Death of one of the last Indian Chiefs BIG FOOT, killed because the army had no control....
They were members of the band led by Chief (Big Foot Shown here) Spotted Elk, Sioux, who were participating in the Ghost Dance, a religion descended in parts from Christianity and Native beliefs. They had been marched to Wounded Knee Creek and disarmed by the US Army. A group of 120 men and 230 women and children were counted by Major Samuel Whitside at sundown December 28, 1890.
Hungry and exhausted the Native people had assembled under armed guard as requested to receive the protection of the Government of the United States of America surrendering their arms and submitting to a forced search of tents and teepees that yielded but two remaining rifles. An unidentified shot rang out and the well armed 487 U.S. soldiers ringing the defenceless people opened fire. Later in a private letter, General Nelson A. Miles who was commanding officer had this to say:
"Wholesale massacre occurred and I have never heard of a more brutal, cold-blooded massacre than that at Wounded Knee. About two hundred women and children were killed and wounded; women with little children on their backs, and small children powder burned by the men who killed them being so near as to burn the flesh and clothing with the powder of their guns, and nursing babes with five bullet holes through them....Col. Forsyth is responsible for allowing the command to remain where it was stationed after he assumed command, and in allowing his troops to be in such a position that the line of fire of every troop was in direct line of their own of their own comrades or their camp"- [ Nelson A. Miles to George W. Baird, November 20, 1891, Baird Collection, WA-S901, M596, Western Americana Collection, The Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.]
The Sioux dead were left where they had fallen and a blizzard swept the wasteland for 4 days. Meanwhile, wagon loads of wounded Sioux were taken to Pine Ridge Agency where they were treated at the Episcopalian mission. Lying on hay spread on the mission floor they were in plain sight of the words written above the Christian pulpit, "Peace on Earth, Good Will Towards Men".
The Indian people had begun a Ghost Dance religious ceremony, which called for the return of the old ways of the Indian people. The date was December 29, 1890, four days after the celebrated birth of Jesus Christ and over 250 years after the Pilgrims arrived in this country seeking religious freedom. Ignorant of the meaning and significance of the Ghost Dance, and wanting to see dead Indian children, women and men, the waiting well armed professional army had opened fire with howitzer automatic guns carbines. They followed those who ran under cover of the gun smoke into the ravines and shot them regardless of their age.
Big Foot as a living Leader
