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U.S. soldiers bury Indians killed in the massacre at Wounded Knee in a mass grave. |
RAPID CITY, S.D.
--The U.S. Army has a flag with battle streamers that it breaks out for important parades and celebrations. One streamerThe Pine Ridge battle streamer boasts the highest number of Medals of Honor ever issued by the Army for any engagement. Twenty Medals of Honor were issued for this single action, more than for D-Day, Battle of the Bulge, or Iwo Jima.
Because so many Medals of Honor were issued for this so-called battle the Lakota have always referred to as a "massacre," it would take a veritable act of Congress or action by the president to remove this streamer from the flags of the U.S. Army.
The question asked by all American Indians is, "How can Medals of Honor, this nation's highest military award, be handed out to 20 troopers for taking part in the most wanton slaughter of innocents in the history of America?"
More than 200 women and children along with more than 90, mostly unarmed, Lakota warriors were shot to death. Some historians and nearly all Lakota say that the number of people slaughtered on that day of infamy, Dec. 29, 1890, was closer to 350.
In 1990, the 101st Congress passed Senate Concurrent Resolution 153 citing Wounded Knee as a massacre. Army Gen. Nelson Miles often referred to the massacre as "The Big Foot Slaughter [Chief Big Foot]." The Massacre at Wounded Knee was one of the most shameful, disgraceful, and embarrassing episodes to occur in the history of the U.S. Army. The massacre of innocents by the U.S. soldiers at Mai Lai in Vietnam, and the attempted cover-up, was also a black eye for the U.S. military. There were no Medals of Honor issued for this inhumane slaughter of innocents.
The question begging to be answered on Wounded Knee and the Medals of Honor is: "How in the world can the United States validate awarding Medals of Honor to those soldiers who partook in this shameless slaughter? Were the victims considered to be less than human?"
In 1997, the National Congress of American Indians, the largest Indian organization in America, passed two resolutions asking for the removal of the "offensive battle streamer" and asked that the names of the members of the U.S. 7th Cavalry (Custer's old outfit) be stricken from the Medal of Honor Roll and name the so-called action what it was--
On March 13, 1917, Gen. Miles said, "Not only the warriors, but the sick Chief Big Foot and a large number of women and children who tried to escape by running and scattering over the prairie were hunted down and killed." Miles saw it as a massacre of innocent Indian men, women, and children, but unlike so many Indians, saw no reason to ask for the revocation of the Medals of Honor awarded the killers.
Most of the 7th Cavalry soldiers killed in the massacre of the Lakota were killed by their own crossfire and died by friendly fire. The Lakota warriors had been disarmed, and some of them fought back by taking the weapons from the hands of the soldiers. Long after the first shots were fired, troopers of the 7th Cavalry on horseback tracked down the frightened women and children and slaughtered them with point-blank rifle fire, actions hardly deserving of
This is one horrible mistake that can be easily remedied by Congress and the president. It is a stain on the honored battle streamers of the U.S. Army and a blemish on the medal that so many military personnel have earned through their courage and heroic actions in battle.
There was no heroism in the murder of so many elders and women and children on that cold day at Wounded Knee. It happened on U.S. soil.
Tim Giago, an Oglala Lakota, is founder of the Native American Journalists Association and is publisher of the Native Sun News.
