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W. Whitikre, LV, Denver CO
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> Our people have patiently endured your complete lack of empathy, understanding, wisdom and perspective for that which the > U.S. Cavalry visited upon us after Washington D.C. lied, again and again. We have counted the moons according to our > tradition. Wounded Knee. 41,763 suns have risen. You are now our concern and preparations are underway. > > RF > > Massacre: A U.S. apology remains elusive 113 years after scores of unarmed Lakota — many women and children > — died in a hail of gunfire. > > WOUNDED KNEE, S.D. — On crystal-clear nights, when winter winds whistle through the hills and canyons around >Wounded Knee Creek, the Lakota elders say it is so cold that one can hear the twigs snapping in the frigid air. > > They called this time of the year "the Moon of the Popping Trees." It was on such a winter morning on Dec. 29, 1890, that > the crack of a single rifle brought a day of infamy that still lives in the hearts and minds of the Lakota people. > > After the rifle spoke there was a pause and then the rifles and Hotchkiss guns of the 7th Cavalry opened up on the men, > women and children camped at Wounded Knee. What followed was utter chaos and madness. The thirst for the blood > of the Lakota took away all common sense from the soldiers. > > The unarmed Lakota fought back with bare hands. The warriors shouted to > their wives, their elders and their children, "run for cover," Iynkapo! > Iyankapo! > > Elderly men and women, unable to fight back, stood defiantly and sang > their death songs before falling to the hail of bullets. The number of > Lakota people murdered that day is still unknown. The mass grave at > Wounded Knee holds the bodies of 150 men, women and children. Many other > victims died of their wounds and of exposure over the next several days. > > The Lakota people say that only 50 people out of the original 350 > followers of Sitanka (Big Foot) survived the massacre. > > Five days after the slaughter of the innocents an editorial in the > Aberdeen (S.D.) Saturday Pioneer reflected the popular opinion of the > wasicu (white people) of that day. It read, "The Pioneer has before > declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of > the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order > to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe > these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth." > > Ten years after he wrote that editorial calling for genocide against the > Lakota people, L. Frank Baum wrote that wonderful children’s book, The > Wizard of Oz. > > The federal government tried to forever erase the memory of Wounded > Knee. The village that sprang up on the site of the massacre was named > Brennan after a Bureau of Indian Affairs official. But the Lakota people > never forgot. Although the name "Brennan" appeared on the map, they > still called it Wounded Knee. In the 1920s, Clive and Agnes Gildersleeve > built the Wounded Knee Trading Post there to serve the Lakota people. > > My father, Tim Giago Sr., worked as a clerk and butcher for the > Gildersleeves in the 1930s and we lived in one of the cabins at Wounded > Knee that was later destroyed in the occupation of 1973. As a small boy, > I recall the warm, summer evenings when the Lakota families sat outdoors > and spoke softly, in reverent voices about that terrible day in 1890. > > Much of what they said was written down by a young man named Hoksila > Waste (pronounced Hokesheela Washtay) or Good Boy. His Christian name > was Sid Byrd and he was a member of the Santee Sioux Tribe, a tribe that > had been relocated and scattered around the state after the so- called > Indian uprising in Minnesota. > > Byrd wrote that it was the white man’s fear of the spiritual revival > going on among the Lakota in the form of the Ghost Dance that led to the > assassination of Sitting Bull on Dec. 14, 1890, two weeks before the > massacre. Fearing further attacks, Sitanka (Big Foot) and his band, a > group that performed the very last Ghost Dance, went on a five-day march > to reach the protection of Chief Red Cloud at the Pine Ridge Agency. > > The weary band was overtaken and captured at Wounded Knee Creek (Canke > Opi Wahkpala). Byrd believed, as do all Lakota people, that Big Foot > died as a martyr for embracing the Ghost Dance "as freely as other men > embraced their religion." > > Byrd wrote in his Lakota version of what happened that day, "Later, some > of the bodies would be found four to five miles from the scene of the > slaughter. Soldiers would whoop as they spotted a women fleeing into the > woods and chase them on horseback. They made sport of it. I heard from > the elders that the soldiers shouted, ‘Remember the Little Big Horn.’" > > The 7th Cavalry, Custer’s old command, spread out across the Pine Ridge > Reservation hunting for survivors. They rode into the playgrounds of the > Holy Rosary Indian Mission near Pine Ridge village. Prodded by the > Jesuit priests, the children were forced to water and feed their horses. > My grandmother, Sophie Abeyta, was one of those children. She later > recalled that some of the soldiers, still bloody from the massacre, were > laughing and joking about their "great victory." > > On the 100th anniversary of that infamous day, three Lakota men > organized a ride that followed the exact trail taken by Big Foot and his > band. That ride has taken place every year since Dec. 29, 1990. At the > end of the ride they hold a ceremony they call "wiping away the tears" > that calls for peace and forgiveness. > > Arvol Looking Horse, the Keeper of the Sacred Pipe of the Lakota, says a > prayer every year on the hallowed grounds at Wounded Knee. He prays that > the United States will someday apologize to the Lakota for the terrible > deeds of the 7th Cavalry, and that the 23 soldiers awarded the Medal of > Honor for the slaughter will have those medals revoked. > > What honor is there in the murder of innocent men, women and children? > You tell me. And now, 113 years after the slaughter at Wounded Knee, > America has not apologized and the Medal of Honor winners are still > looked upon as heroes by the United States. > > Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is editor and publisher of the weekly > Lakota Journal. He is author of "The Aboriginal Sin" and "Notes from > Indian Country" volumes I and II. > > > Doctor Sally Wagner Testifies At Wounded Knee Hearings > > Part One > >