Wounded Knee (Massacre)

Wounded Knee is a small village on the South Dakota Pine Ridge Sioux Reservation which on December 29, 1890 was the site of a brutal massacre of between 150-300 Sioux people by the US Army after two centuries of American Indian resistance against white colonization. (not to be mistaken with the Occupation of Wounded Knee by the American Indian Movement in 1973).

The massacre is considered to be the event that ended the Plains Indian Wars. The Sioux attempted to resist relocation by camping in the Badlands which the US took as a threat, arresting Big Foot and Sitting Bull, two important chiefs. Sitting Bull was killed and Big foot attempted to escape with the people, but the army usrrounded and opened fire upon the people, resulting in a mass death. The event still has resonance and remains symbolic of historical relations with the US for tribal peoples today.