December 26, 1862: Mass hanging at Mankato, the largest mass hanging in US history
I've read several articles about this to try to have a thorough way of presenting what happened in this instance. Sadly, I can't. What it seems to come down to is that Lincoln ordered the execution of 38 Indians to make his political allies happy and to further eliminate the Native peoples. Maybe, I can't find a nice way of talking about all of this because I was born and raised in the United States, learning about the great work that Abraham Lincoln did in emanicipating the people who were enslaved in the United States. I've always preferred Lincoln to some of the other historical figures. Honest Abe, right? He's a good guy, right? We've got his face on Mount Rushmore because as the Mount Rushmore museum and displays says something along the lines of 'The faces of the men chosen for this monument are the faces of those that represent life, liberty and freedom for all.'
Wait, life, liberty and freedom for all? Was Lincoln supporting life, liberty and freedom for the 38 men who he ordered to be slaughtered in a town square to eliminate the Indians in Minnesota? Not to mention that these men were buried in a mass grave, after some of their skin was cut off and sold (http://www.cr.nps.gov/nagpra/fed_notices/nagpradir/nic0342.html).
As you likely know by now, I could go off on rants about the injustice of the US government to the Native people for days. I present this information to you as a starting point to learn more about the nation that you call home and the history that you have been taught.
Here are some more sites with interesting articles. They may not be credible or academic, but here's what I've found:
http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/hanging.html
http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/dakota/dakota.html
http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2010/12/22/dakota-conflict
December 29, 1890: Massacre at Wounded Knee
I'd love to write some eloquent version of this story, but I'd rather quote it from someone who has already described it.
On the morning of December 29, 1890, the Sioux chief Big Foot and some 350 of his followers camped on the banks of Wounded Knee creek. Surrounding their camp was a force of U.S. troops charged with the responsibility of arresting Big Foot and disarming his warriors. The scene was tense. Trouble had been brewing for months.
The hope of
the Ghost Dance |
the Sioux in South Dakota traveled to Nevada to hear his words. Wovoka called himself the Messiah and prophesied that the dead would soon join the living in a world in which the Indians could live in the old way surrounded by plentiful game. A tidal wave of new soil would cover the earth, bury the whites, and restore the prairie. To hasten the event, the Indians were to dance the Ghost Dance. Many dancers wore brightly colored shirts emblazoned with images of eagles and buffaloes. These "Ghost Shirts" they believed would protect them from the bluecoats' bullets. During the fall of 1890, the Ghost Dance spread through the Sioux villages of the Dakota reservations, revitalizing the Indians and bringing fear to the whites. A desperate Indian Agent at Pine Ridge wired his superiors in Washington, "Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy....We need protection and we need it now. The leaders should be arrested and confined at some military post until the matter is quieted, and this should be done now." The order went out to arrest Chief Sitting Bull at the Standing Rock Reservation. Sitting Bull was killed in the attempt on December 15. Chief Big Foot was next on the list.
When he heard of Sitting Bull's death, Big Foot led his people south to seek protection at the Pine Ridge Reservation. The army intercepted the band on December 28 and brought them to the edge of the Wounded Knee to camp. The next morning the chief, racked with pneumonia and dying, sat among his warriors and powwowed with the army officers. Suddenly the sound of a shot pierced the early morning gloom. Within seconds the charged atmosphere erupted as Indian braves scurried to retrieve their discarded rifles and troopers fired volley after volley into the Sioux camp. From the heights above, the army's Hotchkiss guns raked the Indian teepees with grapeshot. Clouds of gun smoke filled the air as men, women and children scrambled for their lives. Many ran for a ravine next to the camp only to be cut down in a withering cross fire.
When the smoke cleared and the shooting stopped, approximately 300 Sioux were dead, Big Foot among them. Twenty-five soldiers lost their lives. As the remaining troopers began the grim task of removing the dead, a blizzard swept in from the North. A few days later they returned to complete the job. Scattered fighting continued, but the massacre at Wounded Knee effectively squelched the Ghost Dance movement and ended the Indian Wars.
**This information comes from http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm
The Massacre at Wounded Knee is a very real part of everyday life here on Pine Ridge. We take all of our retreat groups to visit the mass grave and pay their respects to the deceased. There's something haunting about walking around a mass grave, knowing how many lives were ended because of racism and misunderstanding about who people are. The grave is a patch of grass surrounded by a small sidewalk on the perimeter, then a chain link fence. I've been to other grave sites where there's lots of concrete or structures to mark the grave, which seem to take away the rawness of what this massacre meant. When I stand on the sidewalk, looking at the maybe four foot by twenty foot grave, I stand in the same spot where people threw the deceased, frozen from the cold, into this pit.
It's also important to mention that often the Massacre at Wounded Knee is called the Battle at Wounded Knee. Prior to coming out to Pine Ridge, I watched a documentary discussing the native presence in the Chicago area and the history there. One historian said, "If the Indians killed the white men, we call it a massacre. If the white men killed the Indians, we call it a battle." We, as people of 2012, do have power to choose how we acknowledge the history of peoples all over the world. My plea for you, as my readers, is to consider the language of how we tell the stories of our history.
More information can be found at this great site that my mom found: http://www.woundedkneemuseum.org/main_menu.html
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