Home Brewed Mojo: DEATH AMONG THE SNOWS OF WOUNDED KNEE

12/29/1890 - A seemingly inevitable tragedy years in the making, and a grotesque wart on the history of the United States that still resonates with the racism of cultures clashing over the "civilizing" of the American West takes place in the snows of South Dakota near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, when units of the United States Army's 7th Cavalry Regiment (losers at the Battle of the Little Bighorn fourteen years before) attempt to disarm a group of over 300 Miniconjou and Hunkpapa Sioux led by Chief Spotted Eagle (his nickname is Big Foot), someone fires a first shot, others on both sides about the Indian camp begin firing too, and the barbarous Wounded Knee Massacre occurs.

Chief Spotted Eagle

Ghost Dance Drum

Still boogiemen to Western authorities and settlers, over a decade after Union Civil War hero, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer has most of his command wiped out along the Montana shores of the Greasy Grass River (aka the Little Bighorn), the summer of 1890 sees tensions once again rising after the teachings of the Paiute prophet, Wovoka (also known as Jack Wilson), featuring a belief in Ghost Dancing being used as a call-to-arms for recently departed Sioux warriors to return from the dead and for clothing rituals that will deflect enemy bullets, the new Indian religion terrifies government authorities with worries of a new war against the native Americans as the religion moves from reservation to reservation. The major worry at the Standing Rock Agency (encompassing 9,251.2 square miles of both North and South Dakota and roughly 275 miles north of Wounded Knee) is that it's most famous (or infamous if you choose) resident, the Hunkpapa spiritual leader, Sitting Bull (recently returned to the West after having paling around with Annie Oakley and entertaining eastern America as a member of William "Buffalo Bill" Cody's Wild West show), will become a Ghost Dancer and start new hostilities against the local white population. Gasoline poured on an already burning fire, U.S. Indian Agent, 48-year-old James McLaughlin, a man who has butted heads frequently with the Lakota leader, orders Sitting Bull arrested and brought to the reservation's Fort Yates for failing to stop the Hunkpapa's from dancing. On December 15, 1890, at around 5:30 in the morning, 39 Indian police officers and 4 volunteers (one is Sitting Bull's brother-in-law, Gray Eagle), under the command of Lieutenant Henry Bullhead, arrive at the Indian leader's small cabin on North Dakota's Grand River to take Sitting Bull into custody. House surrounded, Bullhead knocks on the door, enters the home, and tells Sitting Bull he is under arrest and must accompany the Indian police to the fort. Stalling for time, as the Indian camp around the cabin awakens, Sitting Bull refuses to mount his horse to talk to McLaughlin at agency headquarters, causing Bullhead to resort to force to get the recalcitrant Indian on his mount. A big mistake, one of Sitting Bull's enraged followers, Catch-the-Bear, shoulders his rifle and as the 59-year-old Indian leader screams to be rescued, shoots Bullhead in the right side, an action that causes the police officer to discharge his revolver into Sitting Bull's left side between his tenth and eleventh ribs. More weapons pulled and fired, while standing on the other side of the prisoner, 1st Sergeant Charles Shave Head is struck in the belly by a bullet from the gun of Strike the Kettle, while positioned behind the medicine man, Sergeant Marcellus Red Tomahawk plugs his former friend in the left side again, then to make sure Sitting Bull causes no further problems, puts a slug into the back of the medicine man's neck. Indian police versus over more than a hundred of Sitting Bull's followers, a general melee of knives, bullets, rocks, and fists breaks out among the Hunkpapa that lasts roughly thirty minutes and causes the deaths of Sitting Bull, Lieutenant Bullhead (he dies 82 hours after being shot), Sergeant Charles Shave Head (he dies 25 hours after catching his fatal slug), Sergeant James Little Eagle, Private Paul Afraid-of-Soldiers, Special Policeman John Armstrong, Special Policeman David Hawkman, Crow Foot (Sitting Bull's 17-year-old son), Black Bird, Cath the Bear, Spotted Horn Bull, Brave Thunder, Little Assiniboine, Chase Wounded, along with the wounding of Private Alexander Middle, Bull Ghost, Brave Thunder, and Strike the Kettle.

Ghost Dancers

McLaughlin & Sitting Bull

Sitting Bull's Cabin

The Death Of Sitting Bull

Word of Sitting Bull's death soon spreads through the region and tensions among the Indians ratchets up as groups of Miniconjou and Hunkpapa try to not become the next target of the authorities ... followers of Sitting Bull move to join his half-brother, Spotted Elk, at the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation (a reservation of 4,266,987 square miles solely in South Dakota) to the south, while Spotted Elk himself moves to accept the offer of Chief Red Cloud, the Oglala chief responsible for forcing the United States Army to close a series of forts on the Bozeman Trail in Wyoming and Montana, to join his people at the Pine Ridge Agency (they are egged on by a local named John Dunn, who tells the Indians that the Army is prepping to slaughter any ghost dancers it gets its hands on). On December 23, 1890, Spotted Elk and his band begin their journey over the wintery grasslands of South Dakota, but are almost immediately slowed when Spotted Elk develops a bad case of pneumonia due the harsh conditions he and his people are exposed to. Hunkpapa and Miniconjou married together as they make their way towards Red Cloud and the chimera of shelter, with Army units patrolling the region, the group is met by a detachment of 7th Cavalry troopers under the command of Major Samuel M. Whitside, a Civil War veteran with military experience at posts in Texas, Missouri, Kansas, the Arizona Territory, Colorado, and the Dakota Territory. Deciding to wait until the next morning to disarm the Sioux before escorting them on to Pine Ridge (the recommendation of half-Lakota scout and interpreter, John Shangreau, who worries, correctly, that there will be violence if the troopers try to harvest the weaponry of Spotted Elk's group), Whitside moves Spotted Elk's people five miles to the west where they can camp for the evening near Wounded Knee Creek. After darkness falls, Colonel James W. Forsyth arrives with the rest of the 7th Cavalry (not in the field, troops in the region are under the command of Civil War Medal-of-Honor winner and renowned Indian Fighter, Major General Nelson Appleton Miles), and sets up defensive positions around the Indian camp, positions that include four rapid-fire Hotchkiss M1875 mountain guns. In a small patch of South Dakota territory there are now 500 fully armed soldiers confronting about 350 very nervous Sioux, the majority of which are women and children.

Civil War - 1862 - Whitside Is Seated At The Table

Forsyth

Spotted Elk

As a cold Monday dawn arrives on December 29, 1890, Forsyth orders that the Indians immediately be disarmed and then moved to trains to return them to Cheyenne River Agency, a seemingly simple task that quickly turns into a nightmare. A search of the camp uncovers 38 hidden rifles for confiscation and more weapons are found as soldiers begin examining everyone in the camp. Nothing found on any of the old men, trouble begins when a medicine man named Yellow Bird starts haranguing the warriors for being weaklings for allowing their weapons to be taken and begins a ghost dance as a hard of hearing (there is still debate among historians as to whether the man was fully deaf and never heard the soldiers tell him disarm) Miniconjou named Black Coyote refuses to give up his brand new Winchester rifle. Struggling with soldiers trying to relieve him of the weapon, a shot takes place, as at the same moment, Yellow Bird throws a handful of dust in the air that five warriors take as a signal, and dropping their blankets, they fire rifles they've concealed at troopers of the 7th's K Troop, and seconds later, general firing breaks out all over the camp as Spotted Elk's people grab rifles off the confiscated pile or from places of hiding and open up on Forsyth's command, a command which responds by firing on anything moving that isn't dressed in military blue. Hate, revenge (some of the soldiers are heard yelling, "Remember the Little Bighorn" as they fire on their targets), and racism vented like an exploding volcano, in the chaos of carnage that ensues, men, women, children, dogs, and horses are all targeted as the four Hotchkiss guns open up on the teepees of the village (some of the soldiers are killed by fire from their own side). Point blank firing making missing hitting something almost impossible, scattering in all directions seeking some form of shelter, individual groups of Indians are hunted down and slaughtered, some chased for miles over the frozen plains before being shot, clubbed or sabered to death (some bodies will.be found over five miles away from the camp). Most of the warriors killed in the first few moments of gunfire, women and children are struck down in the shadow of the camp's white truce flag, survivors are coaxed out of their hiding places with promises of good treatment and then murdered, waving his arms signaling "I surrender" and "Stop," Spotted Elk goes to his ancestor's "Happy Hunting Grounds" decidedly very unhappily, and a nearby ravine becomes an outdoor abattoir. In less than an hour, over half of the camp has been slaughtered, while Army losses are made up of 31 soldiers killed and 33 more troopers wounded. Additionally, twenty soldiers are awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their actions at Wounded Knee (by comparison, in the month long bloodbath that takes place in 1945 at the Battle of Iwo Jima, Naval and Marine personnel win 27 Medals of Honor ... though the South Dakota Senate unanimously calls upon the U.S. Congress in 2021 to negate the awards, and three Democrats introduce a bill to take back the commendations <one is of course fake native politician, Senator Elizabeth Warren of Mass.>, attempts to rescind the Wounded Knee awards have thus far failed).

Three Of The Four Hotchkiss Guns

Remington's Take On The Fight

Newspaper Illustration

Death At Close Quarters

The massacre a magnet for angry Lakota, as the area fills with Sioux warriors, and an intense blizzard hits the region, the troopers of the 7th load their wounded and dead on wagons, along with some of the Indian wounded, and make the trek back to Pine Ridge headquarters, where they find support in the defensive positions members of the 9th Cavalry have dug in their absence (and with cause, the 9th's supply wagon is set upon by 50 Lakota warriors on Cheyenne Creek, about two miles from the agency, and Company K of the 7th, soldiers not involved in the massacre, has to be rescued by members of the 9th after they become trapped in a valley by members of the Brule tribe of the Rosebud Reservation at a small clash of arms that will be called the Drexel Mission fight by historians). The barbaric winter chill of a three day blizzard brings the heat level between the warring parties down considerably, and on the second day of the new year of 1891, a burial party of civilians, protected by soldiers, returns to Wounded Knee to police the field. Hacking a trench out of the frozen ground the party places 84 men, 44 women, and 18 children (the rest of the Indian dead are carried away by surviving family members or become a winter's feast for the region's animal predators) into a mass grave (on a hill just behind the grave, St. John's Episcopal Mission Church will arise) that will one day feature a memorial at the site that reads: "This monument is erected by surviving relatives and other Oglala and Cheyenne River Sioux Indians in memory of the Chief Big Foot massacre December 29, 1890. Col. Forsyth in command of U.S. troops. Big Foot was a great chief of the Sioux Indians. He often said, 'I will stand in peace till my last day comes.' He did many good and brave deeds for the white man and the red man. Many innocent women and children who knew no wrong died here." Though no final count will ever be completely correct, the butcher's bill for the massacre results in between 250 and 300 Indian deaths, consisting mostly of women and children (amazingly, a handful of babies are later found alive on the battlefield, suckled by dead Indian mothers). It is a sad day for the United States of America.

Retreat To Pine Ridge

After

Yellow Beard And Others

Bodies In The Snow

Into The Trench

Almost immediately after the tragedy, the finger pointing begins among the Army's command structure. In command of the Military Division of the Missouri, Civil War hero (and Medal of Honor winner for his actions Chancellorsville) and veteran victor of actions (and he also moves up the chain of command through his marriage to the niece of the Commanding General of the United States Army, William Tecumseh Sherman) against the Lakota after Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn, cutting off the Nez Pierce of Chief Joseph from fleeing into Canada at the conclusion of the Nez Pierce War of 1877, and coordinating the efforts of the American and Indian scouts that capture of Chiricahua Apache leader, Geronimo, Major General Nelson Miles denounces Forsyth for his actions (he believes his orders have deliberately been disobeyed so Forsyth can gain revenge for Custer's defeat at the Little Big Horn) and relieves him of command. Convened by General Miles, an exhaustive army court of inquiry takes up the matter and decides that Forsyth made numerous tactical errors, but exonerates him of responsibility for the tragedy, and that is that since the investigation is not a formal court martial. Concurring with the results of the inquiry, the Secretary of War, former governor of Vermont, Republican Redfield Proctor, reinstates Forsyth to command of the 7th Cavalry, and despite continuing efforts by Miles to destroy the man's career, the colonel will continue on with his service in the army and will retire in 1897 as a Major General.

The Heady Cavalry Days Of The Civil War - Sheridan (L)

And His Generals (L To Right) - John Forsyth, Wesley Merritt,

Thomas Casimer Devin And George Armstrong Custer

Battlefield Examination - On Far Left White Horse

Is Buffalo Bill Cody, Front Black Horses L-R Are Captain

Baldwin, General Miles And Captain Moss

Proctor

Wounded Knee Memorial

Though there will be a handful of further minor clashes, the massacre at Wounded Knee ends the battle between Western civilization and the many Native American peoples scattered from the East and West coasts for control of the American portion of the North American continent in a year in which the United States Census Bureau announces the closing of the American frontier. Unsurprisingly, over three centuries of tragic encounters between Indians and Westerners that began in 1609 with the Iroquois fighting the French and their Algonquians allies during the Beaver Wars, ends with one more tragedy known as the Wounded Knee Massacre ... but for many, the conflict never really ends and in the early part of 1973, Wounded Knee will once again enter the consciousness of the American public when about 200 members of the Oglala tribe and supporters of the American Indian Movement (AIM), led by Dennis Banks, Russell Means, and Leonard Peltier, protesting the leadership of Indian tribal president Richard Wilson, seize and occupy the small village on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation for 71 days (with an exchange of gun fire taking place between both sides almost nightly) while the United States Marshal Service, the F.B.I. (over 1,000 members of the two agencies), other local law enforcement agencies, and the National Guard from five states circle and cordon off the area while seeking a peaceful solution to the situation (their tactics also include the authorities turning off the town's electricity and water, and cutting off food supplies). Too late for the casualties of the occupation (two dead Indians, another missing and believed murdered, and 16 more people wounded, including U.S. Marshal Lloyd Grimm who is hit by a bullet that turns him into a paraplegic from the waist down), the two sides negotiate a peace which eventually results in a judge ordering the acquittal of the leadership of AIM.

Banks

Means

Peltier

Wilson

Tensions hardly resolved by the acquittals, the reservation explodes again in 1975, when F.B.I. Special Agents Jack R. Coler (28) and Ronald A. Williams (28) drive on to agency grounds (they are in separate, unmarked Federal vehicles) seeking to question Jimmy Eagle, a suspect in a recent assault and robbery of two local ranch hands. Instead of gaining access to their suspect, the two agents are fired upon by a group of Indians that kill both men (outnumbered, running out of ammo, and both men wounded, Williams takes wounds to his body and foot, before being shot in the head at point-blank range by a bullet that first goes through the protesting agent's right hand, while Coler is murdered by two bullets fired into his head ... then the weapons, four in all, are stolen by the culprits ... the gunfight lasts between five and ten minutes, during which time, the cars of the two agents are struck over 125 times). Fleeing retribution they know is coming, the culprits vacate the reservation as a massive manhunt begins in both the United States and Canada that results in Leonard Peltier becoming the chief suspect in the deaths. Placed on the F.B.I.'s Ten Most Wanted List at the close of 1975, Peltier is caught in Canada at an Indian camp on the Brazeau River in Alberta on February 6, 1976 and extradited to the United States in the same year. At trial in Fargo, North Dakota on April 18, 1977, after five-weeks of proceedings in which both sides accuse each other of malfeasance, the Turtle Mountain Chippewa is found guilty of both counts of murder (damning evidence comes in the form of Peltier being found in possession of Coler's handgun) and sentenced to back-to-back life terms for the agent's deaths (tried for the same crimes before Peltier is brought back from Canada, found in possession of Coler's .308 rifle, Robert Eugene Robideau and Darrelle "Dino" Butler are acquitted of the killings on the grounds of self defense by a Cedar Rapids, Iowa jury). Briefly a flavor of the month cause-celebre for human rights activists around the world (the list includes Nelson Mandela, Desmond Tutu, Jesse Jackson, and the 14th Dalai Lama), American politicians, and entertainers from Robert Redford to Jackson Brown, after his conviction Peltier is sent to the Federal Correctional Institution at Lompoc, California, escapes for three days before being captured again in Santa Maria, California in July of 1979, from his cell, he runs for President of the United States in 2004 and as Vic-President to Gloria La Riva in 2020, moves to the federal prisons at the cities of Lewisburg and Canaan, survives a beating by a group of prisoners at Canaan, and is declined clemency pleas by Presidents Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, and Trump. He is currently serving out his double life incarcerations at the Federal Correction Complex located at Coleman, Florida.