Wounded Knee Massacre Ends Major Native Resistance

Context

By the late 1880s, repeated violations of treaties such as the 1868 Fort Laramie agreement had reduced the Great Sioux Reservation from roughly 60 million acres to a fraction of that size, split into smaller agencies where the Lakota were expected to adopt farming and abandon nomadic hunting. The near-extinction of bison herds left communities dependent on unreliable government rations amid drought and harsh winters, while federal policies pushed assimilation through Western education, dress, and Christianity. These pressures created widespread hardship on reservations like Pine Ridge and Standing Rock.

In this setting, the Ghost Dance religion, introduced by Paiute prophet Wovoka, spread rapidly among the Lakota as a spiritual response promising renewal of traditional life, the return of ancestors and game, and the eventual disappearance of white settlers. Performers wore special shirts believed by some to offer protection, though the movement itself was nonviolent. U.S. officials and settlers, however, interpreted the dances as a sign of impending uprising, prompting military deployments and efforts to arrest prominent leaders.

Tensions escalated sharply after the death of Hunkpapa leader Sitting Bull during an arrest attempt on December 15, 1890. Fearing reprisals, members of his band joined Miniconjou chief Spotted Elk and headed toward Pine Ridge to seek protection under Red Cloud, drawing the attention of the 7th Cavalry Regiment.

What Happened

On December 28, Major Samuel M. Whitside’s detachment of the 7th Cavalry intercepted Spotted Elk’s band of roughly 350 Miniconjou and Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them to a camp along Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Colonel James W. Forsyth arrived with the rest of the regiment and four Hotchkiss mountain guns, surrounding the encampment overnight.

The next morning, soldiers entered the camp to confiscate weapons. As troopers collected rifles, a deaf Miniconjou man named Black Coyote resisted surrendering his firearm. In the ensuing scuffle, a shot rang out. Lakota warriors who still carried concealed weapons opened fire, and the soldiers responded with rifles and artillery. The firing quickly became indiscriminate, striking down men, women, and children across the camp and surrounding slopes.

When the shooting ended, between 150 and 300 Lakota lay dead or mortally wounded, many of them noncombatants. Twenty-five soldiers were also killed and thirty-nine wounded, with some casualties attributed to friendly fire amid the confusion. Spotted Elk was among those slain.

Aftermath

Survivors were taken to Pine Ridge, where the dead were later buried in a mass grave. The Army presented nineteen Medals of Honor for actions at Wounded Knee, part of thirty-one awarded for the broader campaign. Official reports described the event as a battle, though contemporary accounts and later investigations highlighted the one-sided nature of the violence.

The immediate military presence on the reservations suppressed further Ghost Dance activity, and the Lakota bands that had been moving toward Pine Ridge dispersed or surrendered.

Legacy

Wounded Knee marked the effective end of organized armed resistance by the Plains tribes to U.S. reservation policies and assimilation efforts. The massacre became a potent symbol of federal overreach and the human cost of westward expansion, kept alive in Native oral histories and activist memory.

In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied the site to protest conditions on Pine Ridge and broader treaty violations, drawing renewed national attention. Congress passed a formal resolution of regret in 1990, yet the medals awarded to soldiers remain a point of contention among Native groups seeking their revocation.