Wounded+Knee

** Wounded Knee **
On December 29, 1890 a bloody massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota marked the last violent conflict between the united states government and the Sioux Indians. The 7th U.S. Cavalry was sent to disarm the Lakota Sioux but an unidentified event led to a struggle that resulted in the deaths of 146 Lakota Sioux and the deaths of 25 members of the 7th U.S. Cavalry. Some estimates claim these numbers were higher but these numbers are the number of verified bodies that were buried. After the massacre the surviving Lakota Sioux Indians were left to die in a winter storm and later buried them in a mass grave. Strangely and quite sadly this massacre was highly celebrated and 20 U.S. soldiers received medals of honor; that is more people than any other single engagement in U.S. history. This was the last violent conflict between Native Americans and the United States.



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Because of this massacre attempts were furthered to assimilate Native Americans into white culture. However because of resistance from the Native Americans and corruption from the White Administration the assimilation programs ultimately failed.

Sources: [] [] [] Textbook: American History by Alan Brinkley