Wounded Knee Massacre 1890

• Sioux reservations


  Conditions of despair and desperation due to consequences of the US government's actions in the Battle of Little BigHorn
• Wovoka


  Chief who had a vision that if Indians performed a secret dance called the Ghost Dance, the Great Plain Indian land would be restored because the whites would disappear
• Ghost Dance


  1. Secret dance that spread among Indians

  2. Indian Agents became worried

  3. Many started to perform the dance

  4. Police got involved
• Police attempted to stop Sitting Bull from continuing the dance, believing it was an act of rebellion, and shot him dead
• Followers of Sitting Bull fled to join the BigFoot tribe
• BigFoot tribe sent to Wounded Knee Creek to be guarded

  27th December 1890
• Disarming of Sioux tribe by 7th US Cavalry

  1. Some resisted

  2. Some continued to dance

  3. 7th US Cavalry shot the first fire
• Over 100 Indians had died and 23 US soldiers including 7 Indian babies
• The public generally approved of the massacre because they saw it as revenge for the Battle of the Little BigHorn