Wounded Knee, 1890

29 December 2026

On 29 December 1890, soldiers of the 7th Cavalry opened fire on a Lakota camp at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, killing men, women and children. The camp belonged to Spotted Elk, also known as Big Foot, a Miniconjou leader who was on his way to Pine Ridge. The dead numbered in the hundreds.

The band was moving because of the Ghost Dance, a religious movement that government authorities treated as a threat. After Sitting Bull was killed on 15 December 1890, about 200 of his followers fled south and joined Spotted Elk’s people; on 23 December the combined group left the Cheyenne River Reservation for Pine Ridge. Major Samuel M. Whitside’s troopers intercepted them near Porcupine Butte on 28 December.

Whitside escorted the band five miles to Wounded Knee Creek and camped them near the church. Colonel James W. Forsyth arrived with the rest of the regiment, which surrounded the camp, and four Hotchkiss mountain guns were placed on the ridge above it. At daybreak on 29 December the soldiers entered the camp to disarm the Lakota. It was there that the firing began.

What started it is disputed. Accounts differ over a deaf man named Black Coyote who refused to give up his rifle, and over the medicine man Yellow Bird, who threw dust into the air. Once it began, the firing became general and the four guns fired into the camp. Army casualties were 25 dead and 39 wounded; the Lakota dead were never counted precisely.

Estimates of the Lakota dead run from about 150 to more than 350, depending on the source; Congress in 1990 spoke of approximately 350 killed and wounded. Twenty soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their actions that day. Congress apologized to the descendants on the 100th anniversary but did not revoke the medals, and in September 2025 the defense secretary said the soldiers would keep them.

Sources

• National Park Service, “The Wounded Knee Massacre”
• National Park Service, “Big Foot Pass Overlook”
• U.S. Congress, S.Con.Res. 153, 101st Congress, text
• H.R. 3467, “Remove the Stain Act”, 116th Congress, text and findings
• Military Times, “Hegseth says Wounded Knee soldiers will keep their Medals of Honor”, 26 September 2025
• Timeanddate.com, “Holidays and Observances in the United States in 2026”

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