Assignment 14

Assignment 14: The Way West Episode 4 (Ghost Dance)
Black Elk, an Ogala/ Lakota warrior, was present at the battle of the Little Bighorn at age of 13
At the age of 9 he had his first vision of his people.
State lines, telegraph lines, railroad tracks, roads, and fences cut across the WEST
In the decade to come, Native Americans struggled desperately to hold onto their cultures despite being on reservations.
December 1890, final climax in cold and snow of Dakota at Wounded Knee Creek
The triumph of Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull along Little Bighorn made a final end to Indian life
All winter starving Indians limped into Red Cloud Agency
By Spring, even Crazy Horse knew the end had come
In April, he sent word that if given a reservation in the Powder River country, he would surrender
Sitting Bull and his followers of Humkpapa slipped across the border into Canada
One day later May 6, 1877, Crazy Horse rode into Camp Robinson in NW Nebraska, ready for war at the column of men, women, and children stretching for two miles.
One last heartbreaking act remained for Crazy Horse, there was no place for him in the reservation, even some of his own people turned against him.
Red Cloud, Spotted Tail, and others tried to persuade the white authorities that Crazy Horse may try to escape and lead another war path.
Terrified of another war and of his dispirited rival, General Crook issued a warrant for Crazy Horse’s arrest
September 6, Crazy Horse allowed himself to be brought under guard into Camp Robinson, under the idea that he would be given a reservation all to himself
When he glanced through the door, he saw it was a jail with manacles on the wall and bars on the windows, he struggled and pulled out his knife, Little Big Man, friend of his pinned his arms behind him, and a soldier named William Gentles thrust his bayonet into his sides. Someone yelled kill the son of a bitch. Touch the Clouds, his old friend carried him indoors and chose to lay on the floor as opposed to lay on a cot. He died in an hour at 35 years old.
They had lied to him and killed him that way as opposed to in battle
Three days later, his parents placed his body on a travois and set out to bury him near Wounded Knee Creek. Crazy Horse’s body’s final resting place is a secret for only the Lakota Sioux people. Only those who buried him probably know where his remains are.
No tribe was spared after the battle of Little Bighorn.
In 1879 Colorado citizens brutally exiled Utes in Utah
Two years later, Sitting Bull gave up the fight in Canada. Instead of escaping, they found famine, harsh winters, disease, and discouragement. Vast following had dwindled to only 143 people. At noon on July 19, 1881, Sitting Bull and his people dressed in rags and mounted on scanty ponies rode into Fort Buford in Dakota to surrender
Sitting Bull surrendered his Winchester rifle to his son the next day and his son gave it to the commanding officer. He was last of his kind to surrender his rifle.
Buffalo were all wiped out. Scientists found only 200 Buffalo in the west.
1883 Buffalo Bill Cody started a show about the Wild West, it was a huge success and toured for more than 30 years.
Year after year the show gained popularity. Sitting Bull was invited to join the show in 1885. Cody offered the chieftain a signing bonus of $125 and $50 a week and the rights to sell his autograph and photograph
When the show wasn’t touring, he went home to reservation, where a new onslaught was going on for the Lakota Sioux.
The belief in the 19th century that these cultures had nothing to offer the American life, so their culture had to be completely extinguished. No rights to follow religions, languages, and customs.
In 1887, to speed process of detribalization, the President broke up tribal lands. Redistribute to tribal allotments. Opened up remaining lands to white pioneers.
1889, Sioux reservation, reluctantly agreed to split reservation into 6 allotments and let go of over 900 million acres of land. Sitting Bull strictly opposed.
Two weeks later, congressional budget cuts slashed Indian rations in half.
1889 just before dawn New Years day, Nevada, Great vision came to an Indian man (Wavoka) saying he would rescue his Indian brothers. Said to be Indian Messiah
He believed if the Indians were virtuous, honest, and non violent, and danced the dance (ghost dance), the whites would disappear. The buffalo would return and prairies would abound with game. Dead ancestors would arise and live again. Sing, dance, and pray.
Winter of 1890, a mystic Kicking Bear, former intimate of Crazy Horse, journeyed west to hear gospel of Wavoka and carried news back to his people.
The ghost dance is to bring those who are dead back to life. The Ghost Dance religion spread quickly across the west. Quickly became strong for the Lakota Sioux.
By August, crops had failed and starvation ensued. Ghost Dances began in August. Sacred ceremonies performed outside of the white eyes. Sundance had been abandoned, but the Ghost Dance took its place in religious ceremonies. The intensity of the dance strengthened. Exhaustion brought on visions like those of Sundance.
Grieving mechanism and a type of way of keeping their religion and people united.
Spread from one reservation to another, the bureau feared the dance would lead to a revolt and banned it, but they were unsuccessful. Whites were scared of another uprising.
In October, Kicking Bear came to Standing Rock reservation at Sitting Bull’s invite to teach the Hunkpapa Sioux the dance. The agent there James McClaughlin thought the dance was indecent and disgusting.
He accused Sitting Bull of being a high priest or leading apostle of latest Indian absurdity. He never participated in the dance, but superintended it in order for his people to have a future.
Brought in military in order to make sure the Ghost Dance did not get out of hand.
November 15, Daniel Royer, new and inexperienced agent at Pine Ridge, telegraphed Washington that Indians were dancing and they needed protection from wild and crazy Indians.
November 17, Miles ordered troops onto the Sioux reservation.
November 20, members of the all black 9th cavalry marched onto Pine Ridge reservation
Six days later the 7th cavalry arrived in Fort Riley in Kansas
Occupation of Sioux country had begun,
By early December, the largest army since the Civil War was on alert
Troop build up continued, Lakota ghost dance members fled for safety and fear for their lives to the bad lands
White anxieties fixed on Sitting Bull. Everyone agreed he had to go. James McClaughlin came up with a plan to get rid of Sitting Bull without starting a war.
Dawn Dec 15, 1890 44 Lakota policemen (many of whom had been at the Little Bighorn and had suffered with him in Canada) surrounded Sitting Bull’s residence in order to arrest him. Sitting Bull agreed to go quietly at first, but began to resist after they were man handling him. Lieutenant Henry Bullhead pushed 59 year old towards his horse, the crowd went wild. An angry warrior named Catch the Bear shot Lieutenant Bullhead who turned and shot Sitting Bull in the chest. The crowd had been chanting “you will not take our chief”
Another officer Red Tomahawk shot Sitting Bull in the head, and all hell broke loose.
Ghost dancer and Lakota police stabbed, clubbed, and shot each other at point blank range until Sitting Bull’s followers turned and ran.
The terrible struggle was over. Eight dead Indians including Sitting Bull. 2 dead horses. 4 dead policemen in house and 3 fatally wounded.
They had battered Sitting Bull’s face with a plank after he died, a few remaining hairs were chopped off, and his clothes and moccasins were taken too. His body was thrown in the back of a wagon along with the dead policemen. His corpse was thrown into a pauper’s grave, while the police officers were given a catholic service.
When Sitting Bull was killed, his followers packed up and walked to Bigfoot’s people. They didn’t have many horses so they put the children on horses.
Time ran out for the Lakota ghost dancers, many followers headed to Cheyenne reservation. Bigfoot took them in, but he was high on the list of trouble makers, and an order had gone out for his arrest. 335 people headed towards Pine Ridge reservation to find Red Cloud. 3 regiments were ordered into the field after them. Dec 24, reached badlands of Dakota and continued southwest. Bigfoot had got pneumonia was too sick to walk now. He rode in the back of a wagon. The army learned their whereabouts and intercepted them. The 7th cavalry’s orders were to disarm them and capture them. After brief negotiations, Bigfoot agreed for his people to be taken by guard to Wounded Knee Creek to await disarming in the morning.
Great uneasiness among Indians during the night. Not long after sundown, the rest of the 7th regiment arrived from Pine Ridge and they took up positions around the Indians lodges. By morning, the encampment had been surrounded by 4 canons and 500 soldiers.
Monday Dec 29, 1890. Colonel James Forsighth ordered all of the Lakotas to disarm. They were going to be arrested or sent to Indian Territory. Tension mounted on both side. Holy man named Yellow bird started to sing and do ghost dance while soldiers were going through tents.
Two soldiers began struggling with Black Coyote who refused to give up his rifle. During the struggle the rifle went off and the shot rang out. Yellow Bird threw dirt in the air. The white officers knew it was a signal for them to return fire. As the Indians raised their rifles, the white officers fired upon them at point blank range.
Once the firing began, the army lost its cool and killed not only the warriors, but the women and children too. Bigfoot trying to struggle out of his blankets was shot in the head. The big guns fired after all the fleeing survivors. Some made it to the creek and some didn’t. They shot at anything that moved in the creek. Soldiers were on both sides of the ravine and shot and killed everyone. Captain Godfrey said it was only minutes before everything was dead in their wake. Men, women, children, dogs, horses all shot dead.
Bodies were later found as far as 3 miles away. Details were telegraphed to General Miles later that evening. 36 wounded Lakotas were taken to Holy Cross Episcopal church in Pine Ridge. Converted to hospital. Not many thought to have escaped.
Lakota dead lay where they had fallen at Wounded Knee Creek. Blizzard hit and five days after the event, a civilian burial brigade sent to bury the dead.
146 of the dead Lakota were buried in a mass grave. 250/ 350 died at Wounded Knee. 25 whites were also killed. 36 others wounded. Some killed by Sioux. Other were killed in their own crossfire.
Black Elk was one that escaped.
2 weeks after the battle the last of the ghost dancers were coaxed out of the badlands and surrendered to the army.
Kicking Bear surrendered his rifle to General Miles at his feet. The Ghost Dance war was over.
27 of the Lakota survivors were sentenced to prison in Illinois and 23 were later released to Buffalo Bill Cody on condition that they appear in his Wild West show. The next year, they added the battle of Wounded Knee to the show.
April 22, 1889 the first strip of land in Indian Territory was thrown open to white settlers. Oklahoma land rush was on. Scramble for resources.
By 1890 Wild West was completely changed.
1893 Sitting Bull’s cabin was dismantled and shipped to Chicago where it was put on exhibition.
Next 40 years, Native American lands continued to dwindle.
In 1941, Mount Rushmore was finished in the heart of the Black Hills
In 1980 the Supreme Court awarded the Lakota Sioux $105 million for the theft of the Black Hills, the $7000 Red Cloud had asked for and another $98 million in interest. They rejected the award and continue for the rights of the land.