Skip to main content

On This Day: Army kills Sioux


It was On This Day in 1890 that the US Army slaughtered over 100 Sioux Indians at Wounded Knee in South Dakota. Tensions had been high for some time at the Pine Ridge Reservation. The US had been gathering up Native Americans throughout the Plains and relocating them to reservations, robbing them of their land.



Colonel James Forsyth led the 7th Calvary in the massacre. Forsyth’s men surrounded Sioux Chief Big Foot and his followers and were in the process of stripping them of their weapons. A fight broke out. A shot was fired. The Sioux had no weapons. They were soon gunned down and slaughtered.



In the end, the 7th Calvary had murdered 146 Native Americans and left another 51 wounded. Of the 146 dead, 44 were women and 18 were just children. The Army lost 25 and suffered 39 wounded.



The following day the headline of The Topeka State Journal, in Topeka, Kansas, screamed “Bloodshed.” Subheadlines read “Redskins Treacherously Fire on Col. Forsythe’s Command,” and “Three Hundred Indians Sent to Their Death,” among others. Written clearly with a slant against the Native Americans, the Topeka State Journal went on to announce that while the soldiers were disarming Big Foot and his men, who surrendered according to the report, a fight occurred resulting in about 300 Indians being killed and several soldiers, including Captain Wallace.



While Big Foot and his men are not named specifically, the Topeka State Journal lists the killed and wounded soldiers.



Sources

Topeka State Journal. (Topeka, KS), 30 December 1880. Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers. Library of Congress.



US Army massacres Sioux at Wounded Knee. This Day In History 1890. History.com







On This Day is a prompt to further explore historical events.

                

© Jeanne Ruczhak-Eckman, 2015
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

52 Ancestors: Anna Keating Walsh is one Tough Woman

Amy Johnson Crow, of No Story Too Small , has challenged us this week with tough women. She asked “ Who is a tough, strong woman in your family tree? Or what woman has been tough to research?” My 2x great grandmother Anna Keating Walsh is indeed a tough woman.   She is a tough woman to trace and I believe she was a tough woman in her time as well. Anna (everyone past my grandparents get actual names; it is the only way I can keep people straight) was born around 1855 in Ireland . According to my grandmother, she was born in County Mayo .   My grandmother had told me that Anna had immigrated with her siblings and that she was the youngest Her parents – Patrick and Knapy Penelope Keating - had stayed behind and she settled in Ringtown which is just a stone’s throw from Shenandoah (assuming of course you can throw a bit)!   She married Michael Walsh and the lived in Shenandoah. The 1910 Census stated Anna had 11 children, with only six living in 1910. I would...
8 comments
Read more

Coatesville's First Serial Killer

Young Alexander Meyer was a disturbed and angry young man with some major issues. He had failed sixth and seventh grade, and instead of having to repeat eighth grade again, he finally gave up on school. At age 16 he quit Downingtown Junior High. Meyer is not a relative, nor are his victims (that I am aware). I stumbled upon young Alex while reading Tortured Minds: Pennsylvania's Most Bizarre - But Forgotten - Murders by Tammy Mal. On 11 February 1937 Alexander Thweatt Meyer killed young Helen Moyer as she walked home from school in Coatesville along Modena Road. She was not his first. The jury was out only three minutes after hearing Dr. Michael Margolis' testimony on the death of Helen Moyer. The jury determined Meyer had murdered Moyer and should be held for first degree murder. The jury also condemned the parole system which had released Meyer back into the public, after having served just 14 months in Huntingdon Reformatory, for the murder of two other girls - Anna Blasc...
6 comments
Read more

Thaddeus Stevens at the Lancaster Convention Center

Within the Lancaster Convention Center (Lancaster, PA) is a small section dedicated to Thaddeus Stevens and Lydia Hamilton Smith. The section is known as the Stevens & Smith Historic Site. It is scheduled for development this year. At the moment one can only get a glimpse of it through the Convention Center or by peeking in from the outside. Here at Queen and Vine Streets in Lancaster City, Pennsylvania, Thaddeus Stevens had his law office. Stevens was an abolitionist. An abolitionist is a person who favors the abolition of a practice or institution, especially capital punishment or (formerly) slavery. Stevens was born 4 April 1792 to Joshua Stevens and Sarah (Sally) Morrill in Danville Vermont. One of four children, he attended Vermont University from 1810 to 1812 when the War prompted its closure. He then went to Dartmouth, where he graduated in 1814. He then studied law and found himself set up in Gettysburg, PA in 1816. He practiced law there until 1828 when he...
Post a Comment
Read more