Wounded Knee Petition
We, the undersigned, hereby petition the Woods Memorial Library and/or the Barre Library Association Museum to return to the Lakota people all of the "Daily Living Items (misnomer "artifacts") on display or in storage that were taken from the site of the Wounded Knee Massacre, where over 453 Lakota women, children and elderly were mass executed by the u.s. army's "reinvented seventh cavalry."
Children's moccasins and medicine bags containing the umbilical cords of their owners WERE NOT found in an alleged "underground cache" but were stripped from the massacre victims in the most savage way. They were taken directly from the bodies of the massacre victims before they were buried in a mass grave.
We appeal to the directors of the Library and the Museum to act from a position of conscience and sound ethical judgment. There is a clear moral and ethical imperative, and we ask that the Museum directors do what is good and honorable by all standards.
These items are NOT the spoils of war. They are the result of the looting of bodies before or during burial. We ask only that the Directors imagine someone looting the bodies of their mothers and fathers, children and grand children before their burials. It is obvious that these artifacts were obtained by just such looting. We ask that the Directors return these items to the Lakota people so that the items can be properly handled.
This petition is coordinated by The Wandering Wolf Gallery, 242 Greenfield Road, South Deerfield MA 01373. 413-665-0076.
rhlennox@msn.com
Wandering Wolf Gallery