Wounded Knee 1973

random3434

Senior Member
Jun 29, 2008
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Any of you more "seasoned" people on here remember the Stand at Wounded Knee? I find it fascinating, and want to learn more about it.


It began as the American Indian’s stood against government atrocities, and ended in an armed battle with US Armed Forces. Corruption within the BIA and Tribal Council at an all time high, tension on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation was on the increase and quickly getting out of control. With a feeling close to despair, and knowing there was nothing else for them to do, elders of the Lakota Nation asked the American Indian Movement for assistance. This bringing to a head, more than a hundred years of racial tension and a government corruption.





Siege at wounded knee 1973
 
I remember it, I was in 2nd or 3rd grade.

THe BIA is still a mess, and most reservations are corrupt to the core. But at least it's the Indians themselves being corrupt, and not a bunch of assholes from DC.
 
Sand Creek Massacre set this up.

soldier blue was a pretty good movie about that.
I guess I should post that story here:



Sand Creek Massacre

A day of horror and dishonor

By the summer of 1864, a long period of intermittent warfare in the Colorado territory between the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians on one side, and the white settlers and US Army forces on the other, was apparently drawing to a close. The governor of of the Colorado territory, John Evans, hoping to put an end to the Indian raids, had offered the protection of the government to any friendly Indians who would report to Fort Lyon, Colorado.

Two Cheyenne chiefs, Black Kettle and White Antelope, came to the fort and were given assurences of protection by it's commander, Major Edward W. Wynkoop. The chiefs then led their band of 500-including more than 300 women and children-to a peaceful encampment at Sand Creek in Kiowa County, about 40 miles northeast of Fort Lyon. Meanwhile, Wynkoop was replaced by Major Scott J. Anthony, who offered the Indians his own assurences of continued protection.

But Major Anthony was an officer under Colonel John Milton Chivington (1821-1894), a former minister and leader of a large force of Colorado militia that was determined to "kill Cheyennes," a feeling endorsed by other government officals. Governor Evans then issued a directive authorizing pursuit of all hostile Indians, whereupon Major Anthony notified Chivington about the band of Indians who were camped near the fort at Sand Creek. Since these men insisted on treating all Indians as hostile, the stage was set for a horrifying chapter in United States history.

On the night of November 28, 1864, Chivington led a force of 700 men out of Fort Lyon. They arrived at Sand Creek at daybreak and quickly began their attack on the sleeping Cheyenne and Arapaho families. During the attack, Black Kettle attempted to surender by raising the Stars and Stripes, then a white flag, but the soldiers ignored him. Chivington's orders were to "kill and scap all, big and little," and as a result almost half of the Indian men, women and children were knifed, scalped, or mutilated in the attack. Black Kettle and a few of his warriors managed to escape, however, and they spread the word to the Indian Nations that peace with the United States was not possible.

In 1867, Congress appointed a special committe to investigate this and other atrocities against the Indians. As a result, an Indian Peace Commision was created, which immediately began setting aside reserves for the tribes in the Indian Territory.
 
I know wrong tribe, but I think Cheif Joseph got it wrong, they will fight more forever.

Once you put the booze out of the bottle you can't get it back, well, at least not until you throw up in the back of your pick up truck.
 
i was 20 or so when wounded knee happened....the bia is corrupt and unfortunately the aim got sidetracked by worrying about mascots and team names while kids on the eastern cherokee reservation were being molested in the schools....nothing was done...dont look at wounded knee...look at the current conditions on reservations...esp the navajo...in the four corners area...

we have slowly killed most of the indians and are contining to kill them...use to be that bison a low fat meat....was what they ate...no longer...we have taken their society away from them and pryed them with liquor ....which for some reason ...they are very prone to abuse...so now they have diabetes and high rate of liquor abuse...
 
My wife's people are Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock reservation. The politics of the reservation are just as complex as the politics of a state. For much of the latter part of the 20th Century, the reservations were a very dangerous place for anyone with a conscience and a will to change things. Even today, there are things not discussed or brought up in the presence of someone not Lakota.

Alcohol is a devastating problem for Native Americans. And those, like some of my wife's Traditionalist relitives who have fought the selling of alcohol on the reservation, a point of contention with their neighbors. Contention that has involved vandalized vehicles and broken windows.

There has been considerable improvement over the last 35 years that we have been visiting there. More and better schools. More of the young people working outside the reservations, and returning with sets of skills that have been used to improve the lives of those still living on the reservation. However, drugs and alcohol still exact a terrible toll on the young.

Traditional ceremonies are not now outlawed, although not encouraged. And more of the young are connecting with their history in a positive way, rather than seeing themselves as losers and victums.
 
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My wife's people are Hunkpapa Lakota from the Standing Rock reservation. The politics of the reservation are just as complex as the politics of a state. For much of the latter part of the 20th Century, the reservations were a very dangerous place for anyone with a conscience and a will to change things. Even today, there are things not discussed or brought up in the presence of someone not Lakota.

Alcohol is a devastating problem for Native Americans. And those, like some of my wife's Traditionalist relitives who have fought the selling of alcohol on the reservation, a point of contention with their neighbors. Contention that has involved vandalized vehicles and broken windows.

There has been considerable improvement over the last 35 years that we have been visiting there. More and better schools. More of the young people working outside the reservations, and returning with sets of skills that have been used to improve the lives of those still living on the reservation. However, drugs and alcohol still exact a terrible toll on the young.

Traditional ceremonies are not now outlawed, although not encouraged. And more of the young are connecting with their history in a positive way, rather than seeing themselves as losers and victums.

Why don't they want them to do traditional ceremonies? Glad to hear the young are wanting to connect with their history/roots!

My friend Nancy taught on a reservation for about 10 years, she loved it.
 
For most of the existance of the reservations, there has been the attitude that we have the duty to "Christianize" the sadly pagan natives. So their traditional ceremonies, such as the Sundance, were outlawed. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to be invited to observe a part of the Sundance.

Given the 'Christian' treatment afforded the native Americans at Wounded Knee, Sand Creek, Trail of Bitter Tears, and a thousand unnamed incidents, one can hardly blame them for a contempt of of ideas that have had such little impact on the people supposedly believing in them.
 

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