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Okay I'll do it. This is based on several diss chapters, so bear w/ me.
Most people know the Wounded Knee Massacre. 12/29/1890. The US Army massacred Sí Tȟáŋka and his people, or about 250 Lakota men, women, and children. For me, a crucial context is the 1889 Sioux Commission. https://twitter.com/TheWriteMclean/status/1344037082046496768
Most people know the Wounded Knee Massacre. 12/29/1890. The US Army massacred Sí Tȟáŋka and his people, or about 250 Lakota men, women, and children. For me, a crucial context is the 1889 Sioux Commission. https://twitter.com/TheWriteMclean/status/1344037082046496768
In the summer of 1889, the federal gov't sent out commissioners to convince the Lakota to sell 9 million acres of their land, or about half of what they held. The gov't sent two fairly helpless political insiders, but they also sent Major General George Crook. He was the ringer.
Crook was a veteran of both the Civil War and the Indian Wars. The Lakota knew and respected him. W/out him, nothing would have happened (I know this b/c the gov't sent a commission in 1888 filled with morons to do the same thing, and they got nowhere). Crook was the key.
Even still, it was a hard sell (obviously). The Lakota did not want to sell their land. They were still reeling from the loss of the Black Hills (illegally taken), the loss of a war in 1877, and the transition to reservation life. Their land gave them power and opportunity.
The Lakota made it clear that they didn't want to sell, while also taking the chance to describe, in detail, the many abuses they had suffered at the hands of whites and the US gov't. (You can read the transcripts yourself, btw, on google books).
But after weeks of discussion at several different agencies (places that represented the US gov't on the Great Sioux Reservation), the Lakota acquiesced. They did so mostly because of Crook, who made it clear that this was the best deal they'd get.
Crook basically said that they were losing the land no matter what, so they might as well get some money for it. If not, the US would take it by force. After that, it turned into a debate of dollars and cents, but the message was clear: the Lakota had to take the deal.
But, Crook promised, he'd make sure they'd get a great deal. He'd make sure the Lakota were looked after. The Lakota signed away their land. The Great Sioux Reservation was broken apart (though not without protest).
So, why does this matter for Wounded Knee?
So, why does this matter for Wounded Knee?
Well, first of all, the money never came. Congress, inexplicably, actually CUT treaty-mandated annuity payments and food rations to the Lakota. Crook was apoplectic. Lakota people literally starved. Those cuts also coincided with a bad crop year and an outbreak of disease.
In desperation, some Lakota people turned to an outside religious movement known as the Ghost Dance. It promised that native peoples would return to life before conquest, including the endless herds of bison that had roamed just a generation earlier.
The movement was non-violent, but politicians and inexperienced federal agents panicked. They demanded Army protection. The gov't obliged, for political reasons Heather Cox Richardson covers in her book on Wounded Knee. The presence of the Army, in turn, frightened the Lakota.
That's why Sí Tȟáŋka and his people were on the move: to link up with a Lakota friend who had a good relationship with the Army. But here's the second reason the 1889 land deal matters: the only reason the Army tracked down this group of Lakota is b/c they were on white land.
What land was that? Well, they were crossing (from Cheyenne River to Pine Ridge) the land they had only just lost. The Army was tasked with stopping the Lakota from trespassing on land that belonged to them one year prior. That's the tragic irony of all this.
And that's how a group of non-violent Lakota people ended up surrounded by soldiers.
But there's one more thing to unpack: why did they 1889 land deal happen in the first place?
But there's one more thing to unpack: why did they 1889 land deal happen in the first place?
The reason is that Dakota Territory's politicians, after 1887, were facing down a revolution. The winter of '87 crushed the region's farmers. The farmers radicalized. Railroads were also throwing a tantrum over some new laws, threatening to halt production or withhold taxes.
And you also had agitation by poor workers, women's rights activists, immigrants, and people of color. The politicians were in a bind, unless they could find something that satisfied everyone, w/out reducing their own political power. Their answer? Indian land.
The convinced people in Dakota Territory that the Great Sioux Reservation was really to blame for their troubles, and cheap Lakota land was the solution. It worked, and everyone joined the politicians in pressuring the federal gov't to open that land.
In 1870, this wouldn't have worked, but in the late 1880s, when Dakota was about to get at least one statehood, politicians in D.C. paid attention. They agreed: we needed to take Lakota land. Radical farmers softened their rhetoric. Railroads paid their taxes.
And the federal gov't organized a commission (first in 1888, as I mentioned, then again in 1889).
So why does this matter? Well, it matters to me b/c it shows that a massacre--or similar violent events--don't just involve the perpetrators and the victims.
So why does this matter? Well, it matters to me b/c it shows that a massacre--or similar violent events--don't just involve the perpetrators and the victims.
Especially in a democracy, all of us play a role in the events that take place. The Wounded Knee Massacre is indictment not just of the Army, but of all Americans in the nineteenth century, of everyone who contributed to its context.
And that's how we get to December 29th, 1890. To take just one, small experience, Elaine Goodale, a teacher on Pine Ridge, was still marking gifts and filling bags of candy for Christmas when she heard the cannons begin to fire in the distance. /end
