon proved empty. As one Indian remarked: “They made us many promises, more than I can remember, but they never kept but one: they promised to take our land and they took it.”
Thus crushed, the Indians succumbed to an overwhelming despair and turned to messianic religion. An Indian Messiah had appeared who preached that all Indians would be soon free, dead Indians would be reborn, the whites would leave the continent, the buffalo would be plentiful again, and the old way of life would be restored. All that Indians need do was to follow the tenets of the new faith and dance a prescribed Ghost Dance. The Ghost Dance, which spread throughout the western country before it eventually wore itself out, took on for the Sioux a particularly militant form. The people danced till they dropped, and then danced again, and when the Agents tried to forbid the practice, they were warned away at gunpoint. The Sioux believed that all who wore the Ghost Shirts were invulnerable to bullets. Although the Sioux made no hostile moves, the Agents were so alarmed that they called in the army to suppress the dance and, supposedly, to prevent an outbreak.
When the troops arrived, a large body of Indians fled to the Badlands where they began to dance in relays almost continuously. Some chiefs were persuaded to defect from the new religion, others were arrested. When Indian police attempted to take Sitting Bull into custody, his tribe resisted and the great chief was killed. Eventually all tribes but those in Pine Ridge Reservation were under control. General Nelson A. Miles, who commanded the troops, was particularly worried about the Miniconjou Sioux, led by Chief Big Foot, who was presumed hostile, but who was actually suffering from pneumonia and was heading his band toward an agency to surrender. The Indians were intercepted first by troops of the Seventh Cavalry (Custer’s old command), under the command of Col. James W. Forsyth. The Indians surrendered immediately, raising a white flag. On December 29, 1890, the camp was surrounded. The Indians were disarmed. Forsyth suspected that the braves were concealing more weapons under their blankets. They were being inspected when one Indian pulled out a rifle and it discharged. Some claimed he was placing it on the pile of confiscated weapons and it went off accidentally, others that he deliberately shot at the troops. Immediately the soldiers fired a volley point blank into the Indians, and then wholesale fighting began. The artillery had been trained on the camp and was now discharged amidst the women and children, and fleeing Indians were shot down. It is estimated that 200 to 250 Indians were killed. General Miles, who has been followed by most historians, termed it a “massacre,” and relieved Forsyth of his command for “reprehensible” behavior. But Forsyth was restored by the Secretary of War, who blamed the incident entirely on the Indians, and eighteen soldiers received Congressional Medals of Honor. The massacre marked the psychic as well as physical crushing of the Sioux, the end of the Indian wars, and the completion of the white man’s conquest of the Indians.
The two accounts by survivors were taken down by James MacGregor in 1940: The Wounded Knee Massacre from the Viewpoint of the Sioux (1940), 103–7, 127–8. See James Mooney: The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890, 14th Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology, 1892–3, Pt. II (1896); Robert M. Utley: The Last Days of the Sioux Nation (1963); Elaine Goodale Eastman: “The Ghost Dance War and Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890–1,” Nebraska History, XXVI (1945), 26–42; Merril J. Mattes: “The Enigma of Wounded Knee,” Plains Anthropologist, V (1960), 1–11; and Alvin M. Josephy, Jr.: The Indian Heritage of America (1968).
William Bergen, Interpreter
I was a member of the band that was killed here. Just a little beyond Porcupine Butte we were coming this way when we were met by the soldiers. Big Foot, who was sick and had been sick then for four days, had a hemorrhage, came up with a flag of truce tied to a stick. We were traveling in a peaceful manner, no intention of any trouble. I was told that this was an officer that came around to where Big Foot was laying, so I followed him up possibly a yard right behind him. I wanted to know what his intentions were. This officer asked Big Foot—“Are you the man that is named Big Foot and can you talk?” He asked him where he was going. I am going to my people who are camped down here. The officer then stated that he had heard that they had left Cheyenne River and the Army was on the lookout for him. “I have seen you and I am very glad to have met you. I want you to turn over your guns.” Big Foot answered, “Yes, I am a man of that kind.” The officer wanted to know what he meant by that, so the interpreter told him that he was a peaceful man. He says, “You have requested that I give you my guns, but I am going to a certain place and when I get there I will lay down my arms.”
“Now, you meet us out here on the prairie and expect me to give you my guns out here. I am a little bit afraid that there might be something crooked about it, something that may occur that wouldn’t be fair. There are a lot of children here.” The officer then said they are bringing a wagon and I want you to get in that and they will take you down to where we are camped. Shortly a wagon drew up and they wrapped a blanket around him and placed him in the wagon and started to camp, so we followed. This side of the store, where you see these houses, is where we were camped and right this way is where the soldiers were camped. In the evening they unloaded some bacon, sugar and hardtack in the center and stated that someone should issue this out, so the women all came into the center and I am the one that issued it out to them. We heard a mule braying over this way and also heard the soldiers making a complete circle from the south to the north direction. I forgot something too that I wanted to repeat. That evening I noticed that they were erecting cannons up here, also hauling up quite a lot of ammunition for it. I could see them doing it. Shortly after we erected our camp, guards were stationed around. They were walking their beat. I also noticed that night besides the store there was some fires built there and we knew that they were the Indian Scouts. The following morning there was a bugle call shortly after that another bugle call, then I saw the soldiers mounting the horses and surrounding us. Even though they had surrounded us and we noticed all these peculiar actions, I never thought there was anything wrong. I thought it wouldn’t be no time until we could be starting towards the Agency. It was announced that all men should come to the center for a talk and that after the talk they were to move on to Pine Ridge Agency. So they all came to the center. Shortly after that I also followed and came to the center where they all were gathered. After I got there and looked around and the men were just sitting around unconcerned. Big Foot was brought out of his tepee and sat in front of his tent and the older men were gathered around him and sitting right near him in the center. The interpreter said that the officer said that yesterday we promised some guns and that he was going to collect them now. I don’t remember how many soldiers there were, but these soldiers were climbing on top of wagons, unpacking things, taking axes and other things, and they were taking them to where the guns were already laid down. Some of the Indians were further east that had guns in their arms but were not seen for some time. They were out over where the soldiers were so finally they called to them to bring their arms to the center and put them down. One of them started towards the center with his gun. This fellow that started said: “Now it was understood yesterday that we were to put down our guns after we reached the Agency, but here you are calling for our guns so he took the gun and showed it to them.” He started towards the guns where they were laid down and one soldier started from the east side towards him and another from the west side towards this Indian. Even so, he was still unconcerned. He was not scared about it. If they had left him alone he was going to put his gun down where he should. They grabbed him and spinned him in the east direction. He was still unconcerned even then. He hadn’t his gun pointed at anyone. His intention was to put that gun down. They came on and grabbed the gun that he was going to put down. Right after they spun him around there was the report of a gun, was quite loud. I couldn’t say that anybody was shot but following that was a crash. The flag of truce that we had was stuck in the ground right there where we were sitting. They fired on us anyhow. Right after that crash, that is when all the people were falling over. I remained standing there for some little time and a man came up to me and I recognized him as a man known as High Hawk. He said, come on they have started this way, so let’s go. So we started up this little hill; coming up this way, the soldiers started to shoot at us and as they did High Hawk was shot and fell down. I wasn’t so started back and then they knocked me down. I was alone so I was trying to look out for myself. They had killed my wife and baby. I saw men lying around, shot down. I went around them the best I could, got down in the ravine, then I fell down again. I was shot and wounded at the first time I told you that I fell. I went up this ravine and could see that they were traveling in that direction. I saw women and children lying all over there. They got up to a cut bank up the ravine and there I found a great many that were in there hiding. We were going to try and go on through the ravine but it was surrounded by the soldiers, so we just had to stay in that cut bank. Right near there was a butte with a ridge on it. They placed a cannon on it pointing in our direction and fired on us right along. I saw one man that was shot with one of these cannons. That man’s name was Hawk Feather Shooter.
Ben American Horse, Interpreter
I started from Cherry Creek with Big Foot’s band. We were going to Pine Ridge to visit relatives. I am now 73 years old but I remember lots of things that happened. I was a widow and was with my parents. The soldiers met us near the Porcupine Butte, and after they talked to Big Foot we went on to Wounded Knee Creek, where the soldiers were camped and we camped there too. The next morning we were getting ready to break camp when the Indian men were ordered by the soldiers to come to the center of the camp and bring all their guns. After they did this, the soldiers came to where the Indian women were and searched the tents and the wagons for arms. They made us give up axes, crowbars, knives, awls, etc. About this time an awful noise was heard and I was paralyzed for a time. Then my head cleared and I saw nearly all the people on the ground bleeding. I could move some now, so I ran to a cut bank and lay down there. I saw some of the other Indians running up the coulee so I ran with them, but the soldiers kept shooting at us and the bullets flew all around us, and a bullet went between my leg but I was not hit one time. My father, my mother, my grandmother, my older brother and my younger brother were all killed. My son who was two years old was shot in the mouth that later caused his death.
We had ten horses, harness, wagon, tent, buffalo robes, and I had a good Navajo blanket. All this property was lost or taken by the Government or other people. I had a hard time in my life and you can see that I am having a hard time now. It is cold weather and this is an old house and I suffer from cold. It is hard to get wood as we have to go a long way to get it.
I was in Montana, where they had a big battle with Custer, and the Indians won and then lots of soldiers came and we escaped to Canada. I was only about ten years old then and don’t know much about that, but remember hearing lots of guns and hearing lots of war-whoops. After a while we went to Standing Rock Reservation for four years, then I went to Rosebud for a short time and then to Cherry Creek, where Big Foot was camping.
Rough Feather, whom I married two years after the Massacre, was there too, and he gave his statement at the meeting you had at Wounded Knee. He saw lots of wounded Indians; so he got a team and a wagon and picked up some of his wounded relatives and took them to Pine Ridge and put them in the church that they were using for a hospital. Is the Government going to pay us for what they did to us?