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URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1990Big_Ft_Follow.pdf Date: 2/23/2011 Article Summary: In 1890 scores of people died as a result of an attempt by the US government to suppress the ghost dance. This article examines primary sources in an attempt to determine the number and the identity of the people who were with Big Foot at Wounded Knee Creek during the December 29, 1890, confrontation between the US Army and Big Foot’s Miniconjou, known today as the Wounded Knee Massacre. Cataloging Information: Note on Names: An annotated, alphabetical index to Big Foot’s followers at Wounded Knee follows the text of the article. Names listed below are only those listed within the article itself. Names: Big Foot [Standing Elk], Edwin V Sumner, Nelson A Miles, Samuel M Whitside, James W Forsyth, Sits Straight, Good Thunder, Black Fox [Black Coyote], Sitting Bull, Thomas H Ruger, Wesley Merritt, John C Gresham, Peter McFarland, Joseph Horn Cloud, Thomas J Morgan, George Sword, Joseph C Byron, Perain P Palmer, F A Whitney, Frank B Baldwin, William Peano, Ed Janis, Guy H Preston, William Birdsall, Dewey Beard, James McLaughlin, Cato Sells, Pipe on Head, Blue Whirlwind, Spotted Thunder Place Names: Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota; Cheyenne River Reservation, South Dakota; Pine Ridge Reservation; Camp Cheyenne; Standing Rock Reservation; Fort Bennett Keywords: Miniconjou, Hunkpapa, Bureau of Indian Affairs Photographs / Images: Big Foot on the battlefield, 1891 [Courtesy of National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution]; Blue Whirlwind with her children; Unidentified Miniconjou in recuperation at the Pine Ridge agency; Mass grave at Wounded Knee in 1989 BIG FOOT'S FOLLOWERS AT WOUNDED KNEE By Richard E. Jensen In 1890 scores of people died as a buffalo would return, and the Indians would be safe at the Pine Ridge result of an attempt by the u.s. govern­ could once again be their own masters. Agency, the band began a slow march ment to suppress the ghost dance. Among the converts were Big Foot and to the southwest only to fall into the Nearly all of the fatalities occurred on his band ofMiniconjou, who lived in the hands of soldiers under Major Samuel Wounded Knee Creek during a con­ southeastern corner of the Cheyenne M. Whitside, who was quickly rein­ frontation between the U.s. Army and River Reservation in South Dakota.1 forced by Colonel James W. Forsyth. Big Foot's Miniconjou. Within a few The ghost dance, like most native The next morning, December 29, on the days the first assessments of the religious observances, was outlawed bank of Wounded Knee Creek, Forsyth magnitude of the slaughter were made, soon after it came to the attention of began to disarm the frightened and sus­ but others followed at intervals for fifty white officials, but many Indians con­ picious Indians. An Indian named Sits years. Estimates were also offered con­ tinued to dance. Despite the pacifistic Straigbt, also known as Good Thunder, cerning the total population of the nature of this revival movement, there began ghost dancing, which alarmed group. was a growing fear on the part of the Forsyth and amplified an already Although estimates have appeared whites that it was a prelude to war. The tense situation. At about this same in newspapers, books, and articles, new Pine Ridge Reservation agent, time Black Fox or Black Coyote refused some reputable and some sensational, Daniel Royer, convinced his superiors to surrender his rifle. A scuffle with a all the figures were based upon those that military assistance was necessary soldier resulted, and when the gun provided by a relatively few individuals to forestall a revolt against government accidentally discharged, the holocaust who witnessed the event or had a authority. Beginning on November 20, began. The Indians who still had con­ legitimate reason to obtain the most 1890, a substantial portion of the U.S. cealed weapons fought back while accurate numbers possible. The pur­ Army under Major General Nelson A. others retrieved their confiscated pose of this brief article is to examine Miles began occupying the Lakota arms. This close quarter battle raged these primary sources in an attempt to reservations. between the white soldiers and the determine the number and the identity The general was quick to label Big Indian men for perhaps ten minutes ofthe people who were with Big Foot. A Foot "one of the most defiant and until the Indians retreated toward their list of all of the names found in the threatening"2 leaders of the ghost camp only rods away. Women and primary sources, and some secondary dance and in December issued the children were now swept up in a dis­ sources as well, is given in the order for his arrest.3 Itwas Miles's plan organized flight from the army forces. appendix. to relocate the entire band "out of the What had begun as a battle now When word of the ghost dance country," presumably at a place where became a massacre as unarmed women spread through the Sioux camps and they could be more closely guarded by and children were killed. It was mid­ villages in the summer and fall of 1890, the military until the ghost dance afternoon before the fighting stopped many Indians put their trust in the subsided.4 completely. The army gathered its promises offered by this new religious Colonel Edwin V. Sumner captured dead and wounded and some of the movement. They believed the ritual Big Foot and his followers in mid­ Indian survivors and returned to Pine would hasten the second coming of December, but before Miles's plan Ridge.5 Christ for the benefit of the Indians. could be put in motion they slipped In the months preceding Wounded The white people would disappear, the away on December 23. Big Foot's deci­ Knee, the U.S. Army had, the oppor­ sion to flee was based in part upon tunity as well as a reason for assessing Richard E. Jensen is a research exaggerated rumors about the treat­ the strength of Big Foot's band. In April anthropologist on the staff of the Nebraska ment his people would receive at the of 1890 Camp Cheyenne was State Historical Society Research Division. hands of the army. Believing they established a few miles west of the 194 Big Foot's Followers Big Foot was killed near the armytent where he spent the night prior to the massacre. He had contracted pneumonia and was being cared for by an army doctor. Courtesy ofNational Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution. Indian village. 6 One of the respon­ Sumner's count was undoubtedly of men at 106 and 160. 14 sibilities of this army outpost was to used by other military officers. His Big Foot's band escaped from Sum­ keep a watchful eye on this conserva­ commander, Brigadier General ner on December 23 only to be recap­ tive band. After the army occupation, Thomas H. Ruger, wrote that the band tured five days later by Major Samuel Big Foot was classified as a "hostile," a "numbered about 340 all told."lO The M. Whitside. The major immediately potential battlefield opponent. Under commander of the occupation forces, reported that he had 370 in custody,lS these circumstances intelligence con­ General Miles, notified the command­ Brigadier General Wesley Merritt's cerning the strength of the band would ing officer at Fort Bennett on Decem­ report published a year later put the have been imperative. Colonel Sum­ ber 24 that"there are now with Big Foot count at 379.16 ner, the commander of Camp about 330 Indians." This included Many years later Lieutenant John C. Cheyenne, reported on December 21 thirty from Hump's village and forty Gresham recalled his experiences at that there were 333 people in the from Sitting Bull's.l1 In his report of Wounded Knee, noting that 380 village,7 This included forty Hunkpapa January 5, 1891, to the adjutant Indians were there. 17 Peter McFarland, refugees who fled the Standing Rock general, Miles putthe total at 368,12 In a a civilian packer for the army, recalled Reservation after Sitting Bull was letter to his wife Miles said there were there were 319 Indians at Wounded killed. 8 Sumner's count also included 438 people, but this is so inconsis­ Knee. ls In 1906 Joseph Horn Cloud, a thirty members of Hump's band, who tent with the other army estimates member ofBig Foot's band, compiled a joined Big Foot after the former that it must be a typographical error. 13 list of names of 288 participants, but in renounced the ghost dance.9 Other reports by Miles list the number a 1913 interview he estimated there was 195 Nebraska History - Winter 1990 196 Big Foot's Followers a total of about 400 people.19 The Bureau of Indian Affairs was also concerned about the number in Big Foot's band.