The Wounded Knee Massacre

La masacre de Wounded Knee ocurrió en 1890, hace 130 años, cuando los soldados del ejército norteamericano dispararon contra hombres (la mayoría desarmados), mujeres y niños de la reserva indígena de Pine Ridge. Más de 200 nativos murieron…

En vocabulario: botched and squaw

By the time the massacre was over, more than 250 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 were wounded…

The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians…

The Wounded Knee Massacre was a domestic massacre of several hundred Lakota people, by soldiers of the United States Army. It occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. state of South Dakota, following a botched attempt to disarm the Lakota camp.

One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it. Simultaneously, an old man was performing a ritual called the Ghost Dance. Black Coyote's rifle went off at that point, and the U.S. Army began shooting at the Native Americans. The Lakota warriors fought back, but many had already been stripped of their guns and disarmed.

Víctimas de la masacre trasladadas en un carro

By the time the massacre was over, more than 250 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 were wounded (4 men and 47 women and children, some of whom died later); some estimates placed the number of dead as high as 300. Twenty-five soldiers also died, and thirty-nine were wounded (six of the wounded later died). Twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor.

Eyewitness accounts

American Horse (1840–1908); chief, Oglala Lakota:

"... A mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that 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 there."

Bigfoot muerto en la masacre

Edward S. Godfrey; captain; commanded Co. D of the 7th Cavalry:

"I know the men did not aim deliberately and they were greatly excited. I don't believe they saw their sights. They fired rapidly but it seemed to me only a few seconds till there was not a living thing before us; warriors, squaws, children, ponies, and dogs ... went down before that unaimed fire."

Hugh McGinnis; First Battalion, Co. K, 7th Cavalry:

"… He also discovered to his horror that helpless children and women with babies in their arms had been chased as far as two miles from the original scene of encounter and cut down without mercy by the troopers... "

The American public's reaction to the massacre at the time was generally favorable. Many non-Lakota living near the reservations interpreted the battle as the defeat of a murderous cult; others confused Ghost Dancers with Native Americans in general. In an editorial response to the event, the young newspaper editor L. Frank Baum, later the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, wrote in the Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer on January 3, 1891:

The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those have been in the past.

Oficiales en Wounded Knee (el de la izq. Buffalo Bill)

For this 1890 campaign, the US Army awarded 20 Medals of Honor, its highest commendation.

Native American activists have urged the medals be withdrawn, calling them "medals of dishonor". According to Lakota tribesman William Thunder Hawk, "The Medal of Honor is meant to reward soldiers who act heroically. But at Wounded Knee, they didn't show heroism; they showed cruelty."

Vocabulario

Botched: (of a task) carried out badly or carelessly.

"A botched attempt to steal a car"

Squaw: The English word squaw is an ethnic and sexual slur, historically used for Indigenous North American women. Contemporary use of the term, especially by non-Natives, is considered offensive, derogatory, misogynist and racist.

Traducción

Más de 200 nativos fueron masacrados por los soldados del 7° de caballería en Wounded Knee. También se señala que

ü  la mayoría de los indios estaba desarmada

ü  se los persiguió y disparó

ü  en el momento se lo consideró positivamente

ü  fueron condecorados

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Esto es parte del archivo: The Last of the Mohicans