WOUNDED KNEE - MASSACHUSETTS MUSEUM HOLDS REMAINS AND ITEMS FROM WOUNDED KNEE MASSACRE

A museum at the Woods Memorial Library in Barre, Massachusetts displays many Indigenous "Daily Living Items" (misnomer "artifacts) that were taken from massacre victims at the site of the "Wounded Knee massacre" on December 29th, 1890. The official version of how they ended up in Barre, MA is that a contingent of soldiers had been ordered to bury the Indigenous Lakota (misnomer "Sioux") remains in a mass grave, and that they "found" these items in an underground cache. This story doesn't hold much water, since the items include infants' and children's moccasins, and medicine bags containing the owners' umbilical cords. These ARE NOT items that would be buried in an underground cache. The moccasins, of course, would have been on the feet of the children, and the medicine bags would have been on the persons of those to whom they belonged; they were NEVER without the bags.

We would like to see these items repatriated to the Lakota people who are surviving dependents of the Wounded Knee victims. A contingent of Lakota people came to Barre in the early '90's, looking to get these items back. All they left with was a braid of Chief Bigfoot's hair.

The petition below and asking all those who would like to help to affix their signatures and then pass the petition along to their friends and relatives.

The Woods Memorial Library is a private entity, though open to the public. The library has never accepted any state or federal money for its operation. For that reason, the library can not be legally compelled to return these Daily Living Items to the Lakota people. This is, in essence, a private collection. So we must appeal to the directors of the museum on ethical, and not legal, grounds. I've heard it said that these items are just the spoils of war, like the souvenirs that my Dad brought back from Europe after WWII. Not true. My Dad did not loot the graves of massacred women and children to gather his souvenirs. The comparison is not valid.

Please sign the petition if you agree with our aims, and then send it along. If you are the 100th person to sign it, please return it to Rick at rhlennox@msn.com We will be gathering the 100-signature petitions and those that have been signed in the store and using them to try to convince the directors of the library and museum that these items should be returned to their rightful home.

Rick

Click here Petition to print out a hard copy of the petition:

If you prefer to copy and paste the petition, and you do not know how to copy and paste, click Here to learn how.

Remember your signature will only count if you use your full and legal name and street address, including town, city or state.