Survivors recalled arriving at the Wounded Knee camp three days after the preventing, discovering a blizzard had buried the frozen our bodies of Lakota males, girls, kids and infants in snow. They described horrific scenes: moms nonetheless clutching their infants, others shot down as they fled. These had been the individuals killed by US troopers in December 1890 on the plains of South Dakota, in what was the closing armed battle of the Indian Wars.
The authorities largely hailed it as a victorious battle, saying it had stopped what it deemed a rising menace from the Lakota individuals. Twenty troopers acquired Medals of Honor for his or her actions. At the time, some settlers even supported the killings; one local newspaper wrote that “safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians.”
One hundred years later, Congress expressed its “deep regret” to the descendants of the victims and survivors and formally acknowledged the battle as a bloodbath – a shift bolstered by some historians who argue the medals had been awarded, partially, to “influence the public memory of the event.”
Now, a decision introduced by the authorities in September to let these Medals of Honor stand has reopened previous wounds and reignited deep divides amongst descendants over how this painful historical past must be remembered.
By 1890, a mix of drought throughout the West and financial hardship had left Native Americans more and more dependent on the US authorities.
At that point, a brand new spiritual motion known as The Ghost Dance, which concerned a ceremonial ritual of dance and prayer, started taking maintain in Native communities. It provided them hope, non secular renewal and the promise that the almost extinct, sacred bison would return. But authorities officers considered the Ghost Dance as a menace to US Indian coverage and believed these ceremonies indicated an rebellion; nationwide press protection introduced it extra consideration, and in mid-November, President Benjamin Harrison ordered troops to the area.
Just a number of weeks later, the demise of legendary Lakota chief Sitting Bull throughout his arrest prompted one other band of Lakota, the Miniconjou, to flee.
They had been finally intercepted by the Army’s seventh Cavalry Regiment and compelled to camp at Wounded Knee Creek amid the largest US navy deployment at the time since the Civil War. There, as 470 troopers tried to disarm the camp, a gunshot – its supply unknown – sparked chaos, leading to the deaths of at the very least 25 US troopers and an estimated 200-300 Lakota.
For Chase Iron Eyes, an legal professional and activist whose ancestor was killed at Wounded Knee, the current announcement to not rescind these Medals of Honor was one other act of erasure: “Why do they want to peel the scab off of a wound that we barely began to heal?”
Former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered a review of the Wounded Knee medals throughout the Biden administration after a session with the White House and the Department of the Interior, leaving it as much as a evaluate panel to resolve whether or not the medals are rescinded. In September, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the panel had determined to not revoke them and that Austin by no means made a closing decision on it. That in the end left it as much as Hegseth, who stated the medals will stand.
Chase Iron Eyes says his household’s lineage was almost worn out at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890, the day of the bloodbath. He misplaced his great-great-grandfather Iron Eyes, who was killed alongside the chief of the Miniconjou Lakota, Chief Spotted Elk, additionally known as Big Foot.
He recollects the problem of piecing collectively his household’s story as a result of the “oral umbilical cord was cut by the boarding school,” referring to the a whole lot of establishments that, since the nineteenth century, forcibly stripped Native children from their families and tradition in the title of assimilation.
“We’ve fought long and hard for our young people … to tell the truth about who we are as Native people for us to feel happy and dignified with who we are.”
Context and consequence
The Medal of Honor awarded to the 20 troops at Wounded Knee was the solely navy ornament out there to US Army troopers at the time, retired US Army main and historian Dwight S. Mears explains.
Established in 1862 for the Army, the Medal of Honor was granted for “gallantry in action and other soldier-like qualities.” By 1889, rules stated it could possibly be awarded “by the President, to officers or enlisted men who have distinguished themselves in action.”
But in response to considerations the medal had been awarded in instances the place it wasn’t warranted, Congress in 1916 ordered the Army to create a board of retired generals to evaluate all the Army Medals of Honor awarded since the Civil War.
“It became clear that the Medal of Honor of the early twentieth century was different from the Medal of Honor of the Civil War,” the Congressional Medal of Honor Society writes.
The board reviewed 2,625 medals and in the end rescinded 911 of them, primarily as a result of the foundation for awarding them was thought-about “suspect” or the actions had been deemed not “valorous,” in accordance with the Society.
But the medals awarded to troopers at Wounded Knee remained.
Retired Col. Samuel Russell, whose ancestor served at Wounded Knee, stated the medals symbolize rightful navy recognition and he believes the medals ought to stand.
His great-great-grandfather, Brig. Gen. Samuel M. Whitside, was a serious in the seventh Cavalry who helped seize Spotted Elk’s band and escort them to Wounded Knee Creek, he writes on his blog.
In 2019, some members of Congress launched the Remove the Stain Act, looking for to revoke the Medals of Honor awarded to troopers for Wounded Knee.
“We cannot be a country that celebrates and rewards horrifying acts of violence against Native people,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who launched it in the Senate, together with Sen. Jeff Merkley.
But the invoice had a number of shortfalls, Mears wrote. It incorrectly cited the necessities for incomes the Medal of Honor, utilizing later, extra stringent requirements. The invoice additionally proposed rescinding all Medals of Honor awarded at Wounded Knee, reasonably than reviewing every case individually.
There had been additionally issues verifying that every one 20 medals talked about in the Remove the Stain Act “actually were awarded for conduct at Wounded Knee,” Mears stated.
The act didn’t cross in 2019, and Warren and Merkley reintroduced it in 2021 and May 2025. But every time, it has run into issues, largely as a result of of a separation of powers difficulty, Mears says: Because the president awarded the medals, Congress can not unilaterally revoke them. Any decision should come from the navy.
In a 2019 plea to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Russell urged lawmakers to let the Remove the Stain Act die in committee, arguing that rescinding the medals “would set a precedent for all future generations of Americans to rescind any medal from any conflict.” In the letter, he says it might do what has by no means been performed – “consult the perspective of the opponent of our U.S. Soldiers in a particular conflict to determine if medals should be rescinded.”
For one other descendant, the legacy of Wounded Knee ignited a lifelong seek for therapeutic.
Brad Upton is the great-great-grandson of Col. James W. Forsyth, who commanded the seventh Cavalry at Wounded Knee and pushed for the Medals of Honor to be awarded to his troops. When Upton was 16, his great-uncle confirmed him a diary containing photographs of frozen Lakota corpses from the bloodbath: “I knew it was immediately wrong. I felt that in my gut.”
Upton later turned to Buddhism and commenced looking for forgiveness for his ancestor’s actions. Through conferences with Lakota elders, Upton discovered a path to reconciliation.
In 2024, he joined Lakota descendants on the Cheyenne River Lakota Reservation to unveil artifacts from Wounded Knee – together with child moccasins, bassinettes and ladies’s attire – that had been returned from the Founders Museum in Barre, Massachusetts. “It’s very difficult to put language on that,” he stated of the expertise, including, “In addition to a massacre, it was a holocaust.”
Russell stated he would love Hegseth to publicly launch the findings of the medal evaluate panel as a result of transparency “would serve the national interest.” In a letter that he shared with NCS, Russell wrote to Hegseth that if the panel discovered the medals merited, it ought to “officially reaffirm that these Medals of Honor were duly awarded.”
Upton stated he believes “forgiveness starts with accountability.” He visits the Lakota tribe usually in South Dakota, sustaining friendships, and recollects elder Basil Brave Heart telling him as soon as, “You’re carrying your ancestors’ shadow. It’s not yours to carry.”
Ultimately, for Chase Iron Eyes, he stated he believes in reconciliation: “When we tell the truth to each other about the nature of our relationship with one another as a collective, as Americans, then we can begin to humanize each other.”