On the clear, cold morning of December 29, 1890, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, three U.S. soldiers tried to wrench a valuable Winchester away from a young Lakota man. He refused to give up his hunting weapon. It was the only thing standing between his family and starvation and he had no faith it would be returned to him as the officer promised: he had watched as soldiers had marked other confiscated valuable weapons for themselves.
It still sickens me to read about this and the other horrible travesties that were pounded down upon our Native people. I cannot get past it some days. This and the enslavement of Africans brings great shame upon me. This vicious treatment of “others” who are not male and white is still happening today. Look no further than Texas Governor Greg Abbot and his bussing of people fleeing from cruelty only to be thrown into the frigid cruel night. I am wringing my hands.
I'm grateful that you continue to share this haunting but so important history. Perhaps at some point we will learn from the past and do better in the future
I have to assume that those who are foaming at the mouth to keep "critical race theory" out of our schools (although it's a university-level course) are desperate for our children to never learn the real stories of our past. We were never taught the truth, but our children must know all of it.
Haunting and sad. Will we ever learn! My granddaughter is 50% Navajo and her grandparents are 100%. It is always a fine balance to find a middle ground, my heart always aches for what we did to all indiginouse people. Get togethers are always stressful. But her granfather sang her Happy birthday in the Navajo lamguage which was beautiful ❤️
I live in Dakota County, MN on stolen Indian land. I learned beadweaving as a child growing up among Lakota, Dakota, Anishinabeg, Ho-Chunk and other Native people in Minneapolis and owe my grandparents' native neighbors a debt of gratitude I will never be able to pay as a result since I now am able to make my living selling my bead-weaving. On Tuesday, we revisited what is still the largest single execution in the county - 38 Natives died that day. Today, we revisit the horrific massacre at Pine Ridge.
Whenever I am again confronted with the genocide we've perpetrated against the Indigenous people of the US, I ask myself what I can do? What one thing could I do that would pay some of our collective debt forward?
For me, funding some of the Native-led nonprofits helps me feel like I'm doing something. One of the best I've found in the Lakota People's Law Project, located in Bismarck, ND. www.lakotalaw.org.
I hope that some of you will join me in funding this organization that seeks to help today's Lakota people. I stand with Standing Rock.
Thank you for telling this terrible story, lest we forget. I hope it helps keep our eyes open as we enter a new year of Danger--including the danger others face from our irrepressible and cocksure naivete.
Professor, I cannot say that I "like" this account, but I do appreciate that you have provided it here. It's a clear—and horiffic—reminder of the terror-filled events US forces have delivered to people in these United States (and elsewhere). Regardless of whether it repeats or rhymes, I hope that we learn from these histories and resolve that US forces should never visit such episodes on other people again.
Heather, thank you for shining a bright line on what people are capable of when they consider a group of people so inferior that their lives are worthless. When people go along with atrocities to increase their power or to protect themselves, it doesn’t go well.
As the Mafia has shown, the first step to promoting/ignoring reprehensible actions against “the others” is a small action. The threat of exposure is then used to pressure the person to take gradually more onerous actions. Since we want to see ourselves as honorable, we make excuses that often involve casting the victim as having provoked our action.
As you’ve shown, the first step to acting better is to acknowledge your past transgressions. By sharing your history lessons, more and more readers now know the facts (acts and results) and can resolve to do better next time.
Not only the US, but also the rest of us - what have we really learned from our history? Do we have less wars now? Do we treat indigenous populations better? Seems to me, all we are is Neanderthals with smart phones - we never seem to make it out of the caves, technology just gets better.
I visited Wounded Knee in 1997. I also spent days with the Lakota, as part of my initiative to create, in concert with the National Endowment for the Humanities, a summer teachers institute for those who taught humanities at over two dozen Native American colleges..
What was seared in my mind was that the Army unit at Wounded Knee was the 7th Calvary, the unit that Custer commanded at the Battle of Big Horn 14 years earlier. Custer went rashly into battle, where he was annihilated by the Lakota and other tribes.
The 7th Calvary was humiliated. I firmly believe that they were yearning for retaliation when they encountered the Lakota at Wounded Knee. Of course this never would be reported in formal Army reports—as hundreds of Lakota were slaughtered. (My recollection is that the 7th Calvary set up artillery on the hill overlooking where they initiated their encounter with the Lakota.)
[Our military does not have an unblemished record in reporting its soldiers’ ‘massacres.’ In 1968 at My Lai under Lt. Calley over 500 Vietnamese civilians were raped and murdered. This was initially investigated by then-Major Colin Powell, who wrote a ‘whitewash’ report. Only a year later did My Lai explode into a national scandal, after a soldier was a whistleblower and journalist Seymour Hersh published an account of this cold-blooded massacre.
A lt. General conducted a major investigation. About a dozen soldiers were reprimanded. Lt. Calley was sentenced to life in prison. Three years later he was released.
My Lai was not a one-off incident. Among others, there was a major general, who reportedly was responsible for the killing of thousands of Vietnamese civilians, who had the nickname ‘The Butcher of the Delta.’]
It still sickens me to read about this and the other horrible travesties that were pounded down upon our Native people. I cannot get past it some days. This and the enslavement of Africans brings great shame upon me. This vicious treatment of “others” who are not male and white is still happening today. Look no further than Texas Governor Greg Abbot and his bussing of people fleeing from cruelty only to be thrown into the frigid cruel night. I am wringing my hands.
I'm grateful that you continue to share this haunting but so important history. Perhaps at some point we will learn from the past and do better in the future
I have to assume that those who are foaming at the mouth to keep "critical race theory" out of our schools (although it's a university-level course) are desperate for our children to never learn the real stories of our past. We were never taught the truth, but our children must know all of it.
Thank you, Heather - again.
Haunting and sad. Will we ever learn! My granddaughter is 50% Navajo and her grandparents are 100%. It is always a fine balance to find a middle ground, my heart always aches for what we did to all indiginouse people. Get togethers are always stressful. But her granfather sang her Happy birthday in the Navajo lamguage which was beautiful ❤️
Sad beyond belief.
Thank you. Painful to read and remember but crucial to do so.
I live in Dakota County, MN on stolen Indian land. I learned beadweaving as a child growing up among Lakota, Dakota, Anishinabeg, Ho-Chunk and other Native people in Minneapolis and owe my grandparents' native neighbors a debt of gratitude I will never be able to pay as a result since I now am able to make my living selling my bead-weaving. On Tuesday, we revisited what is still the largest single execution in the county - 38 Natives died that day. Today, we revisit the horrific massacre at Pine Ridge.
Whenever I am again confronted with the genocide we've perpetrated against the Indigenous people of the US, I ask myself what I can do? What one thing could I do that would pay some of our collective debt forward?
For me, funding some of the Native-led nonprofits helps me feel like I'm doing something. One of the best I've found in the Lakota People's Law Project, located in Bismarck, ND. www.lakotalaw.org.
I hope that some of you will join me in funding this organization that seeks to help today's Lakota people. I stand with Standing Rock.
Deep appreciation to you for everything you write!⭕️⭐️🙏
Thank you for telling this terrible story, lest we forget. I hope it helps keep our eyes open as we enter a new year of Danger--including the danger others face from our irrepressible and cocksure naivete.
The savagery of war in Ukraine today is equally inhumane.
Professor, I cannot say that I "like" this account, but I do appreciate that you have provided it here. It's a clear—and horiffic—reminder of the terror-filled events US forces have delivered to people in these United States (and elsewhere). Regardless of whether it repeats or rhymes, I hope that we learn from these histories and resolve that US forces should never visit such episodes on other people again.
Keep telling us the full story. It is not adding history it is filling out the history we knew only part of. And it will always make me cry....
Heather, thank you for shining a bright line on what people are capable of when they consider a group of people so inferior that their lives are worthless. When people go along with atrocities to increase their power or to protect themselves, it doesn’t go well.
As the Mafia has shown, the first step to promoting/ignoring reprehensible actions against “the others” is a small action. The threat of exposure is then used to pressure the person to take gradually more onerous actions. Since we want to see ourselves as honorable, we make excuses that often involve casting the victim as having provoked our action.
As you’ve shown, the first step to acting better is to acknowledge your past transgressions. By sharing your history lessons, more and more readers now know the facts (acts and results) and can resolve to do better next time.
We will never learn if we don't understand our history, both as individuals and as a nation.
Not only the US, but also the rest of us - what have we really learned from our history? Do we have less wars now? Do we treat indigenous populations better? Seems to me, all we are is Neanderthals with smart phones - we never seem to make it out of the caves, technology just gets better.
I visited Wounded Knee in 1997. I also spent days with the Lakota, as part of my initiative to create, in concert with the National Endowment for the Humanities, a summer teachers institute for those who taught humanities at over two dozen Native American colleges..
What was seared in my mind was that the Army unit at Wounded Knee was the 7th Calvary, the unit that Custer commanded at the Battle of Big Horn 14 years earlier. Custer went rashly into battle, where he was annihilated by the Lakota and other tribes.
The 7th Calvary was humiliated. I firmly believe that they were yearning for retaliation when they encountered the Lakota at Wounded Knee. Of course this never would be reported in formal Army reports—as hundreds of Lakota were slaughtered. (My recollection is that the 7th Calvary set up artillery on the hill overlooking where they initiated their encounter with the Lakota.)
[Our military does not have an unblemished record in reporting its soldiers’ ‘massacres.’ In 1968 at My Lai under Lt. Calley over 500 Vietnamese civilians were raped and murdered. This was initially investigated by then-Major Colin Powell, who wrote a ‘whitewash’ report. Only a year later did My Lai explode into a national scandal, after a soldier was a whistleblower and journalist Seymour Hersh published an account of this cold-blooded massacre.
A lt. General conducted a major investigation. About a dozen soldiers were reprimanded. Lt. Calley was sentenced to life in prison. Three years later he was released.
My Lai was not a one-off incident. Among others, there was a major general, who reportedly was responsible for the killing of thousands of Vietnamese civilians, who had the nickname ‘The Butcher of the Delta.’]