The Wounded Knee Massacre should never be forgotten | Image source: nativenewsonline.net
For the past 25 years, men and women on horseback and by foot have retraced the route Chief Big Foot followed with his people, before they were massacred by the U.S. 7th Calvary Regiment near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
Estimates are some 300 men, women and children were killed at the Wounded Knee Massacre. Those who ride or walk in the Chief Big Foot Memorial Ride do so out of respect for those who perished that day 125 years ago today on December 29, 1890.
The Lakota and other American Indians will never forget what happened 125 winters ago. The photograph of Chief Big Foot left dead and frozen in the snow will forever be etched in the minds of American Indians as a reminder of the inhumane treatment rendered to their ancestors by the federal government. That photograph and other images associated with Wounded Knee are comparable to images from World War II of mass graves for Jews who perished in Hitler’s Nazi regime.
It is important to always remember what happened by the hands of evil men because evil men still exist today. Even now, there are evil people who spew out hatred against others who may not be their same race, color or religion today.
One evil man walked into the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June and killed nine innocent people who there to pray and have a bible class.
ONE EVIL MAN IS EVEN RUNNING FOR THE U.S. PRESIDENCY AND LEADS IN POLLS FOR THE REPUBLICAN NOMINATION. FOR SOME REASON THE MEDIA FUELS HIS EVIL RHETORIC WITH WAY TOO MUCH COVERAGE. HE IS LAUDED FOR SPEAKING WHATEVER COMES INTO HIS MIND BY SOME AND LOVES TO TELL HIS AUDIENCES THAT HE WANTS “TO RETURN AMERICA TO ITS GREATNESS.”
I am confident the Lakota who will stand at the mass grave of their ancestors at Wounded Knee today do not subscribe to the constructed history that America was great on December 29, 1890.
It is said American Indians view history with a different lens than do our non-Native counterparts. Wounded Knee is one such reason. For this reason, American Indians should always remember Wounded Knee.
This article has been written by Levi Rickert and has been republished with permission from Native News Online.
