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The Wounded Knee Massacre

December 29, 1890

Great Sioux Nation


For more than one-hundred years before the tragedy at Wounded Knee, the Lakota Sioux bands (Oglala, Brule, Hunkpapa, Miniconjou, Oohenonpa, Itazipco, Sihasapa) occupied the general area of the present-day Plains states of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska. The great Sioux nation (of which the Lakotas are one branch) was comprised of nomadic hunters whose ancestors, like their fellow tribesfolk, had existed for centuries on the land now geopolitically recognized as North America. But the entire Indian population was nearly eradicated with the coming of the Europeans. It is estimated that in 1492, there were more than 5-million Indians living on the continent. By 1900, their numbers had dwindled to less than 250,000.

The 1800s represented a century of despair for the Indian nations as the burgeoning population of white settlers moved further westward, placing heavy demands on the land and natural resources. As the era progressed, the Indians were pushed onto increasingly smaller living areas, forced to sign treaties that were invariably broken by whites, and unable to stop the vanishing of their primary food source, the buffalo.

As the end of the nineteenth century drew to a close, the few remaining free-roaming Indian tribes were pushed onto reservations and forced to become dependent on government rations and relinquish their customary way of life. In addition, throughout the century there had been numerous armed conflicts between the U.S. army (which was carrying out the government policy of manifest destiny) and the Indian tribes who resisted the destruction of their own cultural values. In particular, tension between the U.S. government and the Sioux nation escalated after the Indians, led by Sitting Bull, defeated Gen. George Custer at The Battle at Little Bighorn in 1876.


Wounded Knee Massacre Introduction

Ghost Dance Religion

An Account of The Massacre

Wounded Knee Research Resources

Return to 1890s America: A Chronology


Contributed by Lori Liggett
Bowling Green State University, American Culture Studies Program
Summer 1998