U.S. Cavalry massacres Lakota at Wounded Knee

The U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry arrives at Wounded Knee, near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, where Big Foot’s Lakota band are camped on the morning of December 29. Women and children, numbering about 230, are in their tipis, while the men, about 120, hold council. On this morning, 470 troops surround the camp; four Hotchkiss rapid-fire artillery guns are trained on the camp from a nearby hill. A shot is fired, perhaps by accident, and the soldiers and Lakota warriors begin firing.

At Wounded Knee, Indian women and children are hunted down, even as they flee. Whole families are wiped out. Miles away, a Dakota doctor named Charles Eastman strains to hear what sounds like gunfire. More than 153 Lakota men, women, and children are killed, as well as 25 U.S. soldiers.

Theme Native Rights