Today is the 130th anniversary of the #WoundedKneeMassacre. On December 29, 1890, the 7th Cavalry surrounded a peaceful encampment of Lakota with Hotchkiss guns and slaughtered ~300. They were mostly women and children.

Those killed at Wounded Knee were led by Mniconjou Chief Spotted Elk, who was ill. Many were followers of Hunkpapa Chief Sitting Bull who was assassinated 14 days prior. They were invited to seek refuge with Oglala Chief Red Cloud at Pine Ridge. They were hungry, tired & cold.
The soldiers weren’t satisfied with gunning down the encampment. They chased down those who escaped, including little children & their grandmothers, for miles. Some ran all the way back to the Cheyenne River Reservation, through the night in the freezing cold, with bullet wounds.
Charles Eastman, the 1st western educated Oceti Sakowin (Dakota Sioux) physician, was at Pine Ridge during the #WoundedKneeMassacre. It was right after Christmas. A banner hanging over the wounded said, ‘Peace on Earth.’ The horrors Dr. Eastman saw that day changed him forever.
Those massacred at Wounded Knee were callously thrown into a mass grave. Soldiers proudly posed for photos with their corpses. They were awarded Medals of Honor for their part in the slaughter. Those Medals have never been rescinded, despite public outcry. https://t.co/MUu9c53S45
Lost Bird (Zintkala Nuni) was found at Wounded Knee as a baby, sheltered by the frozen corpse of her mother. A Brigadier General adopted her as a “living curio” of the massacre. Lost Bird suffered racism & abuse & died in poverty at 28 years old. All she wanted was to go home.
Why did the #WoundedKneeMassacre occur? The government was afraid of the Ghost Dance, a powerful multi-tribal spiritual movement that promised to unite the living with the ancestors, who would fight beside them & bring an end to tyranny & oppression. Here is a Ghost Dance dress.
It is also said that the #WoundedKneeMassacre was an act of retribution by the 7th Cavalry, the same regiment led by Custer at Little Big Horn.
Hitler was inspired by the #WoundedKneeMassacre.

“Hitler’s concept of concentration camps as well as the practicality of genocide owed much to his studies of US history. He praised the efficiency of America’s extermination of the red savages.” -from Adolf Hitler by John Toland
My People, the Oceti Sakowin (Great Sioux Nation) still suffer from the historical trauma born from the #WoundedKneeMassacre.

The sacred hoop of humanity was broken that day. Black Elk said the dream died. We will not let it. We fight to mend the hoop & revive the dream.
A thunder being nation I am, I have said

A thunder being nation I am, I have said

You shall live

You shall live

You shall live

You shall live

—A Lakota Song

⚡️❤️⚡️

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