Massacre at Wounded Knee For many years white men and Native Americans fought long before The

Massacre at Wounded Knee. One reason was that the white men wanted the land occupied by the Native American s for themselves. Many times the white settlers made promises to the Native Americans to only turn around and force them off of their land. The beginning of this conflict dates bac! to the discovery of the America s by "hristopher "olumbus himself and cumulated with the Massacre at Wounded Knee in #$%& in which '&& Minicon(ou )iou* lost their lives. From the beginning of the +uropean settlement of the Americas, there was conflict between the +uro-Americans and the Native Americans. The +uro-Americans viewed the Native Americans as savage and bac!wards as they did not understand the customs and beliefs of the Native Americans. .i!ewise, the Native American s viewed the white man as greedy and only after their land. Once the /nited )tates was officially formed, it too! on a policy !now as Manifest 0estiny. Manifest 0estiny was an idea that the /nited )tates had a 1od-given right and obligation to e*pand westward and spread democracy to less fortunate peoples, such as the Native Americans. This 2chosen3 people and Manifest 0estiny concept began early on in the +astern parts of the newly formed /nited )tates when the government forced the "hero!ee, "ree!, "hoctaw, "hicasaw and )eminole nations off their lands so that the +uropean settlers could e*pand south. These tribes were forced to move west of the Mississippi river as a part of Andrew 4ac!son, the then /nited )tate s 5resident s, 6ndian 7emoval Act. The 6ndian 7emoval Act was legislation that was passed in #$8& and gave the 5resident the authority to negotiate treaties with the Native Americans to give them land

west of the Mississippi river in e*change for their land east of the Mississippi river. )ome Native Americans stayed on their land and thus became citi9ens of their home state: however, many resisted and ended up being forcibly removed from their lands. One such forcible removal is !nown as the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears too! place during the winter of #$8$ and was the forcible removal of the "hero!ee tribe from their native home to O!lahoma. The "hero!ee, with barely the clothes on their bac!s, were forced to march the #,&&& miles to O!lahoma with hardly any food or a way to !eep warm. This resulted in the death of ;,&&& members of the "hero!ee tribe, who called the incident, Nunna daul Isunyi or 2the Trail Where They "ried3. Although the /nited )tates had promised the Native Americans that once they settled west the land would be theirs forever, this soon became a bro!en promise. As the /nited )tates grew, so did its desire for more land. At this point the only place to go was west: however, this land had been promised to the Native Americans in somewhat of a forced e*change for their +astern lands. And so continued the struggle between the /nited )tates and the Native Americans until many of the nations Native Americans were eventually confined to reservations or small parcels of land reserved for them under their own sovereignty and that of the /nited )tates 0epartment of the 6nterior s <ureau of 6ndian Affairs.

2The 1host 0ance =Natdia> is a spiritual movement that came about in the late #$$&s when conditions were bad on 6ndian reservations and Native Americans needed something to give them hope.3=1host 0ance>. The 1host 0ance movement was a significant part of the Massacre at Wounded Knee. The 1host 0ance movement was a

religion of sorts that was started by a 5aiute shaman or medicine man !nown as Wovo!a. Wovo!a was primarily raised by a white family after his father s death at the age of fourteen. ?e wor!ed the white man s farm well into adulthood and eventually even too! the white man s last name and became !nown as 4ac! Wilson. Although it is thought that Wovo!a did have some influence by "hristianity through the Wilsons, on 4anuary #, #$$%, during a solar eclipse, Wovo!a claimed to have a vision that prophesi9ed the resurrection of his people and the removal of the white people from their lands. ?e stated that in order for this to happen, the Native Americans must live a decent life and perform a certain dance called the 1host 0ance. This dance and a corresponding feast were to last five days and occur every si* wee!s. The 1host 0ance gave the downtrodden Native Americans, who had been confined to reservations, hope and Wo!ova s preaching s in this regard were non-violent: however, the agents of the <ureau of 6ndian Affair did not view the dance this way and soon began to fear an uprising when they saw how the dance united so many of the Native Americans. The agents called on the /nited )tates government for help in disbanding the movement when one tribe, the .a!ota, began to openly discuss the dance as a way to rid themselves of the white people. At that time, )itting <ull was the leader of the .a!ota and the agents went to arrest him in order to induce him to have the .a!ota @uit performing the 1host 0ance. ?owever, )itting <ull resisted and was !illed in the struggle. ?ere is a note )itting <ull left for soldiers after one of the first battles, ABou scare all the buffalo away. 6 want to hunt in this place. 6 want you to turn bac! from here. 6f you donCt, 6 will fight you again.A=)pectrum>. The /nited )tates government then sent the )eventh "alvary to control the situation and the .a!ota. 6n the meantime the )iou* chief, <ig Foot, had heard of the !illing of )itting <ull

and decided to move his tribe south to the 5ine 7idge 7eservation for protection, but they were intercepted by the )eventh "alvary and pushed bac! to Wounded Knee, )outh 0a!ota and on 0ecember '%, #$%&, the ;DE member regiment opened fire on the )iou*, !illing appro*imately 8&& of them including the chief, men, women and children. This event, !nown as the Massacre at Wounded Knee, effectively ended the 6ndian Wars. 6n my opinion the 6ndian Wars should be no where near a proud moment in American ?istory. 6t ma!es me sic! and brea!s my heart to read and learn about what we as +uro-Americans did to the Native Americans out of greed and selfishness. 6f we wanted land from the Native Americans, maybe we should have embraced them and became friends with them, not enemies. They were (ust as afraid of us as we were of them, if not more so. 6 don t thin! we too! the time to stop and thin! 2hey, they are people, too3. We had no right to come to their country and claim what wasn t ours. 6n my opinion, it has a minor resemblance to the holocaust with American s being the Na9is and Native Americans being the 4ews. Thin! of all the innocent women and children massacred over our greed for their land. When 6 thin! about all that it almost ma!es me ashamed to call myself an American. 6f we (ust would have too! the time to embrace the Native Americans, we could have learned so much more from them and lived better lives as they !new how to live off the land and they were such spiritual people, it s such a shame that the +uroAmericans were so blinded by their own ways and beliefs that they could not open their minds and hearts to the beliefs and customs of the Native Americans. <lac! +l!, a )iou* medicine man, spea!s of what he saw at Wounded Knee,

6 did not !now then how much was ended. When 6 loo! bac! now from this high hill of my old age, 6 can still see the butchered women and children lying heaped and scattered all along the croo!ed gulch as plain as when 6 saw them with eyes still young. And 6 can see that something else died there in the bloody mud, and was buried in the bli99ard. A peopleCs dream died there. 6t was a beautiful dream . . . . the nationCs hoop is bro!en and scattered. There is no center any longer, and the sacred tree is dead. =The Massacre>. This to me is evidence that the natives were not the savages, the +uro-Americans were. Their 1host 0ance gave them hope and we couldn t let them have their hope we had to 2fear3 it and ma!e them stop. We put them on reservations and controlled them and we feared a danceF To me that sounds very pathetic. We came in and destroyed their peaceful happy lives and gave them hurt pain and struggles that were unnecessary. 6n #%'G, the grand council of American 6ndians said this, We want freedom from the white man rather than to be integrated. We donCt want any part of the establishment, we want to be free to raise our children in our religion, in our ways, to be able to hunt and fish and live in peace. We donCt want power, we donCt want to be congressmen, or ban!ers....we want to be ourselves. We want to have our heritage, because we are the owners of this land and because we belong hereHHThe white man says, there is freedom and (ustice for all. We have had Afreedom and (ustice,A and that is why we have been almost e*terminated. We shall not forget this. =Native American>.

This hits you hard because it s so true that we were all about freedom and (ustice, yet we too! the freedom from the natives that they had possessed for so long and we most certainly did not give them (ustice. +uro-Americans were selfish and greedy and this point in time should never be a proud moment for any Americans in history. 2As the white man goes in3 )ha!opee moaned. 2The 6ndian goes out.3 =?ughes $$>. These were the last words of )ha!opee a )iou* ringleader, before being hung.

Wor!s "ited A1host 0ance - A 5romise of Fulfillment.A Legends of America - A Travel Site for the Nostalgic and Historic Minded. Web. #& Apr. '&#&. IhttpJKKwww.legendsofamerica.comKna-ghostdance.htmlL.

?ughes, ?oward. The Pocket Essential American Indian +ssentials, '&&#. 5rint.

ars! ?arpendenJ 5oc!et

AThe Massacre at Wounded Knee.A elcome to Hanksville. Web. #& Apr. '&#&. IhttpJKKwww.han!sville.orgKdanielKla!otaKWoundedMKnee.htmlL. ANative American NuoteCs.A elcome to Ha"aii #nLine$InterLink. Web. #& Apr. '&#&. IhttpJKKwww.ilhawaii.netKOstonyK@uotes.htmlL. A)5+"T7/M <iographies - )itting <ull.A Inc ell. Web. #& Apr. '&#&. IhttpJKKwww.incwell.comK<iographiesK)itting<ull.htmlL.