The Wounded Knee Massacre was final result of the growing problems between the Lakota Sioux and the American Government. After the Civil War tension began to escalate and ended on December 29, 1890. When the government took over most of the Lakota land and forced them into reservations the Indian way of life was destroyed and the large bison herds were hunted until they were endangered. The life in reservations was also difficult since many of the promises made by the government remained unfulfilled: “Promises to increase rations, made by U.S. officials in 1889 in order to secure signatures to reduce Sioux treaty lands by half, and to create six separate reservations, had proved false. Instead, rations had been cut precipitously, and the people were nearly starving.” (Robertson 1). Treaties which were signed to protect the reservations from outsiders were also ignored by the government. There were also other factors which led to the killing such as the Ghost Dance, Murder of Chief Sitting Bull, and the struggle with evolved into a massacre.
Many Indians saw hope in the Ghost Dance religion. The Ghost Dance movement was supposed “to invoke the spirits of the dead and facilitate their resurrection” (Phillips 1). It was created by the son of Paiute shaman Wovoka who was, “known as the messiah to his followers” (Wovoka 1). Wovoka believed that the Ghost Dance would revive their loved ones, make the whites disappear, and the buffaloes would roam the Wild West once again (The Wounded Knee Massacre 1). Leaders such as Sitting Bull, Kicking Bear, and Short Bull preached Wovoka’s religion which helped it gain immense popularity. This belief gave hope to the Indians and more than 3,000 Indians gathered in the badlands of the Pine...
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...pposed to eradicate the world from whites and resurract the dead natives. The Dance became more popular when Chief Sitting Bull started to practice it. Tension between the two sides grew when Chief Sitting Bull was killed by the army. After Sitting Bull’s death, Chief Big Foot was and his followers were surrounded by soldiers when they were on their way to join with the other leaders. On December 29, a shot was fired which started the massacre and did not end for an hour. After one hour the camp was covered in blood due to the constant shooting from soldiers. A huge burial ground was made to bury the 146 victims. People later realized that the Indians were innocent and they were killed for no justifiable reason. However, on the bright side this was the last confrontation between the government and the Indians and it taught people to treat others as equals.
The tragedy of the Cherokee nation has haunted the legacy of Andrew Jackson"'"s Presidency. The events that transpired after the implementation of his Indian policy are indeed heinous and continually pose questions of morality for all generations. Ancient Native American tribes were forced from their ancestral homes in an effort to increase the aggressive expansion of white settlers during the early years of the United States. The most notable removal came after the Indian Removal Act of 1830. The Cherokee, whose journey was known as the '"'Trail of Tears'"', and the four other civilized tribes, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek and Seminole, were forced to emigrate to lands west of the Mississippi River, to what is now day Oklahoma, against their will. During the journey westward, over 60,000 Indians were forced from their homelands. Approximately 4000 Cherokee Indians perished during the journey due to famine, disease, and negligence. The Cherokees to traveled a vast distance under force during the arduous winter of 1838-1839.# This is one of the saddest events in American history, yet we must not forget this tragedy.
"On September 25, 1990, hearings were conducted in the United States Senate by the Select Committee on Indian Affairs regarding the historical circumstances surrounding the Wounded Knee Massacre" (United States). As a result, Senate Congressional Resolution 153 (1989-1990) was passed. The following are excerpts from that resolution: "Whereas the Sioux people who are descendants of the victims and survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre have been striving to reconcile and, in a culturally appropriate manner, to bring to an end their 100 years of grieving for the tragedy of December 29, 1890 ... which brought to a close an era in the history of this country ... characterized by an official government policy of forcibly removing the Indian tribes and bands from the path of westward expansion and settlement through placement on reservations.... Now therefore be it resolved by the Senate, that, 1) the Congress, on the occasion of the one hundredth anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre of December 29, 1890, hereby acknowledges the historical significance of this event as the last armed conflict of the Indian wars period resulting in the tragic death and injury of approximately 350-375 Indian men, women, and children of Chief Big Foot 's band of Minneconjou Sioux and hereby expresses its deep regret on behalf of the United States to the descendants of the victims
“Quantie’s weak body shuddered from a blast of cold wind. Still, the proud wife of the Cherokee chief John Ross wrapped a woolen blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the reins.” Leading the final group of Cherokee Indians from their home lands, Chief John Ross thought of an old story that was told by the chiefs before him, of a place where the earth and sky met in the west, this was the place where death awaits. He could not help but fear that this place of death was where his beloved people were being taken after years of persecution and injustice at the hands of white Americans, the proud Indian people were being forced to vacate their lands, leaving behind their homes, businesses and almost everything they owned while traveling to an unknown place and an uncertain future. The Cherokee Indians suffered terrible indignities, sickness and death while being removed to the Indian territories west of the Mississippi, even though they maintained their culture and traditions, rebuilt their numbers and improved their living conditions by developing their own government, economy and social structure, they were never able to return to their previous greatness or escape the injustices of the American people.
The federal government proceeded to find a way around this decision and had three minor Cherokee chief’s sign the “Treaty of New Echota” in 1835 giving the Cherokee lands to the government for 5.6 million dollars and free passage west. Congress got the treaty ratified by only one vote. Members of their tribes murdered all three chiefs who took part in the signing of the treaty. After this event there was not much the Cherokee’s could do and were forcibly moved west on what they called and are known today as the ‘Trail of Tears,’ which became a constitutional crisis in our history. In this instance the lack of cooperation between the branches of the government was the downfall for the Cherokee nation. The way the Cherokee’s were forced west caused losses of up to twenty percent of the nation. This figure is only a guess and scholar’s think it was more a third of the nation was lost. The ‘Trail of Tears’ was also a morale issue in the United States, later having an impact on our history the way other Native American races in general are treated in the future.
Of the ten lodges held at the camp, only a handful of people escaped with their lives (Hyde 159, 162). The massacre also dealt a crucial blow to the Cheyenne power structure, killing off eight of the Council of Forty Four (Greene 23). Ironically, many of those killed were advocates for peace with the white settlers. In retaliation, many Cheyene joined the Dog Soldiers and launched attacks against white settlers. This, combined with the deconstruction of the power structure and a recent cholera outbreak marked the beginning of the end for the Cheyenne tribe (Hyde
On March 16, 1968, in the Quang Ngai region of Vietnam, specifically My Lai, the United States military was involved in an appalling slaughter of approximately 500 Vietnamese civilians. There are numerous arguments as to why this incident even had the capacity to occur. Although some of the arguments seem valid, can one really make excuses for the slaughter of innocent people? The company that was responsible for the My Lai incident was the Charlie Company, and throughout the company, there were many different accounts of what happened that reprehensible day. Therefore, there are a few contradictions about what had occurred, such as what the commanding officers' exact instructions for the soldiers were.
Have you ever heard the term, “Don’t drink the Kool-Aid?” or “You have drank the Kool-Aid.”? Well, ”Drinking the Kool-Aid” means you have done something that others have told you to do or did yourself. This saying comes from the cult society led by Reverend Jim Jones, named Jonestown. Jonestown was a small community in the jungle of Guyana, South America. After getting word of people coming to investigate the society, Jones had committed a mass suicide by poisoning Kool-Aid and giving it to the people of Jonestown.
With buffalo numbers decreasing fast, Native American tribes faced starvation and desperation. There were many different actions the Americans did to destroy the land of the Native Americans. Western expansion caused a shift in the lives of Native Americans because many tribes, including women and kids, were being murdered by the new settlers. S.G. Colley, a U.S. Indian Agent, writes in a Report for the Committee on the Conduct of War, “That notwithstanding his knowledge of the facts as above set forth, he is informed that Colonel Chivington did, on the morning of the 29th of November last, surprise and attack said camp of friendly Indians and massacre a large number of them, (mostly women and children,) and did allow the troops of his command to mangle and mutilate them in the most horrible manner” (Colley, 1865). This quote shows the Americans were exterminating innocent American Indians for no justifiable reason.
After the Hungate attack in June of 1864, the Cheyenne and Arapaho people went into Denver for peace talks. Black Kettle was promised peace if him and his people relocated to the military post at Fort Lyon. Major Edward Wynkoop the commander of the fort gave the tribes food and were allowed to camp outside the fort. Word got back to his superiors and he wasn’t supposed to be suppling any Indian with food, so he was replaced with a new commander which he told them to go to sand creek and he would come out there when he knew what he was going to do with them. In 1864, Governor John Evans, very mad that he was denied state hood gave John Chivington one of the military commanders permission to raise a regiment of volunteers, known as 100 day soldiers to take care of the matter himself. Colorado troops repeatedly attacked peaceful villages. Lean Bear one of the peace chiefs was shot when he rode out to talk to the troop and let them know that they wanted peace and not to fight. Lean Bear was one of the chiefs that had gotten a peace medal from President
Indian policy gradually shifted from this aggressive mindset to a more peaceable and soft line policy. The Indian Wars ended in 1980 with the Battle of Wounded Knee. The battle resulted in over 200 deaths, but also, almost officially, marked a change in Indian policy. Although the change had subtly began before then, policies then became more kind. The Peace Commission created the reservation policy, although this was created 27 years before the Battle at Wounded Knee. The Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 was the greatest of reform efforts. The Act provided the granting of landholding to individual Native Americans, replacing communal tribal holdings. Another policy, the Burke Act of 1906, allowed Indians to become citizens if they left their tribes. Citizenship was eventually granted to all Native Americans in the 1920s.
taken from them. It was a show of honor in front of their elders, for few
This all began because of Native American “Ghost Dance”. While on the reservations, the Sioux began to believe that the gods were punishing them, so the “Ghost Dance” movement began to spread within the reservation. Participants of the Ghost Dance would be so involved, that the frightened American agents on the reservation informed the government about a possible Sioux uprising. This prompted the government to send the 7th Calvary to intervene and gather the Sioux at Wounded Knee. Although there are conflicting accounts as to what took place, it is agreed that on December 29, 1890, a fight broke out between both sides. It is believed that a gun shot from the Sioux’s side initiated the shooting, but what is known is that at the end of it all, about 200 Sioux Indians tragically lost their lives. (Wounded Knee,
Most of the women and children in Big Foot's tribe were family members of the warriors who had died in the Plains wars. The Indians had agreed to live on small reservations after the US government took away their land. At the Wounded Knee camp, there were 120 men and 230 women and children. At the camp, they were guarded by the US Seventh Cavalry lead by Major Samuel Whitside. During the year 1890 a new dance called the Ghost Dance started among the Sioux and other tribes. The Sioux's Christ figure, Wovoka, was said to have flown over Sitting Bull and Short Bull and taught them the dance and the songs. The Ghost Dance legend was that the next spring, when the grass was high, the Earth would be covered with a new layer of soil, covering all white men. Wild buffalo and horses would return and there would be swift running water, sweet grass, and new trees. All Indians who danced the Ghost dance would be floating in the air when the new soil was being laid down and would be saved. The Ghost Dance was made illegal after the Wounded Knee massacre though. On December 28, 1890 the Seventh Cavalry saw Big Foot moving his tribe and Big Foot immediately put up a white flag. Major Samuel Whitside captured the Indians and took them to an army camp near the Pine Ridge reservation at Wounded Knee. Whitside took Bigfoot on his wagon because it was more comfortable and warmer, and Big Foot was sick. Whitside had orders to take the Indians to a military prison in Omaha the next day, but it never happened. That night Colonel James W. Forsyth took over. The Cavalry provided the Indians with tents that night because it was cold and there was a blizzard coming. The next day, December 29, 1890, the Cavalry gave the Indians hardtack for breakfast. There was a seize of arms and the soldiers took all the Indian's guns away. A medicine man named Yellow Bird told the Indians to resist the soldiers and not give up the guns, he did a few steps of the Ghost Dance.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, U.S. policy attempted to include Native people in the protection and responsibilities of United States law. Unfortunately though, authorities saw Native beliefs and rituals as “savage or primitive obstructions” to religious and cultural integration (Brown, 2003). Between 1887 and 1934, agents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs as well as Christian missionaries were given discretionary authority on any reservation. Although most violations of religious freedom did not require Congressional action, some ceremonies were restricted by Executive Order. For instance, the Dawes Act of 1887 completely restricted Native religious services and the practice of their traditional values. Other rituals that were banned included the Great Sun Dance of the Lakota and other Northern Plains Indians. The most devastating ceremonial termination was of the Ghost Dance Movement. This was an intertribal visionary an...
...n it was a reasonable thing for them to do. Yet Sitting Bull was a proud chief and did not want to live on a reservation. When Sitting Bull came to Standing Rock he took pride in “being the last chief to give up his rifle.” Although this may have comforted him, there probably was not much reassurance of his power on the reservation. He stayed to himself riverside and built a nice cabin home. He did not want to conform to the Western ways of Christianity and harvesting crops. He stayed true to the roots he knew as much as he could. Yet his beliefs in spiritual ways and participation in Ghost Dances had lead him to his death by Indian Police.