Wounded Knee

[mia]

Found this on my facebook page. I also found it here.
http://lewrockwell.com/rep4/bury-your-guns-wounded-knee.html
While I know we're not allowed to reference Libertarian links, I wanted to share it with someone. I'm offended by the use of this tragedy.

December 29, 2012 marked the 122nd Anniversary of the murder of 297 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. These 297 people, in their winter camp, were murdered by federal agents and members of the 7th Cavalry who had come to confiscate their firearms “for their own safety and protection.” The slaughter began after the majority of the Sioux had peacefully turned in their firearms. The Calvary began shooting, and managed to wipe out the entire camp. 200 of the 297 victims were women and children. About 40 members of the 7th Cavalry were killed, but over half of them were victims of fratricide from the Hotchkiss guns of their overzealous comrades-in-arms. Twenty members of the 7th Cavalry’s death squad, were deemed “National Heroes” and were awarded the Medal of Honor for their acts of [cowardice] heroism.

We hear very little of Wounded Knee today. It is usually not mentioned in our history classes or books. What little that does exist about Wounded Knee is normally a sanitized “Official Government Explanation.” And there are several historically inaccurate depictions of the events leading up to the massacre, which appear in movie scripts and are not the least bit representative of the actual events that took place that day.

Wounded Knee was among the first federally backed gun confiscation attempts in United States history. It ended in the senseless murder of 297 people.


Before you jump on the emotionally charged bandwagon for gun control, take a moment to reflect on the real purpose of the Second Amendment, the right of the people to take up arms in defense of themselves, their families, and property in the face of invading armies or an oppressive government. The argument that the Second Amendment only applies to hunting and target shooting is asinine. When the United States Constitution was drafted, “hunting” was an everyday chore carried out by men and women to put meat on the table each night, and “target shooting” was an unheard of concept. Musket balls were a precious commodity and were certainly not wasted on “target shooting.” The Second Amendment was written by people who fled oppressive and tyrannical regimes in Europe, and it refers to the right of American citizens to be armed for defensive purposes, should such tyranny arise in the United States....

[Remmah2]

1. You don't need guns we have the police. nt

nt

[Fire Walk With Me]

7. As an Occupier assaulted by police during a peaceful 1st Amendment march

I strongly beg to disagree. Especially since there is plenty of proof that DHS use police departments as tentacles via the iWatch program.

Watch this. There is not a dull moment, especially when one cop implies he'll shoot him.

[appleannie1]

2. I heard that almost word for word when I was at PT today for my broken arm.

[Berserker]

3. Very sad

Thanks for posting this. Now wait for the anti-gunners to tell you to go fuck yourself. And that's OK because the jury system allows it on DU now.

[mia]

4. Chronology of Events Leading Up to the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre

http://www.dickshovel.com/wkup.html

So much more before these last four paragraphs.

...December 28, 1890: Chief Big Foot, fearing arrest and the risk to his band, headed south to the Pine Ridge Reservation. Chief Red Cloud had already invited him to come to Pine Ridge and help make peace. Major Whiteside and his Seventh Cavalry intercepted Chief Big Foot and about 356 of his followers at Porcupine Butte and escorted them to Wounded Knee Creek. The campsite was already settled, with Mousseaux's store and several log houses located there. That evening Colonel Forsyth arrived and assumed command. The Indians were surrounded and harassed all night. A trader from Pine Ridge brought a barrel of whiskey and the officers and troopers got drunk celebrating Big Foot's capture.

That night some drunken troopers attempted to drag Big Foot out of his tent. Indians who could understand English heard talk of getting revenge for Custer's defeat. Some officers attempted to see if guns possessed by the Indians were taken from the Little Bighorn battle and if they were old enough to have been at the battle.

December 29,1890: Colonel Forsyth attempted to disarm Chief Big Foot's band. The women and children were separated from the men. The soldiers were very abusive. Big Foot was sick with pneumonia and flying a white flag of truce next to his tent. The Indians were almost completely disarmed and completely surrounded by the soldiers. When the soldiers attempted to take the rifle of a deaf mute, it discharged and the soldiers opened up on the Indians. About three hundred of Big Foot's band were killed. About thirty soldiers also died, many in their own crossfire. Some women and children were found as far as two miles away, gunned down by soldiers.

January 3,1891: A burial party picked up the bodies of the dead Indians, about 146, still left on the massacre site after a raging blizzard swept through the area. They dug a mass grave and buried the dead without ceremony. At least one Indian is said to have been buried alive.


The Native Americans never had a chance.

[thereismore]

5. Gun confiscation?! Just an excuse. It was retaliation for Little Big Horn. nt

[hfojvt]

6. the guns they had

were not gonna protect them against the Hotchkiss guns, nor a larger force.

"murder" and "slaughter" are charged words.

"The Cavalry began shooting" is not the only version of events.

http://www.dlncoalition.org/dln_nation/chief_bigfoot.htm

Phillip Wells version
"I heard someone on my left exclaim, 'Look out ! Look out !' Turning my head and bringing my arms to port, I saw five or six young warriors cast off their blankets and pull guns out from under them and brandish them in the air. One of the warriors shot into the soldiers, who were ordered to fire into the Indians..."

This portion of Wells account was not included there

"Troop 'K' was drawn up between the tents of the women and children and the main body of the Indians, who had been summoned to deliver their arms. The Indians began firing into 'Troop K' to gain the canyon of Wounded Knee creek. In doing so they exposed their women and children to their own fire. Captain Wallace was killed at this time while standing in front of his troops. A bullet, striking him in the forehead, plowed away the top of his head."

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm

So did the Cavalry just open fire on a group of "mostly" unarmed Indians? Or did a group of still armed Indians begin firing on the troops who then returned fire? Even Dewey Beard says "some young men had their guns and knives, but they had not been asked yet for them."

But we are supposed to believe the worst about white soldiers, because the Indians did end up dead, but if the results had been diffferent, like Little Bighorn (268 dead) or River Raisin (379 dead) or Jamestown (347 dead), etc. then nobody would say boo about a few hundred white people killed in a "battle", but the 297 dead at Wounded Knee have been called a "genocide" by some.

No, I would say that Wounded Knee was not the result of a gun seizure, but rather a group of people "several other Sioux, who were angered by the 1883 prohibition of the Sun Dance and other "barbarous" customs by the Secretary of the Interior as well as the 1889 reduction of Sioux holdings to six small reservations, turned the Ghost Dance into a movement advocating violence against their white oppressors." http://siouxme.com/bigfoot.html

people "advocating violence" who attempted to use their guns against the superior firepower of the US government, with tragic results.

But I am sure that is a minority POV here.

[mia]

9. Thanks for the links.

http://www.dlncoalition.org/dln_nation/chief_bigfoot.htm

Dewey Beard
Lakota
"…I was badly wounded and pretty weak too. While I was lying on my back, I looked down the ravine and saw a lot of women coming up and crying. When I saw these women, girls and little girls and boys coming up, I saw soldiers on both sides of the ravine shoot at them until they had killed every one of them… Going a little further, (I ) came upon my mother who was moving slowly, being very badly wounded… When (I) caught up to her, she said, 'My son, pass by me; I am going to fall down now.' As she went up, soldiers on both sides of the ravine shot at her and killed her… (I) heard the Hotchkiss or Gatling guns shooting at them along the bank. Now there went up from these dying people a medley of death songs that would make the hardest heart weep. Each one sings a different death song if he chooses. The death song is expressive of their wish to die. It is also a requiem for the dead. It expresses that the singer is anxious to die too…."

American Horse
Lakota
"There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce… A mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing what its mother was dead was still nursing… The women as they were fleeing with their babies were killed together, shot right through… and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys… came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them."

Thomas H. Tibbles
Omaha World Herald
"Though the active attack lasted perhaps twenty minutes, the firing continued for an hour or two, whenever a soldier saw a sign of life. Indian women and children fled into the ravine to the south, and some of them on up out of it across the prairie, but the soldiers followed them and shot them down mercilessly."

[Puha Ekapi]

8. I am an enrolled...

...tribal member of the Northern Ute Nation. My home reservation is the Uintah and Ouray Reservation in N.E. Utah. Our history, like those of our Lakota friends, has experienced the "benevolence" of our Federal Government. Things are improved somewhat from 100 years ago, but we also learned never, ever, turn our backs to the white man's power. The government has yet to prove that it is trustworthy and willing to work with us in good faith.

We'll keep our arms....regardless of who tries to ban what.

[mia]

10. Thanks for sharing this

- "benevolence" always has an ulterior motive.

[Puha Ekapi]

11. As a footnote to this thread...

...this is an example of why mainstream American "progressives" aren't as progressive as they think they are. Forums such as this are lousy places to promote Native Rights. Why? Because the dominant culture doesn't give a damn about our people. Even worse, we are still a threat to the status quo...a TRUE acknowledgment of our rightful place as the indigenous people of this land upsets all sorts of illusions that Americans...liberal or conservative...have about this country and themselves.