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Home , Dewey Beard, Pat Vegas, Spotted Elk, The Cage (The Killing), Tribal chief, Wounded Knee Creek

A Film Produced by the

222 New York Street Rapid City, SD 57701 • https://www.journeymuseum.org

Through a Grant from the

With Funds from the National Endowment for the Humanities

Filmed on Location in the Journey Museum

© The Journey Museum and Dakota Daughters (Geraldine Goes in Center, Joyce Jefferson, and Lillian Witt.) All Rights Reserved. Study materials compiled by Anna Marie Thatcher.

“America is an old house. We can never declare the work over. Wind, flood, wrought, and human upheavals batter a structure that is already fighting whatever flaws were left unattended in the original foundation. When you live in an old house, you may not want to go into the basement after a storm to see what the rains have wrought. Choose not to look, however, at your own peril. The owner of an old house knows that whatever you are ignoring will never go away. Whatever is lurking will fester whether you choose to look or not. Ignorance is no protection from the consequences of inaction. Whatever you are wishing away will gnaw at you until you gather the courage to face what you would rather not see.”

Isabel Wilkerson : The Origins of Our Discontents

2 REFLECTIONS ON THE MASSACRE AT WOUNDED KNEE

Three Women, Three Stories, Three Cultures

Written and Presented by Dakota Daughters

with Geraldine Goes in Center as Kimimila (’s Daughter) Lillian Witt as Sadie Babcock (a Rancher’s Wife) Joyce Jefferson as Mattie Elmira Richardson (Engaged to a )

Each performer researched and wrote her part of this historical interpretation of the events leading up to the massacre at in 1890.

THE TIMES AND PLACES

ACT I - The Timeless Land

Kimimila, her family, and nation are living their lives on the land … following and hunting the buffalo and gathering plants and herbs for food. These indigenous people have had no contact with non-natives.

Sadie, her husband, Steven, and their children, Carrie, Curtis and baby Effie have arrived from Texas and are excited about “free land” in Dakota Territory that is theirs “just for the taking” thanks to .

Mattie Elmira and her family have just been freed from enslavement at the end of the Civil War. They strive for education, land and work. She is engaged to Siscro McCarty, a Buffalo Soldier assigned to the U.S. Army Ninth Cavalry, which is sent west to serve in Dakota Territory.

ACT II - Shifting Attitudes: 1868 to 1882

Kimimila, after the Battle of Greasy Grass, (Little Big Horn), decisions are made to move up to Grandmother’s land (Canada) with her father Sitting Bull.

Sadie and Steven discuss cattle, the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the .

Mattie Elmira and her family have moved from the south to Nicodemus, Kansas. She and Siscro correspond with each other while Siscro acclimates to Army life. Mattie has just received one of many letters from Siscro. 3

ACT III - Family and Community: 1882 to 1887

Kimimila has lived in Canada for five years and is now a grandmother. Sitting Bull decides to surrender to the American authorities in hopes of enforcing the Ft. Laramie Treaty of 1868.

Sadie and Steven, family and friends, partake of Thanksgiving dinner. New friend, Lucy Lone Eagle, is there to help.

Mattie Elmira reads a letter she wrote to Siscro describing her goals.

ACT IV - Drought: 1888 to 1890

Kimimila has been living on the Standing Rock Reservation, still surviving by the traditional ways of living as well as incorporating new skills and new foods. Her daughter and family come to visit.

Sadie has received a letter from her mother and has learned that her father is very ill. She writes to her mother and tells her of the happenings in Dakota Territory.

Mattie Elmira is worried about Siscro. She reads a letter from him which contains news of the Paiute, Wovoka. Siscro explains the religion and describes life on the reservation.

ACT V - Big News - November and December 1890

Kimimila is now staying with her daughter since the death of her husband. Sitting Bull is allowing the Spirit Dance to be performed on his land.

Sadie just gained access to different newspapers, and though some of the news is months old, she and Steven discuss the articles.

Mattie Elmira now a maid works for and lives with the Babcock family. Mattie's letter from Siscro tells about the Ninth Cavalry being sent to Pine Ridge from Fort Robinson. She sings part of a song composed by Buffalo Soldier, Private Wm. H. Prather.

ACT VI - The Massacre - , 1890

Kimimila left her reservation, travels to River to her Uncle, and they go to Wounded Knee seeking safety.

Sadie reads from the newspaper relating the events of the recent “battle,” declaring it a massacre.

Mattie Elmira reads the last letter from Siscro who is in the Stronghold, looking for Big Foot. The Ninth Cavalry detains the Lakota, then marches with them to Drexel Mission the next day when Lakota warriors return to rescue their children from the mission school.

ACT VII - The Aftermath in Black and White

A look at the realities of the Massacre at Wounded Knee.

4

ACT VIII - How Do We Heal and Where Do We Go From Here?

The play ends with a blessing and image of reconciliation: Sage is burned; the pipe is blessed; the drum is beaten; and the pipe song is sung. Prayers go out to our ancestors for healing.

We encourage questions and discussion about issues raised in the play. The goal is to help heal divides created by racist attitudes to move forward to building a shared, inclusive future.

Dakota Daughters first presented this play in 2005 and has done many performances in many venues over the years. The initial plan was to present it at the Journey Museum in 2020 to recognize the 130th anniversary of the . Since COVID lockdown prevented a live performance, the Humanities Council provided support to create this filmed version. It is presented to create more awareness of the Wounded Knee Massacre and provide an opportunity for reflection on the lingering consequences of it.

Mitaukuye Oyas’in! - We are all related!

THE CAST

GERALDINE (JERRY) GOES IN CENTER, Oglala Lakota, comes from the Lip’s (Pute) Camp Tiospaye (Wamblee, SD) and has been with Dakota Daughters for 15 years. She fully embraces her Lakota beliefs and culture and shares both through presentations covering Lakota history, decolonization, and food. She prides herself on being ina (mother) to four strong cunkshis (daughters) and unci (grandmother) to many beautiful takojas (grandchildren). A Vietnam era veteran, Jerry served in the U.S. Army from 1974-1982 and served in the National Guard for five years. She holds a B.S. in Human Services and a has a minor in Counseling from Oglala Lakota College in Rapid City, SD. Jerry can be contacted at [email protected]

LILLIAN (LILLY) WITT grew up on a ranch in South Dakota ranch and attended a small country grade school and has been with Dakota Daughters since 2011. She earned a B.A. in Journalism and History at Chadron State College in Nebraska and now works as a free-lance writer for local and regional publications. As a published author her writing has appeared in CSC’s Outside the Lines, a book of student essays used by history college professors, and Tenth Street Miscellany, a collection of creative writings and visual art entries. Lillian’s proudest accomplishments are her six children and eleven grandchildren. Contact Lilly at [email protected].

JOYCE JEFFERSON earned a B.S. in English at Black Hills State University and is one of the founders of Dakota Daughters. Through her business, Joyce Jefferson Creates Stories in Song, she presents performances that weave narration with poetry and song. She serves as scholar with the South Dakota Humanities Council and tours the state “educa-taining” audiences, specializing in the contributions of African Americans to the settling of the West. She has presented “Black Hills Sheroes” in numerous, including the High Plains Heritage Center. She has done several programs at the Journey Museum where, in 2000, she also mounted an exhibition of historic photographs called “Corporals, Cooks, and Cowboys: African American Pioneers in the Black Hills.” A self-published author, Joyce wrote Black & Other Friends - a book of poetry inspired by her many years of research and self-reflection. Contact Joyce at [email protected]

5 DIRECTOR’S REFLECTIONS …

The Wound That is Wounded Knee

Wounded Knee Creek is a tributary of the White River, approximately 100 miles long, in Oglala Lakota County, South Dakota. Its Lakota name is Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála and I was curious how Wounded Knee Creek got its name. In my search I found that the story told for the Federal Writer’s Project in 1940 indicated that the creek's name refers to an incident in which a Native American sustained an injury to his knee during a fight. I then discovered that “knee” as a geographical term, like “a knee in a river,” indicates a bend that greatly changes the course of the river, suddenly to a different general direction.

I am a great lover of metaphor, a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. Metaphors can help us understand something that may be not be totally clear. So, as I searched, the metaphor of the knee in the creek for the Wounded Knee Massacre began to emerge for me. I realized why this wasn’t just any battle that turned into a massacre. It was THE “battle” that symbolizes the attempted genocide of the . It was THE event that totally changed the course of Lakota history. It is THE wound that still festers and has never been treated. However, as Redbone sang, “We were ALL wounded by Wounded Knee.” But, as with the grief after the loss of a great love, it will never be fully healed for the Lakota people.

To treat a serious wound there must first be the acknowledgement that it is there! If non-Native people are to be a part of the healing, then the wound must be assessed. How did it happen? Why did it happen? What remains in the wound that can cause inflammation or infection? Only with the answers to these questions can one proceed to treat it successfully … and it is these answers about the Massacre at Wounded Knee that have never really been addressed and discussed among non-Native peoples.

The Massacre at Wounded Knee was, and is not, an isolated incident perpetrated by Euro- Americans in the “United” States. The wounds of slavery and Japanese internment remain open and more recent violence against Muslims and people of Asian descent only adds to the dis-ease of against people of any color other than white.

The reality is that we humans are a violent species. Other species kill each for food and/or survival. We kill … Takuwe?* The answer to this question is what we need to explore. We non-Natives need to explore and understand the lingering realities of Manifest Destiny and the wound of Wounded Knee as the first step on the road to healing with our Lakota sisters and brothers.

I have always appreciated Yom Kippur. It is the Day of Atonement for Jewish people and is the holiest day of their year. The has not yet had Yom Kippur, its day of atonement for the Massacre at Wounded Knee. As a nation perhaps we never will, but we can hope and work toward it. We can't change our national history but we can certainly learn from it and personally atone for it.

Mother Teresa said “Never worry about numbers. Help one at a time, and always start with those nearest you.” As painful as it might be, that is what we must do - look each other in the eye - one to one - and, as with Sadie and Mattie to Kimimila, start with a personal recognition of the harm done and an apology to one person at a time - and start a dialogue!

6

Dialogue is defined as “taking part in a conversation or discussion to resolve a problem.” David Bohm in his book On Dialogue describes the process**:

“ ‘Dialogue’ comes from the Greek word dialogo. Logos means 'the word' or in our case, we would think of 'the meaning of the word.' Dia means ‘through.’ The picture or image that this derivation suggests is of a stream of meaning flowing among and through and between us. This will make possible a flow of meaning in the whole group, out of which may emerge some new understanding. It is something new, which may not have been in the starting point at all. It's something creative. And this shared meaning is the 'glue' or 'cement' that holds people and together. The object of a dialogue is not to analyze things, or to win an argument, or to exchange opinions. Rather, it is to suspend your opinions and to look at the opinions - to listen to everyone's opinions, to suspend them, and to see what all that means .... We can just simply share the appreciation of the meanings, and out of this whole thing, truth emerges unannounced - not that we have chosen it. Everything can move between us. Each person is participating, is partaking of the whole meaning of the group and also taking part in it. We can call that a true dialogue. Dialogue is the collective way of opening up judgments and assumptions.”

In Dialogue and the Art of Thinking Together William Isaacs states it a bit more simply …

“dialogue ... is a conversation with a center, not sides. It is a way of taking the energy of our differences and channeling it toward something that has never been created before. It lifts us out of polarization and into a greater common sense, and is thereby a means for accessing the intelligence and coordinated power of groups of people.”

The question is: considering the atrocity of it, can have a real dialogue about the Massacre at Wounded Knee? My thought is that talking about the Massacre at Wounded Knee, its realities, and its lingering effects, is the only path to understanding the depth of the wound … in order to move toward healing.

As it is with Dakota Daughters, it is my hope that the film of “Reflections on the Massacre at Wounded Knee” might contribute to a basic level of understanding and realization of the challenging work yet to be done for healing.

Anna Marie Thatcher Director

* Takuwe, which roughly means “why” in Lakota, is the of a major exhibit on the Massacre at Wounded Knee created by Craig Howe of the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies (CAIRNS) in Martin, SD. https://www.nativecairns.org/projects/leap/takuwe/index.html

** For more on dialogue go to: https://www2.clarku.edu/difficultdialogues/learn/index.cfm

7

IT WOULD BE FUNNY IF IT WEREN’T SO TRUE!

“Man is the Reasoning Animal. Such is the claim. I think it is open to dispute. Indeed, my experiments have proven to me that he is the Unreasoning Animal. … In truth, man is incurably foolish. Simple things which other animals easily learn he is incapable of learning. Among my experiments was this. In an hour I taught a cat and a dog to be friends. I put them in a cage. In another hour I taught them to be friends with a rabbit. In the course of two days I was able to add a fox, a goose, a squirrel and some doves. Finally a monkey. They lived together in peace, even affectionately.

Next, in another cage I confined an Irish Catholic from Tipperary, and as soon as he seemed tame I added a Scotch Presbyterian from Aberdeen. Next a Turk from Constantinople; a Greek Christian from Crete; an Armenian; a Methodist from the wilds of Arkansas; a Buddhist from China; a Brahman from Benares. Finally, a Salvation Army Colonel from Wapping. Then I stayed away for two whole days. When I came back to note results, the cage of Higher Animals was all right, but in the other there was but a chaos of gory odds and ends of turbans and fezzes and plaids and bones and flesh - not a specimen left alive. These Reasoning Animals had disagreed on a theological detail and carried the matter to a Higher Court.”

Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth: Uncensored Writings

8

LAKOTA GLOSSARY

ATÉ: Father

BLANKET DISEASE: Smallpox

BUFFALO WASNA: “wa” means anything and “sna” means ground up - so ground up buffalo

CUNKSI: Daughter

EYAPAHA: Announcer or “Town Crier”

GABUBU BREAD: Skillet bread typically prepared with flour, baking powder, salt, milk and bacon fat or oil. A version of fry bread that uses less oil. The bread is similar to fry bread in its ingredients, but made in a skillet and with less oil. While fry bread is a common meal on reservations across the United States, gabubu bread is specific to South Dakota.

HUNKA: To make relatives

INA: Mother

KAMIMILA: Butterfly

LALA: Grandfather

LELA WASTE: Very good

MITAKUYE OYAS’IN: We are all related.

NAPE WASTE WINYAN: Good Hands Woman

TIMPSILA: Prairie Turnip

TAKOJA: Grandson

TIOSPAYE: Extended Family

UNCI: Grandmother

WAKALAPI: Coffee - also called pejuta sapa or “black medicine”

WAŠÍČU: the Lakota and Dakota word for people of European descent. It expresses the indigenous population's perception of the non-natives' relationship with the land and the indigenous population. Typically it refers to white people but does not specifically mention skin color or race.

9 BRIEF HISTORY NOTES

BUFFALO SOLDIERS originally were members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment of the U.S. Army, formed on September 21, 1866, at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This nickname was given to the Black Cavalry by Native American who fought in the Indian Wars. The term eventually became synonymous with all of the African-American regiments formed in 1866.

THE is a cavalry regiment formed in 1866. Its official nickname is "Garryowen," after the Irish air "Garryowen" that was adopted as its march tune. The regiment participated in some of the largest battles of the Indian Wars, including the infamous Battle of Little Bighorn, where its enigmatic commander, Lieutenant Colonel George A. Custer made his last stand. The 7th was the regiment that attacked at the “Battle” of Wounded Knee that resulted in the massacre of hundreds of Lakota people.

GEORGE ARMSTRONG CUSTER (December 5, 1839 – June 25, 1876) was a United States Army officer and cavalry commander in the American Civil War After the war, Custer was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the Regular Army and was sent west to fight in the Indian Wars. On June 25, 1876, while leading the 7th Cavalry Regiment at the Battle of the Little Bighorn in Montana Territory against a coalition of Native American tribes, he was killed along with all of the five companies he led after splitting the regiment into three battalions. This action became romanticized as "Custer's Last Stand."

COLONEL JAMES WILLIAM FORSYTH (August 8, 1834 – October 24, 1906) was a U.S. Army officer and general. He was primarily a Union staff officer during the American Civil War and cavalry regimental commander during the “Indian Wars.” Forsyth is best known for having commanded the 7th Cavalry at the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890.

SITTING BULL (c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Lakota leader who led his people during years of resistance against United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him for his support of the Ghost Dance movement.

______

THE BATTLE OF GREASY GRASS (aka LITTLE BIG HORN), also commonly referred to as Custer's Last Stand, was an armed engagement between combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes and the 7th Cavalry Regiment of the United States Army. The battle, which resulted in the defeat of U.S. forces, was the most significant action of the Great War of 1876. It took place on June 25–26, 1876, along the Little Bighorn River on the Crow Indian Reservation in southeastern Montana Territory.

THE OF 1876 took place in Dakota Territory in the United States. It began in 1874 following the Custer Expedition and reached a peak in 1876 -77. Rumors and poorly documented reports of gold in the Black Hills go back to the early 19th century. In the 1860s, Roman Catholic missionary Father De Smet is reported to have seen Sioux Indians carrying gold which they told him came from the Black Hills (Paha Sapa). The Black Hills were considered sacred by Native Americans and the U.S. government recognized them as belonging to the Sioux by the Treaty of Laramie in 1868. Despite being within Indian territory, and therefore off-limits, white Americans were increasingly hungry for gold-mining in the Black Hills and pursued those riches, disregarding Native ownership of the Black Hills through the treaty.

10 DAKOTA TERRITORY was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1861, until November 2, 1889, when the final extent of the reduced territory was split and admitted to the Union as the states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The Dakota Territory consisted of the northernmost part of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, as well as the southernmost part of Rupert's Land, which was acquired in 1818 when the boundary was changed to the 49th parallel. The name refers to the Dakota branch of the Sioux tribes which occupied the area at the time. Most of Dakota Territory was formerly part of the Minnesota and Nebraska territories.[2]

THE DAWES ACT of 1887 (also known as the General Allotment Act or the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887; named after Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts) regulated land rights on tribal territories within the United States. It authorized the President of the United States to subdivide Native American tribal communal landholdings into allotments for Native American heads of families and individuals. This would convert traditional systems of land tenure into a government- imposed system of private property by forcing Native Americans to "assume a capitalist and proprietary relationship with property" that did not previously exist in their cultures. The act would declare remaining lands after allotment as "surplus" and available for sale, including to non- Natives. Before private property could be dispensed, the government had to determine "which Indians were eligible" for allotments, which propelled an "official search for a federal definition of Indian-ness."

THE FORT LARAMIE TREATIES -

The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 was signed on September 17, 1851 between United States treaty commissioners and representatives of the Cheyenne, Sioux, Arapaho, Crow, , Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations. The treaty was an agreement between nine more-or-less independent parties. The treaty set forth traditional territorial claims of the tribes as among themselves. The United States acknowledged that all the land covered by the treaty was Indian territory and did not claim any part of it. The boundaries agreed to in the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1851 would be used to settle a number of claims cases in the 20th century. The Native Americans guaranteed safe passage for settlers on the Oregon Trail and allowed roads and forts to be built in their territories, in return for promises of an annuity in the amount of fifty thousand dollars for fifty years. The treaty should also "make an effective and lasting peace" among the eight tribes, each of them often at odds with a number of the others. The Treaty of Fort Laramie (also known as the Sioux Treaty of 1868) is an agreement between the United States and the Oglala, Minnicoujou, Brulé bands of Lakota people, Yanktonai Dakota and Arapaho Nation, following the failure of the first Fort Laramie treaty, signed in 1851. The treaty is divided into 17 articles. It established the Great Sioux Reservation including ownership of the Black Hills, and set aside additional lands as "unceded Indian territory" in the areas of South Dakota, Wyoming, and Nebraska, and possibly Montana. It established that the US government would hold authority to punish not only white settlers who committed crimes against the tribes but also tribe members who committed crimes and were to be delivered to the government, rather than to face charges in tribal courts. It stipulated that the government would abandon forts along the and included a number of provisions designed to encourage a transition to farming and to move the tribes "closer to the white man's way of life." The treaty protected specified rights of third parties not partaking in the negotiations and effectively ended 's War. That provision did not include the Ponca, who were not a party to the treaty and so had no opportunity to object when the American treaty negotiators “inadvertently” broke a separate treaty with the Ponca by unlawfully selling the entirety of the Ponca Reservation to the Lakota, pursuant to Article II of this treaty. The United States never intervened to return the Ponca land. Instead, the Lakota claimed the Ponca land as their own and set about attacking and demanding tribute from the Ponca until 1876, when U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant chose to 11 resolve the situation by unilaterally ordering the Ponca removed to the Indian Territory. The removal, known as the Ponca Trail of Tears, was carried out by force the following year and resulted in over 200 deaths.

THE GHOST DANCE (known to the Lakota as the “Spirit Dance”), based on a traditional Native American circle dance, was a “religious” movement incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems. According to the teachings of the Northern Paiute spiritual leader Wovoka (renamed Jack Wilson), proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on their behalf, end American westward expansion, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Native American peoples throughout the region.

THE were several laws in the United States by which an applicant could acquire ownership of government land or the public domain, typically called a homestead. In all, more than 160 million acres (650 thousand km; 250 thousand sq. mi) of public land, or nearly 10 percent of the total area of the United States, was given away free to 1.6 million homesteaders. Most of the homesteads were west of the Mississippi River.

MANIFEST DESTINY was a widely held cultural belief in the 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There are three basic themes to manifest destiny: 1) The special virtues of the American people and their institutions, 2) The mission of the United States to redeem and remake the west in the image of the agrarian East, and 3) An irresistible destiny to accomplish this essential duty

SOURCE - Wikipedia

12 HISTORICAL TIMELINE

1873 - General and the Seventh Cavalry come to the northern plains, to guard the surveyors for the Northern Pacific Railroad. He has a chance encounter with Sitting Bull and

1874 - An expedition led by Custer finds gold in the Black Hills, Paha Sapa.

1875 - The U.S. government attempts to purchase Paha Sapa and fails.

March 17, 1876 - General George Crook’s advance column attacks a Sioux/Cheyenne camp on the Powder River. The people were driven from their lodges and many were killed. The lodges and all the winter supplies were burned and the horse herd captured. That night, the warriors recaptured the horse herd.

1876 - The U.S. government issues an ultimatum that all Sioux who are not on the Great Sioux Reservation by January 31 will be considered hostile.

Spring 1876 - Sitting Bull organizes the greatest gathering of Indians on the northern plains.

June 25, 1876 - The Battle of the Little Big Horn (aka Greasy Grass) where General George Armstrong Custer and 210 men under his command are killed.

May 1877 - Sitting Bull escapes to Canada. He has about 300 followers with him. He remained in exile for four years

September 5, 1877 Crazy Horse reports to Fort Robinson, Nebraska, is fatally wounded when he resists being jailed.

July 19, 1881 -Sitting Bull returns from Canada with 186 of his remaining followers, rather than see them starve.. He is sent to Fort Randall for 2 years as a prisoner of war instead of being pardoned, as promised.

1883 - Sitting Bull is allowed to go to the Standing Rock Reservation where he lived the rest of his life across the Grand River from his birthplace.

1885 - Sitting Bull tours with ’s Wild West Show.

1887 The U.S. Congress passes the Dawes Allotment Act. Its purpose is to break up communal reservation land, allot 160 acres per family, and sell off the remaining land.

1889 - South Dakota becomes a state.

1890 - The Ghost Dance, preached by Wovoka, a Paiute prophet, spreads, offering hope that the past can be reversed, Euro-Americans removed, and Indian lands and peoples restored to the way they were before the coming of the Europeans.

December 15, 1890 Sitting Bull was murdered by federal Indian police when they attempted to arrest him at his home on the Standing Rock Reservation. Agent McLaughlin supplied them with a barrel of whiskey to give them enough courage to make the arrest.

December 15 - 29, 1890 - Sitting Bull's followers fled to seek refuge with his half-brother, Chief Big Foot. In the aftermath, they flee to Wounded Knee. 13

December 29,1890 - A battalion of the Seventh Cavalry opens fire on the Sioux camp on the Wounded Knee Creek, killing 300 people—two-thirds of them women and children. The "Wounded Knee Massacre" effectively marks the end of armed Indian resistance to white western expansion in the nineteenth century.

Timeline Compiled by Geraldine Goes in Center

MAP OF THE LAKOTA RESERVATIONS 1891

Map Courtesy of Donovin Sprague

14

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE GHOST DANCE (WANAGI WACIPI) AND THE MASSACRE AT WOUNDED KNEE (CANK’PE OPI)

The Wounded Knee Massacre occurred on December 29, 1890. December is the Moon When the Deer Shed Their Horns (Wanicokan Wi). The event is well known and is the subject of many books and articles. Although the massacre happened at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation, it is NOT well known that most of those killed in the massacre were from the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.

Of the four Lakota bands on Cheyenne River the Minnicoujou* were by far the largest number of participants in the story and, arguably the most affected because of those numbers. A few Itazipco from Cheyenne River were also there, as well as a few Oglala and Sicangu (Rosebud.) There were quite a few Sicangu Ghost Dancers but many happened to be north of the massacre site when it happened.

In 1890 there were serious drought condition and epidemics of influenza, measles, and whooping cough spread through the reservations. People had not received any compensation for property seized when they surrendered. So the Wounded Knee story really starts with practice of the Ghost Dance, a cultish “religious” movement spawned by Wovoka, a Paiute leader. He prophesied an end to white expansion while preaching goals of clean living, an honest life, and cross-cultural cooperation by Native Americans. The Ghost dance incorporated some traditional movement and the practice spread rapidly throughout the Standing Rock, Cheyenne River, Pine Ridge, and Rosebud reservation communities in 1890 where desperate people sought any hope of deliverance from the catastrophic destruction of their way of life. The ritual of Ghost Dance was frightening to the supervising agents of the BIA (Bureau of Indian Affairs) as they considered its practitioners to be out of the control of the U.S. government.

The next major event was of Sitting Bull of the Hunkpapa Lakota at Standing Rock on December 15, 1890, during an arrest at his home by Indian Agency police - his own people. He had allowed practice of the Ghost Dance. Following Sitting Bull’s death, the northern Lakota bands, including the Hunkpapa Lakota, traveled from Standing Rock Indian Reservation to the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation where Big Foot’s (Si Tanka) band had the largest following of the Ghost Dance religion.

The northern Lakota journeyed south with Big Foot to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. When they arrived soldiers pursued them and the band surrendered near the base of Butte. About 356 band members had been intercepted by Major Whiteside of the U.S. Army Cavalry and they were taken about a mile southwest to the area around Wounded Knee Creek. The massacre began when shots broke out as Colonel Forsyth began disarming the Lakota. More than 200 men, women and children died in, 51 were wounded, and 150 were missing. Many of the wounded later died from their injuries, bringing the estimated dead to 300 or so. Twenty five soldiers died, and 39 were wounded, many the victims of their own crossfire. Lakota women and children were found as far as two miles away, gunned down during their flight from the scene. At least 25 soldiers were awarded the U.S. Congressional . Although most all of the survivors interviewed lived on Pine Ridge, they were actually Minnicoujou.

On January 3, 1891, after a raging blizzard, a burial party of soldiers dug a mass grave and stacked the frozen bodies inside the pit … without ceremony. Miraculously, a baby was found alive under her mother’s frozen body four days after the massacre. In spite of Lost Bird’s (Zintkala Nuni) survival and being “adopted” by General Leonard Colby and his wife, her story is a sad one, as told in the book, Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota by Renee Sansom Flood. There are 15 several books listed in the Bibliography that provide specific details about the Massacre and its aftermath, including recorded testimony from interviews with survivors who told a lot about what actually happened that day.

The Wounded Knee Massacre marked the end of America’s Indian Wars.

* DIRECTOR’S NOTE: The Minnicoujou are the Native American people constituting a subdivision of the Lakota, formerly inhabiting an area from the Black Hills to the Platte River, with a present-day population in west-central South Dakota. The name is mispronounced in the film on purpose, as Sadie was likely ignorant of the correct pronunciation. One reason it was mispronounced in the early days was because it was spelled several ways - Minniconjou, Mniconju, and/or Minneconjou, so it was often pronounced "Mini-Con-Joe." However, the correct pronunciation is “Mini-Ko-Ju” and should always be used.

Information for this section was provided by Donovin Sprague.

16

MINNICOUJOU GHOST DANCE LEADERS

Chief Hump

Two Strike

Short Bull

Spotted Elk (Big Foot)

Kicking Bear

Photos Courtesy of Donovin Sprague 17

WOUNDED KNEE

Hey yo hi yo, ho hey hi yah, Hey yo, ho hey ya hi yoh, Way ya hi yo. “Wounded Knee” by Oscar Howe, 1959

You put me in your boarding school, Made me learn WOUNDED KNEE Your white man rules. Bury my heart at Wounded Knee Be a fool Where a baby´s blood was Oh oh, oh oh, oh oh. a soldiers pay

Hey yo hi yo, ho hey hi ya, Bury my heart at Wounded Knee Hey yo ho hey ya hi yo let it lie with my brothers Way ya hi yo. till the judgement day

You put me in , My people were the earth One cold December day. and the earth was home Relocation, when they stole their land Extermination. then they stole their bones. Oh oh, oh, oh oh oh, Let my people, let my people pass Hey yo hi yo, ho hey hi ya, crossing over this Jordan is all we ask Hey yo, ho hey ya hi yo, Way ya hi yo. Take the eyes of the guns of peace my people can´t eat promises You made me leave my home, my friend, but they can pray. Think I'll go back there again, Wounded Knee, Now my blood is flowing back to Tennessee I wanna be free, and my soul is moving in and out of reach. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I´m dancing ‘cause I carry my father´s seed Hey yo hi yo, ho hey hi ya, and I´m walkin´ on this earth to see my Hey yo ho hey ya hi yo, people free Way ya hi yo. Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.

Music and Lyrics Written and Recorded by Floyd Music and Lyrics by Priscilla Coolidge (Jones) Red Crow Westerman Recorded by Walela

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WE WERE ALL WOUNDED AT WOUNDED KNEE

We were all wounded at Wounded Knee - you and me. We were all wounded at Wounded Knee - you and me. In the name of manifest destiny, You and me - you and me - you and me.

They made us many promises but always broke their word. They penned us in like buffalo, drove us like a herd. And finally on the reservation, Where we'd gone for our preservation, We were all wiped out by the Seventh Cavalry, You and me - you and me,

We were all wounded at Wounded Knee - you and me. We were all wounded at Wounded Knee - you and me. In the name of manifest destiny, You and me - you and me - you and me

Now we make our promises, we won't break our word. We'll sing, sing, sing out our story 'til the truth is heard. There's a whole new generation, Braves who dream of veneration, Who were not wiped out by the seventh cavalry, You and me - you and me.

We were all wounded at Wounded Knee - you and me We were all wounded at Wounded Knee - you and me We were all wounded - by Wounded Knee

Songwriters: Pat Vegas / Sandy Baron • Recorded by Redbone in 1973 “We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee” Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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“… Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

Matthew 25:40 - The Bible ( James Version)

19 SELECT ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY ABOUT WOUNDED KNEE

BROWN, DEE, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of , (First Published in 1970, Reprint by Picador 2007, Illustrated Edition published by Fall River Press in 2014.) The landmark, bestselling account of the crimes against American Indians during the 19th century, now on its 50th Anniversary. First published in 1970, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee is Dee Brown's eloquent, meticulously documented account of the systematic destruction of American Indians during the second half of the nineteenth century. A national bestseller in hardcover for more than a year after its initial publication, it has sold almost four million copies and has been translated into languages. Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown introduces readers to great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes, revealing in heart wrenching detail the battles, massacres, and broken treaties that methodically stripped them of freedom. A forceful narrative still discussed today as revelatory and controversial, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee permanently altered our understanding of how the American West came to be defined.

BROWN, DEE, The Native American Experience: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, The Fetterman Massacre, and Creek Mary's Blood (Kindle Edition). Open Road Media (2017). Two profoundly moving, candid histories and a powerful novel illuminate important aspects of the Native American story. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: The #1 New York Times bestseller that awakened the world to the destruction of American Indians in the nineteenth-century West, Dee Brown’s groundbreaking history focuses on the betrayals, battles, and systematic slaughter suffered by Native American tribes between 1860 and 1890, culminating in the Sioux massacre at Wounded Knee. “Shattering, appalling, compelling . . . One wonders, reading this searing, heartbreaking book, who, indeed, were the savages” (The Washington Post). The Fetterman Massacre: A riveting account of events leading up to the Battle of the Hundred Slain—the devastating 1866 conflict at Wyoming’s Ft. Phil Kearney that pitted Lakota, Arapaho, and Northern Cheyenne warriors—including Oglala chief Red Cloud, against the United States cavalry under the command of Captain William Fetterman. Based on a wealth of historical resources and sparked by Brown’s narrative genius, this is an essential look at one of the frontier’s defining conflicts. Creek Mary’s Blood: This New York Times bestseller fictionalizes the true story of Mary Musgrove—born in 1700 to a Creek tribal chief—and five generations of her family. The sweeping narrative spans the Revolutionary War, the Trail of Tears, and the Civil War—in which Mary’s descendants fought on both sides of the conflict. Rich in detail and human drama, Creek Mary’s Blood offers “a robust, unfussed crash-course in Native American history that rolls from East to West with dark, inexorable energy” (Kirkus Reviews).

BURNHAM, PHILLIP, Song of : Last Survivor of the Little Big Horn, Bison Books (2018). The great Native American warriors and their resistance to the U.S. government in the war against the is a well-known chapter in the story of the American West. In the aftermath of the great resistance, as the Indian nations recovered from war, many figures loomed heroic, yet their stories are mostly unknown. This long-overdue biography of Dewey Beard (ca. 1862–1955), a Lakota who witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn and survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, chronicles a remarkable life that can be traced through major historical events from the late nineteenth into the mid-twentieth century. Beard was not only a witness to two major battles against the Lakota, he also traveled with William “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West show, worked as a “Hollywood Indian,” and witnessed the 20 grand transformation of the Black Hills into a tourism mecca. Beard spent most of his later life fighting to reclaim his homeland and acting as an advocate for his family and his people. With a keen eye for detail and a true storyteller’s talent, Philip Burnham presents the man behind the legend of Dewey Beard and shows how the life of the last survivor of Little Bighorn and Wounded Knee Massacre provides a glimpse into the survival of Indigenous America.

CHARLES, MARK, Unsettling Truths: The Ongoing, Dehumanizing Legacy of the Doctrine of Discovery, IVP Books (2019). You cannot discover lands already inhabited. Injustice has plagued American for centuries. And we cannot move toward being a more just nation without understanding the root causes that have shaped our culture and institutions. In this prophetic blend of history, theology, and cultural commentary, Mark Charles and Soong- Chan Rah reveal the far-reaching, damaging effects of the "Doctrine of Discovery." In the fifteenth century, official church edicts gave Christian explorers the right to claim territories they "discovered." This was institutionalized as an implicit national framework that justifies American triumphalism, , and ongoing injustices. The result is that the dominant culture idealizes a history of discovery, opportunity, expansion, and equality, while minority communities have been traumatized by colonization, slavery, segregation, and dehumanization. Healing begins when deeply entrenched beliefs are unsettled. Charles and Rah aim to recover a common memory and shared understanding of where we have been and where we are going. As other nations have instituted truth and reconciliation commissions, so do the authors call our nation and churches to a truth-telling that will expose past injustices and open the door to conciliation and true community.

COLEMAN, WILLIAM S.E., Voices of Wounded Knee, University of Nebraska Press (2000). In Voices of Wounded Knee, William S. E. Coleman brings together for the first time all the available sources-Lakota, military, and civilian-on the massacre of 29 December 1890. He recreates the Ghost Dance in detail and shows how it related to the events leading up to the massacre. Using accounts of participants and observers, Coleman reconstructs the massacre moment by moment. He places contradictory accounts in direct juxtaposition, allowing the reader to decide who was telling the truth.

DUNBAR-ORTIZ, ROXANNE, An ' History of the United States (REVISIONING HISTORY), Beacon Press (Reprint 2015). Recipient of the 2015 American Book Award as the first history of the United States told from the perspective of indigenous peoples. Today in the United States, there are more than five hundred federally recognized Indigenous nations comprising nearly three million people, descendants of the fifteen million Native people who once inhabited this land. The centuries-long genocidal program of the US settler-colonial regimen has largely been omitted from history. Now, for the first time, acclaimed historian and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz offers a history of the United States told from the perspective of Indigenous peoples and reveals how Native Americans, for centuries, actively resisted expansion of the US . In An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States, Dunbar-Ortiz adroitly challenges the founding myth of the United States and shows how policy against the Indigenous peoples was colonialist and designed to seize the territories of the original inhabitants, displacing or eliminating them. And as Dunbar-Ortiz reveals, this policy was praised in popular culture, through writers like James Fenimore Cooper and Walt Whitman, and in the highest offices of government and the military. Shockingly, as the genocidal policy reached its zenith under President Andrew Jackson, its ruthlessness was best articulated by US Army general Thomas S. Jesup, who, in 1836, wrote of the Seminoles: “The country can be rid of them only by exterminating them.” Spanning more than four hundred years, this classic bottom-up peoples’ history radically reframes US history and explodes the silences that have haunted our national narrative.

21 FLOOD, RENEE SANSOM, Lost Bird of Wounded Knee: Spirit of the Lakota, Scribner (2014). In December 1890 the U.S. Seventh Cavalry massacred a band of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Miraculously, after a four-day blizzard, an infant was found alive under the frozen body of her dead mother. The dashing brigadier general (and future Assistant Attorney General of the United States) Leonard W. Colby kidnapped and then adopted the baby girl named Lost Bird (1890-1920) as a "living curio," and exploited her in order to attract prominent tribes as clients of his law practice. After the general's wife, the nationally known suffragist and newspaper editor Clara B. Colby, divorced her husband, she raised the Lakota child as a white girl in a well-meaning but disastrous attempt to provide a stable home. Lost Bird ran away to join Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and appeared in silent films and vaudeville. During her brief but unforgettable life she endured sexual abuse, violence, prostitution, and the rejection of her own tribe before dying at age twenty-nine on Valentine's Day. This remarkable biography examines the life of the woman who became a symbol of the warring cultures that entrapped her, and a heartbreaking microcosm of all those Native American children who lost their heritage through adoption, social injustice, and war.

GREENE, JEROME A., All Guns Fired at One Time: Native Voices of Wounded Knee 1890, South Dakota State Historical Society (2020). The book sets aside official narratives of what was once called a "battle" and centers instead on the voices of survivors and witnesses. Their memories shed new light on the day that ultimately ended in the loss of over two hundred Lakota men, women, and children.

GREENE, JEROME A., American Carnage: Wounded Knee, 1890, University of Oklahoma Press (2014). As the year 1890 wound to a close, a band of more than three hundred Lakota Sioux Indians led by Chief Big Foot made their way toward South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation to join other Lakota seeking peace. Fearing that Big Foot’s band was headed instead to join “hostile” Lakota, U.S. troops surrounded the group on Wounded Knee Creek. Tensions mounted, and on the morning of December 29, as the Lakota prepared to give up their arms, disaster struck. Accounts vary on what triggered the violence as Indians and soldiers unleashed thunderous gunfire at each other, but the consequences were horrific: some 200 innocent Lakota men, women, and children were slaughtered. American Carnage—the first comprehensive account of Wounded Knee to appear in more than fifty years—explores the complex events preceding the tragedy, the killings, and their troubled legacy. In this gripping tale, Jerome A. Greene—renowned specialist on the Indian wars—explores why the bloody engagement happened and demonstrates how it became a brutal massacre. Drawing on a wealth of sources, including previously unknown testimonies, Greene examines the events from both Native and non-Native perspectives, explaining the significance of treaties, white settlement, political disputes, and the Ghost Dance as influential factors in what eventually took place. He addresses controversial questions: Was the action premeditated? Was the Seventh Cavalry motivated by revenge after its humiliating defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Should soldiers have received Medals of Honor? He also recounts the futile efforts of Lakota survivors and their descendants to gain recognition for their terrible losses. Epic in scope and poignant in its recounting of human suffering, American Carnage presents the reality—and denial—of our nation’s last frontier massacre. It will leave an indelible mark on our understanding of American history.

MARSHALL, III, JOSEPH M. The Lakota Way, Penguin Books Reprint (2002). Marshall provides a thoughtful, illuminating account of how the spiritual beliefs of the Lakota people can help us all lead more meaningful, ethical lives. Rich with storytelling, history, and folklore, The Lakota Way expresses the heart of Native American philosophy and reveals the path to a fulfilling and meaningful life. Joseph Marshall is a member of the Sicunga Lakota Sioux and has dedicated his entire life to the wisdom he learned from his elders. Here he focuses on the twelve core qualities

22 that are crucial to the Lakota way of life--bravery, fortitude, generosity, wisdom, respect, honor, perseverance, love, humility, sacrifice, truth, and compassion. Whether teaching a lesson on respect imparted by the mythical Deer Woman or the humility embodied by the legendary Lakota leader Crazy Horse, The Lakota Way offers a fresh outlook on spirituality and ethical living.

SPRAGUE, DONOVIN ARLEIGH, Cheyenne River Sioux, South Dakota, (Images of America Series), Arcadia Publishing (2003). The Sioux constitute a diverse group of tribes who claimed and controlled almost a quarter of the continental U.S. from the late 1700s to the 1860s. The name Sioux was coined by French traders and was taken from the Anishinabe word Nadoweisiw-eg, meaning little snake or enemy. The rival Chippewa (Ojibway/Anishinabe) tribe used this term to describe the group. The Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, a central part of the Great Sioux Reservation, is home to four bands of the Western Lakota Sioux prominently featured in this book: the Minnicoujou, Itazipco, Siha Sapa, and Oohenumpa.

SPRAGUE, DONOVIN ARLEIGH, Hump and Crazy Horse: A Lakota Cheyenne History from a Family Point of View (To be published in 2022.). The book outlines Sprague’s family and tribal connections going back to, and prior, to the Massacre at Wounded Knee. It provides more specific details about the Massacre and its aftermath. It includes stories passed down through by Native oral tradition, including how his great grandfather Felix Benoist, Sr. was the interpreter between Spotted Elk and the U.S. Army soldiers and would be among the last to see Spotted Elk before he left for Wounded Knee early the morning of the massacre. The estimate of those killed at Wounded Knee varies from 150 to 250, depending on the source. But many Native people died in the following years as a result of wounds sustained, increasing the actual death toll to more than 300. The author recounts stories from a few of the survivors, including Alice Ghost Horse and Dewey Beard, who related the most information about the massacre. Alice survived but her husband and other family members perished. When he died in 1955 at the age of ninety six, Dewey Beard was the last known Lakota survivor of the Battle of the Little Big Horn and the Wounded Knee Massacre.

SPRAGUE, DONOVIN ARLEIGH, Pine Ridge Reservation (Images of America Series), Arcadia Publishing (2004). Established as the Pine Ridge Agency in southwestern South Dakota between Nebraska and the Black Hills in 1878, Pine Ridge became a reservation in 1889. The second-largest reservation in the country, comprised of almost 2 million acres, it is home to 38,000 residents, almost 18,000 of whom are enrolled members of the Oglala Sioux Tribe. The history of the Pine Ridge Reservation is laden with both an awe-inspiring cultural heritage and the tragic effects of forced settlement on the reservation.

SPRAGUE, DONOVIN ARLEIGH, Standing Rock Sioux (Images of America Series), Arcadia Publishing (2004). There is a rock of incredible legend and history that stands before the Standing Rock Agency. Years ago a Dakota man took a second wife, thereby bruising the ego of his first. As camp was breaking up and the tribe was moving on, the first wife pouted and refused to move. She stayed behind with her baby. The tribe moved on and the husband repented, sending his brothers to collect her. They returned to camp to find that she and her child had turned to stone. From that point on, the stone was thought holy and was moved with the tribe, always given a place of honor at the center of camp. Now resting upon a brick pedestal, from this stone the agency derives its name.

SPRAGUE, DONOVIN ARLEIGH, Ziebach County 1910 - 2010, (Images of America Series), Arcadia Publishing (2010). South Dakota’s north-central Ziebach County, established in 1911, is named for Frank M. Ziebach. The majority of the county lies within the boundaries of the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation; small areas also lie within the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. As the railroad penetrated the area, small towns sprang up. Dupree, the largest town

23 in Ziebach County, was selected as the county seat. Founded in 1910, the town of Dupree celebrates its 100-year centennial with the publication of this history. The Ziebach County Historical Society is dedicated to preserving the history of the area’s people, places, and events. A collection of nearly 200 photographs provides a glimpse into the past, along with modern development. Ziebach communities included Armstrong, Bridger, Chase, Cherry Creek, Dupree, Glad Valley, Iron Lightning, Redelm, Red Scaffold, Takini, and Thunder Butte.

TREUER, DAVID, The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present, Riverhead Books (2019). The book is a sweeping history—and counter-narrative—of Native American life from the Wounded Knee massacre to the present. The received idea of Native American history—as promulgated by books like Dee Brown's mega-bestselling 1970 Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee—has been that American Indian history essentially ended with the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee. Not only did one hundred fifty Sioux die at the hands of the U. S. Cavalry, the sense was that Native died as well. Growing up on a reservation in Minnesota, training as an anthropologist, and researching Native life past and present for his nonfiction and novels, David Treuer has uncovered a different narrative. Because they did not disappear—and not despite but rather because of their intense struggles to preserve their language, their traditions, their families, and their very existence—the story of American Indians since the end of the nineteenth century to the present is one of unprecedented resourcefulness and reinvention. In The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee, Treuer melds history with reportage and memoir. Tracing the tribes' distinctive cultures from first contact, he explores how the depredations of each era spawned new modes of survival. The devastating seizures of land gave rise to increasingly sophisticated legal and political maneuvering that put the lie to the myth that Indians don't know or care about property. The forced assimilation of their children at government-run boarding schools incubated a unifying Native identity. Conscription in the US military and the pull of urban life brought Indians into the mainstream and modern times, even as it steered the emerging shape of self-rule and spawned a new generation of resistance. The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is the essential, intimate story of a resilient people in a transformative era.

“WOUNDED KNEE: 125 YEARS LATER,” South Dakota Magazine, Volume 31, Number 4 November/December 2015. The entire issue is dedicated to the Massacre at Wounded Knee and includes numerous articles by several authors and photos and paintings by different artists. Articles include “Wounded Knee: The Massacre,” “Interpretations of Wounded Knee [by Artists], “Living With a Massacre: Wounded Knee as Seen from Descendants of Those Who Survived,” and “Pine Ridge Today.”

ZIMMERMAN, DWIGHT JON (ADAPTER), DEE BROWN (AUTHOR) Saga of the Sioux: An Adaptation from Dee Brown's Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Square Fish (Reprint 2014). This new adaptation of Dee Brown's multimillion-copy bestseller, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, is filled with photographs and maps to bring alive the tragic saga of Native Americans for middle-grade readers. Focusing on the Sioux nation as representative of the entire Native American story, this meticulously researched account allows the great chiefs and warriors to speak for themselves about what happened to the Sioux from 1860 to the Massacre of Wounded Knee in 1891. This dramatic story is essential reading for every student of U.S. history.

24 A FEW SOURCES ON RACISM

DIANGELO, ROBIN AND MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Beacon Press (2018). In this “vital, necessary, and beautiful book” (Michael Eric Dyson), antiracist educator Robin DiAngelo deftly illuminates the phenomenon of white fragility and “allows us to understand racism as a practice not restricted to ‘bad people’ (Claudia Rankine). Referring to the defensive moves that white people make when challenged racially, white fragility is characterized by emotions such as anger, fear, and guilt, and by behaviors including argumentation and silence. These behaviors, in turn, function to reinstate white racial equilibrium and prevent any meaningful cross-racial dialogue. In this in-depth exploration, DiAngelo examines how white fragility develops, how it protects racial inequality, and what we can do to engage more constructively.

MENAKEM, RESMA, My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies, Central Recovery Press (2017). In this groundbreaking book, therapist Resmaa Menakem examines the damage caused by racism in America from the perspective of trauma and body-centered psychology. The body is where our instincts reside and where we fight, flee, or freeze, and it endures the trauma inflicted by the ills that plague society. Menakem argues this destruction will continue until Americans learn to heal the generational anguish of white supremacy, which is deeply embedded in all our bodies. Our collective agony doesn't just affect African Americans. White Americans suffer their own secondary trauma as well. So do blue Americans—our police. My Grandmother's Hands is a call to action for all of us to recognize that racism is not only about the head, but about the body, and introduces an alternative view of what we can do to grow beyond our entrenched racialized divide. The book … • Paves the way for a new, body-centered understanding of white supremacy—how it is literally in our blood and our nervous system, and • Offers a step-by-step healing process based on the latest neuroscience and somatic healing methods, in addition to incisive social commentary.

MARSHALL III, JOSEPH M., Crazy Horse Weeps: The Challenge of Being Lakota in White America, Fulcrum Publishing (2019). For Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota people, historical trauma, chronically underfunded federal programs, and broken promises on the part of the U.S. government have resulted in gaping health, educational, and economic disparities compared to the general population. Crazy Horse Weeps, offers a thorough historical overview of how South Dakota reservations have wound up in these tragic circumstances, showing how discrimination, a disorganized tribal government, and a devastating dissolution of Lakota culture by the U.S. government have transformed the landscape of Native life. Yet these extraordinary challenges, Marshall argues, can be overcome. Focusing on issues of identity and authenticity, he uses his extensive experience in traditional Lakota wisdom to propose a return to traditional tribal values and to outline a plan for a hopeful future.

REID, DARREN R., Native American Racism in the Age of Donald Trump: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives, Palgrave Pivot (2020). This book examines the resurgence of anti-Native Americanism since the start of Donald Trump’s bid for the US Presidency. From the time Trump announced his intention to run for president, racism directed towards Native Americans has become an increasingly visible part of cultural and political life in the United States. From the completion of the Dakota Access Pipeline to the controversies surrounding Elizabeth Warren’s identity, to open mockery by teenagers wearing MAGA hats, anti-Native Americanism is now at its most visible in the United States since the early twentieth century. This volume places this resurgent anti-Native Americanism into an appropriate contemporary context by 25 demonstrating how historical forces have created the foundation upon which many of these controversies are built. Chapters examine three key processes in US history and how they have shaped today’s political climate: violence as a force of attitudinal change; the root issues at the heart of Native American identity politics; and the dismissal of modern Native American inequalities through a prolonged European American fascination with the imagery of the noble savage.

WILKERSON, ISABEL, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, Random House (2020). In this brilliant book, Isabel Wilkerson gives us a masterful portrait of an unseen phenomenon in America as she explores, through an immersive, deeply researched narrative and stories about real people, how America today and throughout its history has been shaped by a hidden caste system, a rigid hierarchy of human rankings. Beyond race, class, or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India, and Nazi Germany, Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across , including divine will, bloodlines, stigma, and more. Using riveting stories about people—including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others—she shows the ways that the insidious of caste is experienced every day. She documents how the Nazis studied the racial systems in America to plan their out- cast of the Jews; she discusses why the cruel logic of caste requires that there be a bottom rung for those in the middle to measure themselves against; she writes about the surprising health costs of caste, in depression and life expectancy, and the effects of this hierarchy on our culture and politics. Finally, she points forward to ways America can move beyond the artificial and destructive separations of human divisions, toward hope in our common humanity. Beautifully written, original, and revealing, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is an eye- opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.

26 WE ARE ALL WOUNDED BY WOUNDED KNEE … Commentary on Communal Grief

WELLER, FRANCIS, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief, North Atlantic Books (2015). Noted psychotherapist Francis Weller provides an essential guide for navigating the deep waters of sorrow and loss in this lyrical yet practical handbook for mastering the art of grieving. Describing how Western patterns of amnesia and anesthesia affect our capacity to cope with personal and collective sorrows, Weller reveals the new vitality we may encounter when we welcome, rather than fear, the pain of loss. Through moving personal stories, poetry, and insightful reflections he leads us into the central energy of sorrow, and to the profound healing and heightened communion with each other and our planet that reside alongside it. The Wild Edge of Sorrow explains that grief has always been communal and illustrates how we need the healing touch of others, an atmosphere of compassion, and the comfort of ritual in order to fully metabolize our grief. Weller describes how we often hide our pain from the world, wrapping it in a secret mantle of shame. This causes sorrow to linger unexpressed in our bodies, weighing us down and pulling us into the territory of depression and death. We have come to fear grief and feel too alone to face an encounter with the powerful energies of sorrow. Those who work with people in grief, who have experienced the loss of a loved one, who mourn the ongoing destruction of our planet, or who suffer the accumulated traumas of a lifetime will appreciate the discussion of obstacles to successful grief work such as privatized pain, lack of communal rituals, a pervasive feeling of fear, and a culturally restrictive range of emotion. Weller highlights the intimate bond between grief and gratitude, sorrow and intimacy. In addition to showing us that the greatest gifts are often hidden in the things we avoid, he offers powerful tools and rituals and a list of resources to help us transform grief into a force that allows us to live and love more fully.

SPECIAL THANKS FOR HIS GUIDANCE GOES TO …

DONOVIN ARLEIGH SPRAGUE (Author, Historian, Educator, and Flute Maker) serves as Chair of the History Department at Sheridan College in Wyoming and is the author of 10 books on Native Americans and their history as part of the Images of America Series. (Cheyenne River Sioux, Pine Ridge Reservation, Standing Rock Sioux, and Ziebach Country in this series are particularly relevant to the Massacre at Wounded Knee.) Sprague tells that “Many of those killed or survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre were my relatives. I am Minnicoujou and was born and raised at Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation. My immediate family has a lot of history connected to the 1890 events leading up to, during, and after the massacre. My great, great grandfather was Chief Hump a Ghost Dancer leader. His first cousin was Spotted Elk, better known as Big Foot, who was killed in the massacre. Hump's son was also connected to the massacre and married an Hunkpapa woman survivor of the massacre.” Sprague is an archivist and oversees care of the largest collection of items from the Wounded Knee Massacre, such as Ghost Dance regalia, now owned and housed by the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. He is currently authoring Hump and Crazy Horse: A Lakota Cheyenne History from a Family Point of View.

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“UNITY” by Evans Flammond, Sr. Located on the Floor of the Sioux Museum in the Journey Museum and Learning Center

DIRECTOR’S NOTES: The Medicine Wheel, sometimes known as the Sacred Hoop, has been used by generations of various Native American tribes for health and healing. It embodies the Four Directions, as well as Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Spirit Tree—all of which symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life. The circle itself is considered sacred and is used in Native cultures for the shape of many objects like the and the drum. people observed that the circle is a dominant symbol in nature and has come to represent wholeness, completion, and the cycles of life and cycles in the natural world, as in the movement of the sun and the moon. The Medicine Wheel is a sacred symbol used by the indigenous Plains tribes to represent all knowledge of the universe. It is a symbol of hope and a “talking circle” is a way of communication to discuss and resolve issues and promote healing for those who seek it.

Many other cultures around the globe also use the circle as a sacred symbol. In other cultures this might be considered a “mandala,” the meaning of which in Sanskrit is circle. Mandala is a spiritual and ritual symbol in Hinduism and Buddhism, representing the universe. The circular designs symbolizes the idea that life is never ending and everything is connected. The mandala also represents spiritual journey within the individual viewer.

With the circle being sacred in so many cultures it truly means …

Mitaukuye Oyas’in! - We are all related!

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