Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 and Why It Still Matters

Many students learn the Wounded Knee massacre as a single sentence in a textbook: a "battle" in 1890 that marked the end of the Indian Wars. That framing leaves out almost everything that matters, from who died and why they were there to what Lakota families have done since to keep the memory honest. If you are trying to understand what happened at Wounded Knee Creek and why it still shapes Native politics today, the details are where the truth is.

This article walks through the events of December 1890, the context that led to them, the long fight over how they are remembered, and what visitors and teachers can do now.

The road to the Wounded Knee massacre

By 1890 the Lakota had lost most of the land guaranteed to them by the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868, including the Black Hills, which the United States seized after gold was found in 1874. The Great Sioux Reservation was broken into smaller reservations in 1889. Government rations were cut at the same time crops failed in a drought. People were hungry, sick and confined. The broken treaty promises behind that situation are covered in our piece on how treaty rights survived centuries of broken promises.

Into that crisis came the Ghost Dance, a spiritual movement that began with the Paiute prophet Wovoka in Nevada. It taught that through prayer, dance and right living, the dead would return and the old world would be restored. Among the Lakota it spread quickly in 1890. Agents and newspapers described it as a war dance. It was not. It was a religious response to despair.

Officials panicked anyway. Troops were sent to the reservations in November 1890. On December 15, Indian police sent to arrest Sitting Bull at Standing Rock killed him outside his cabin. Many of his Hunkpapa followers fled south and joined the Miniconjou band led by Spotted Elk, also known as Big Foot.

What happened on December 29, 1890

Spotted Elk, seriously ill with pneumonia, was leading his people toward Pine Ridge, where he hoped Red Cloud could help keep the peace. On December 28 the band was intercepted by the 7th Cavalry and directed to camp at Wounded Knee Creek. They flew a white flag. Soldiers surrounded the camp overnight and positioned four Hotchkiss guns, rapid-firing light artillery, on a hill above it.

On the morning of December 29, soldiers began disarming the Lakota men. Accounts agree that during a struggle over a rifle, a shot was fired. What followed was not a battle. Soldiers opened fire at close range, and the Hotchkiss guns fired into the camp, including the area where women and children were. People who ran were pursued, some for kilometres along the ravine.

• Lakota deaths: most estimates place them between 250 and 300, a large share of them women and children. Some counts are higher.
• Army deaths: about 25 soldiers, many likely hit in their own crossfire.
• Burial: a blizzard followed. Days later, a hired burial party put the frozen bodies of Lakota victims into a single mass grave on the hill where the guns had stood.

Survivor testimony, collected over the following decades, describes mothers shot while carrying infants and children chased down far from the camp. Those accounts are the reason historians and the Lakota themselves reject the word "battle."

The Medal of Honor dispute

Twenty soldiers of the 7th Cavalry received the Medal of Honor for actions at Wounded Knee. For Lakota families, those medals have long stood as an official celebration of the killing of their relatives.

Tribal leaders and advocates have pushed for decades to have them rescinded, and bills often referred to as the "Remove the Stain Act" have been introduced in Congress. A Pentagon review completed in 2024 left the medals in place. In 1990, on the centennial, Congress passed a resolution expressing "deep regret" for the massacre, which many Lakota people viewed as a step short of a real apology.

Why the word choice still matters

Some still argue that "massacre" is too strong because some soldiers also died and the first shot is disputed. I think that argument misses the point. The question is not who fired first. The question is what an armed force did to a surrounded, mostly disarmed camp flying a white flag, with artillery aimed at women and children. By any reasonable standard, that is a massacre, and treating it as a two-sided battle has been used for over a century to soften the responsibility.

Wounded Knee after 1890

The place did not stay quiet. In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement and Oglala Lakota residents occupied the town of Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest corruption on the Pine Ridge Reservation and federal failures to honour treaties. Two Native men were killed during the standoff, and a federal marshal was paralysed. The occupation put Native rights on national television and is a direct ancestor of later movements.

In 1986 Lakota riders began the Big Foot Memorial Ride, following the route Spotted Elk's band took in the bitter cold of December. In 1990, on the hundredth anniversary, riders completed a ceremony called Wiping Away the Tears, meant to close a century of mourning. The ride continues as a youth ride today.

Ownership of the site itself was contested for years, as a private owner sought to sell the land for a high price. In 2022 the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe completed the purchase of about 40 acres around the site, placing it back under Lakota care. That kind of return is part of what the Land Back movement asks for in practice.

How to teach and visit Wounded Knee with respect

The site is on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, about 25 km northeast of the town of Pine Ridge. The mass grave on the hill is marked by a memorial and surrounded by a small cemetery that is still in use.

• Remember that it is a grave and a church cemetery. Do not climb on markers, leave litter or take items.
• Ask before photographing people, and avoid photographing graves without permission.
• Buy from local Lakota artists and vendors rather than chain shops in nearby towns.
• In classrooms, use Lakota sources and survivor testimony, not only army reports. Give the context of hunger, land loss and the Ghost Dance, not just the date.

Wounded Knee belongs in a longer story. Our overview of the 500 years that shaped today places it alongside the other turning points students should know.

Frequently asked questions

Why did the Wounded Knee massacre happen?

It came out of land loss, broken treaties, hunger and official fear of the Ghost Dance. After Sitting Bull was killed, troops intercepted Spotted Elk's band and surrounded their camp. A struggle during disarmament led soldiers to open fire on the camp.

How many people died at Wounded Knee in 1890?

Most estimates put Lakota deaths between 250 and 300, many of them women and children, though some counts are higher. About 25 soldiers also died. The Lakota dead were buried in a mass grave after a blizzard.

Can you visit the Wounded Knee massacre site?

Yes. The site is on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and includes the mass grave memorial and cemetery. Visitors should treat it as a burial ground, ask before taking photos and support local Lakota vendors.