12-29-2024 - On This Day in Insane History

On December 29, 1890, the Wounded Knee Massacre unfolded on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, a tragic and brutal event that epitomizes the complex and often devastating interactions between the United States government and Native American tribes.

A detachment of the 7th U.S. Cavalry, the same regiment decimated at Little Bighorn, surrounded a Lakota Sioux encampment with the intent of disarming the band led by Chief Big Foot. Tensions escalated quickly when a medicine man named Yellow Bird began performing the Ghost Dance, a spiritual ritual believed to restore Native lands and resurrect ancestral warriors.

During the attempted weapon confiscation, a scuffle broke out, and a single shot was fired—though historians debate who fired first. What followed was a horrific massacre: soldiers used rapid-fire Hotchkiss guns to slaughter approximately 250 Lakota men, women, and children, many of whom were already surrendering or attempting to flee.

The aftermath was particularly grim. Twenty soldiers were later awarded the Medal of Honor for their actions that day, a decision that continues to be controversial and has prompted ongoing calls for these medals to be rescinded.

This event effectively marked the end of significant armed Native American resistance and symbolized the brutal culmination of the U.S. government's systematic displacement and oppression of Indigenous peoples.