Wounded Knee Massacre

On December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, U.S. Army troops of the 7th Cavalry Regiment killed between 250 and 300 Lakota people, most of them members of Spotted Elk's (Big Foot's) Miniconjou band along with 38 Hunkpapa Lakota. Fifty-one Lakota survivors — four men and 47 women and children — were wounded, some of whom later died. Twenty-five U.S. soldiers were killed and 39 wounded, six of whom later died of their wounds.

The encampment had been escorted the previous day to Wounded Knee Creek by a detachment under Major Samuel M. Whitside after being intercepted near Porcupine Butte. The remainder of the regiment, commanded by Colonel James W. Forsyth, arrived that evening and surrounded the camp of roughly 350 Lakota — 120 men and 230 women and children — with about 500 troopers and four Hotchkiss mountain guns. The events occurred against a backdrop of U.S. seizure of Lakota lands, destruction of bison herds, and settler and military alarm over the spread of the Ghost Dance religion, which some officials feared presaged an armed uprising. Two weeks earlier, on December 15, 1890, Sitting Bull had been killed during an attempted arrest at Standing Rock, prompting members of his band to flee and join Spotted Elk's group.

On the morning of December 29, troops moved to disarm the Lakota. Accounts describe a deaf Lakota man, Black Coyote, resisting having his rifle taken; his weapon discharged during a struggle, and several young Lakota men then fired concealed weapons at troops. Firing became indiscriminate. Some soldiers used Hotchkiss guns against the tipi camp housing women and children, and some soldiers pursued and killed fleeing Lakota, including women and children, across the prairie. A three-day blizzard followed before the dead could be recovered; burial parties later placed the bodies in a mass grave on a hill above the encampment. Reports indicate 84 men, 44 women, and 18 children were found dead on the field, with at least seven more Lakota mortally wounded.

Colonel Forsyth was relieved of command by General Nelson Miles, who believed Forsyth had deliberately violated orders. An Army Court of Inquiry criticized Forsyth's tactical decisions but exonerated him of responsibility; he was later reinstated and promoted. Nineteen soldiers received the Medal of Honor specifically for actions at Wounded Knee, and 31 for the broader campaign. In 2001 the National Congress of American Indians passed resolutions calling for these medals to be rescinded, and the South Dakota Senate and members of Congress have since called for review or revocation; as of 2025 the medals had not been revoked. In 1990, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed a resolution expressing "deep regret" for the massacre. The Wounded Knee Battlefield is a designated National Historic Landmark, and descendants formed the Wounded Knee Survivors Association to seek compensation and to preserve the site.