The Wounded

Knee Incident of
1973
By: Reuben B. Lewin

Wounded Knee, South Dakota

Wounded Knee was the sight of the final
massacre of the Indian Wars.

In the winter of 1890 a group of Lakota

were moving to the Pine Ridge Indian
Reservation when they were attacked by
the US Army.

Over 300 men, women, and children

were murdered.

Their bodies were left in the ice for 3

days and then thrown in a mass grave.

Wounded Knee is hallowed ground to

many Native American tribes.

Modern Problems at the Pine Ridge

Reservation

During the early 1970s many Lakota and

Oglala living on the Pine Ridge Reservation
were being abused by the tribal leader of the
Reservation.

Dick Wilson was the head of the tribal

Government and had power to distribute
funds and resources on the reservation. He
was known for using his power to help his
friends and abuse Indians who held to their
traditional culture. Wilson was proassimilation.

One of the largest goals of the occupation of

Wounded Knee was to remove Dick Wilson
from the power on Pine Ridge.

Problems within the United

States

For hundreds of years the United States

Government fought wars against the Native
American peoples across the country.

Native tribes had been displaced and forced

onto smaller and smaller reservations.
Treaties guaranteeing the protection of tribal
land were not held up by the United States.

Racism against Native Americans was

endemic.

When Indians could no longer be out rightly

killed, the Government instituted the
boarding school program.

The Indian Schools

For many decades the Government sanctioned

the forceful taking of Native American
children from their families, against their will,
so they could be taken to Indian Schools
across the country.

The point of the boarding schools was to erase

the children's native identity, and assimilate
them to American culture.

They were forced to learn English, and

abandon their original languages and
practices.

Physical and mental abuse at the hands of

those controlling the schools was widespread
and well documented.

Time to Take a Stand

By 1973 many groups of Native Americans

including the Lakota and the Oglala were
fed up with the broken treaties, abuse and
systemic racism.

After members of the Pine Ridge

Reservation contacted members of the
American Indian Movement (AIM) for
support they decided to occupy the town of
Wounded Knee.

They took control of the small town and

waited for the Government to show up.

When the FBI first arrived the occupiers

opened fire on the FBI and the siege was on.

The United States Response

The Government responded by sending the FBI,

the US Marshalls, and military forces into
Wounded Knee to try and end the siege.
They did not however make a full scale attempt to
retake the town fearing a repeat of the massacre
of 1890.

For weeks Government negotiators attempted to

reach a resolution with the occupiers, while at
night gunfire was exchanged between
Government forces and the people within the
town.

The Government forces at Wounded Knee fired

over 500,000 rounds of ammunition into the town
before the siege ended. Several of the occupiers
were killed.

People Took Notice

After the siege had gone on for a while the

Native Americans within Pine Ridge
declared it to be an independent country.

Chief Fools Crow was the most senior tribal

elder at Pine Ridge. He was chosen to lead
a delegation to the United Nations to
explain the Natives cause.

The United Nations failed to recognized the

newly independent nation, but the incident
got tons of coverage by the national press.

Soon people from all over the country were

going out to Wounded Knee to support the
occupation.

The Occupation Ends

After many weeks the occupation of Wounded

Knee came to an end.

Although the incident forced the unfair

treatment of Native Americans on the eyes of
the American people, the occupiers did not
achieve their goals.

Their independent nation was never realized.

Dick Wilson remained the head of the Pine

Ridge Reservation.

In the years that followed Dick Wilson had the

supporters of the occupation in Pine Ridge
killed off. Pine Ridge had he highest per capita
murder rate in the United States in the years
following the occupation.

The Impacts of Wounded Knee

Although many called the occupation

unsuccessful, the siege of Wounded Knee in
1973 had profound consequences.

The incident forced the American people to

examine the mistreatment of Native
Americans and the systemic racism they
faced.

The Occupation of Wounded Knee helped

spur the Native American Revitalization
Movement.

Members of the occupation continued to

support the movement for Native American
equality in the years to come.

The Legacy

The incident at Wounded Knee helped to

bring together many different Native
communities that had been fragmented and
destroyed by years of abuse and neglect.

Wounded Knee is no longer seen as only a

dark place in the minds of Native Americans.

Wounded Knee is now not only the sight of

the last massacre of the Indian Wars, it was
the sight at which Native Americans took a
stand together in the push for equality.

Wounded Knee is now more sacred than ever.