Major Whiteside
Heading out from Pine Ridge in a northeasterly direction, Major Whiteside sent scouts out ahead to find Big Foot's band, promising twenty-five dollars to the first scout who found them. The scouts did not find Big Foot's band; on the contrary, Whiteside's scouts were watering their horses in a stream north of Porcupine when they suddenly found themselves surrounded by Minicoujou scouts. The Minicoujous took the scouts to Big Foot who had become very ill from pneumonia during the trip and who was traveling in a wagon. From these scouts, Big Foot learned that Major Whiteside was camped near Wounded Knee Creek and he told the scouts to go back and tell Whiteside that he was coming in to see him and that he wanted no trouble. When the scouts returned and told this to Whiteside, he took his 225 men and 10 officers and rode up to meet Big Foot's band that was now slowly moving toward Wounded Knee Creek. At a big hill called Porcupine Butte, he met the band slowly coming toward him with the warriors in the lead. Taking no chances, Whiteside fanned his men out in battle formation in front of the band and ran his two cannons out in front of the line. The Minicoujous kept coming, and the warriors spread out in a skirmish line. Some of the warriors got off their horses and tied up the tails of their ponies in preparation for a fight. Others of the Minicoujou warriors raced back and forth, waving their rifles and giving their war cries. It was a tense moment, and fighting could have broken out at any moment if anyone on either side had made a false move. Behind the Minicoujou warriors came Big Foot's wagon with a white flag attached to it. Whiteside's orders were to disarm the band and to bring them in as soon as possible. He had originally planned to do that as soon as he saw the band. Now, however, with the warriors riding up and down ready to go into action at the slightest provocation, his scouts pointed out to him that this was impossible right now. He just could not send word to those heated up warriors to put down those guns, get off their horses, give them up, and come walking along behind him. Whiteside rode up to Big Foot's wagon and told the chief that he wanted him and his band to go with him to Wounded Knee Creek and to camp there for the night. Big Foot said that that was exactly what he had planned to do anyway, and so the Minicoujous surrounded by the soldiers made their way slowly to Wounded Knee Creek where they camped for the night. The soldiers surrounded the Indian camp so closely that no Indian could slip out and escape. The army set up a special, large tent with a stove in it for the ailing Big Foot, and Whiteside sent a doctor to treat him.Forsyth
The next morning Col. James W. Forsyth arrived with more soldiers and took command of the military operation to disarm the Minicoujous. Altogether, he had about 500 soldiers, and the Minicoujous, men, women, and children, numbered about 350 to 400, with about 100 to 150 of them warriors. Since they so greatly outnumbered the Minicoujous, Forsyth did not think they would try any fighting, but he was taking no chances. On the hill overlooking Wounded Knee Valley, four Hotchkiss guns had been mounted. These were small, cannon-like guns which could rapidly shoot shells that weighed two pounds and ten ounces and which exploded on hitting. They could shoot effectively for a distance close to a mile. Most of the Indians knew that any kind of resistance was impossible, but they hadn't reckoned on some very die hard ghost shirt wearers who had their shirts on under their blankets and who still believed that the shirts would stop the bullets. On the morning of December 29, 1890, after both sides had eaten breakfast, Colonel Forsyth sent Major Whiteside into the Indian camp to get down to the business of disarming the Minicoujous. The Eyapaha or camp crier, named Wounded Hand, was sent throughout the Indian camp to announce that all the men were to assemble in front of Big Foot's tent for a council. When the men had come together, it was explained to them that they must go get their guns and put them into a pile by Big Foot's tent. The soldiers remembered clearly all the gleaming rifles that they had seen the day before when they first met the Minicoujou warriors drawn up in battle formation in front of the rest of their band. Also, the testimony of many of the Indians after the massacre indicates that, though many carried very old guns that weren't much good, there were also many who had Winchester repeating rifles and carbines. Most rifles, especially the older models, came from the Army, in the first place. More than one skirmish or contest had been won by the Sioux who mostly out horsed the soldiers on their sturdier and better conditioned mounts. Soldiers on spent, winded mounts, soon lost their weapons. Sioux horses were not kept in confining stockades. They were used to being ridden and often. Even the children played their part in keeping the Sioux mounts superbly conditioned. Note: The Winchester: In 1858, a Winchester Arms Company rifle mechanic, named Henry devised a new rifle with a 15 cartridge magazine. The gun was operated by moving the trigger lever down and back to its original position. This extracted the spent cartridge, carried a fresh shell from the spring-activated tubular magazine into the chamber, and cocked the hammer ready for firing. The rifle sold well and in 1866 the Winchester Repeating Arms Company was established at New Haven, Connecticut. Soon afterwards an improved version of the ‘Henry' rifle was produced. It was however the 1873 model that was the most successful Winchester. Over the next 40 years the company sold 720,610 of these rifles. That would be about 144 of these rifles per Teton warrior; and there are those idiots who expected the Sioux to keep on fighting and hence condemned Chief Red Cloud. When the warriors were told to get their rifles and pile them up, they began talking among themselves as to what they should do. They finally decided to send two men in to talk to Big Foot and ask him what they should do about giving up their guns. Big Foot, after thinking a minute, instructed them to give up only their bad guns. These guns were used for hunting. Without them the people would have a hard time subsisting for there was still much game, mainly deer and antelope upon the plains. In the creeks and river breaks, mule deer and white tail were yet numerous. One of Forsyth's interpreters who had gone along with the two men understood what Big Foot had said and he advised them to give up the good guns too. "You can buy guns," the interpreter said, "but if you lose a man, you cannot replace him." Big Foot answered, "No, we will keep the good guns." The two men went back and told the others what the chief had said. Instead of sending all the men at once back to their camp, Forsyth sent them back to get their guns in groups of twenty. The first twenty to come back brought back two broken and very old rifles and laid them down. In regard to the surrendered guns, an observer later said, "They were long used, no doubt, as toys are by children, but they formed no part of the splendid Winchesters owned by the warriors." As each group of twenty came back, similar old rifles were put on the pile, and the soldiers could see that they were getting nowhere. Forsyth had Big Foot carried out to tell the warriors to give up their good guns. This was a huge mistake on the part of Forsyth. Big Foot said that they had no more guns, as they had been seized by the soldiers when they were back at the Cheyenne River Agency. Forsyth then asked Big Foot where all those guns were that the soldiers saw the day before when they first met the Minicoujous by Porcupine Butte. Big Foot just repeated that the guns that his warriors surrendered were all the guns that they had. Finally, Forsyth saw that the only thing he could do was to search the camp, as well as the men and women in it, most of who were covered with blankets under which it would be quite easy to conceal a rifle.. It wasn't long before the good guns began to show up. Warriors who had not wanted to take any chances on losing their guns had left them with their women to hide. The women tried every trick they could think of. Some sat on the ground with their wide skirts spread out over the guns. One elderly grandmother was lying on the ground apparently quite sick as she indicated by her moaning. Under her was found a Winchester repeater. Some guns were found inside wall pockets of the tipis, while others were found packed in the wagons for the trip to Pine Ridge. To avoid any accusations of indelicacies involving the Indian women, enlisted men were not permitted to go inside the tipis; only officers were allowed to do this.Yellow Bird
It was during this tipi to tipi search, which took considerable time, which the first mistake was made on the Indian side. The one responsible for this mistake was the old medicine man, Yellow Bird. He was a firm believer in the Ghost Dance and the bullet stopping power of the ghost shirt. As both men and women grew restless during the search for guns, Yellow Bird began dancing around the warriors, singing and occasionally picking up a handful of dust and throwing it into the air in the direction of the soldiers. He kept yelling at the warriors, apparently urging them to do something. Yellow Bird kept this up during the long search for weapons, and the warriors grew increasingly more restless. Finally, one of the army interpreters told Col. Forsyth what Yellow Bird was trying to do and what he was saying to the warriors. "Don't be afraid," he kept telling them. "Let your hearts be strong to meet what is before you. “We all know that there are lots of soldiers around us and they have lots of bullets, but I have received assurance That Their Bullets Cannot Penetrate Us. The prairie is large and the bullets will not go toward you. The bullets will not penetrate you.” Forsyth gave orders to an interpreter to tell Yellow Bird to sit down and keep quiet, and, after Yellow Bird had completed his latest circle around the warriors, he sat down and lapsed into silence. In the meantime, the tipi to tipi search was coming to an end. The search had turned up 38 rifles, but most of them were old and not much good. Only a few of the rifles that had been found were Winchester repeaters. The rest of the rifles that the soldiers had clearly seen the day before on first meeting Big Foot's band remained to be found. Since the whole camp and all the women had been searched, there was only one place left where those repeating rifles could be, and that was under the blankets of the warriors themselves. Through an interpreter, Forsyth told the warriors that he did not want to conduct a personal search, but wanted each warrior to come forth like a man, remove his blanket, and put any concealed gun on the ground. About twenty of the older men said, "Hau," got up, and moved toward the Colonel. The younger warriors made no move to comply and Yellow Bird jumped up and began yelling at them again, whirling around and throwing dust into the air. After the older men had passed between the soldiers, removing their blankets and revealing no weapons, Major Whiteside and Lt. Varnum started passing the young men between them. From the very first three who went past, they found two rifles and a quantity of ammunition. At this, Yellow Bird became more excited, and Philip Wells, one of the interpreters, got Big Foot's brother-in-law to try to calm him down, but with no success.Black Coyote
At this moment, one of the Minicoujous named Black Coyote, seeing that his rifle was going to be discovered, 'took it out from under his blanket and began to wave it around over his head.’ Turning Hawk, one of the survivors, explained later that Black Coyote was a "crazy man, a young man of very bad influence and, in fact, a “nobody." Joseph Horn Cloud and Dewey Beard also explained later that he was also deaf. Black Coyote kept yelling that the rifle belonged to him, that he had paid much money for it, and that he wasn't going to give it up unless he was paid for it. Two soldiers approached and tried to take it away from him. In this struggle, the gun went off in the air. At this moment, Yellow Bird leaped to his feet, let out a fearful yell, and threw a handful of dirt into the air. Immediately, the camp was in an uproar as the soldiers instinctively returned fire. Bullets of the soldiers that missed Indians hit other soldiers, and bullets fired by Indians at the soldiers hit other Indians. "Wild confusion followed with smoke and dust making it hard to see who was who. Big Foot was killed in one of the first volleys. In the beginning, the soldiers who had been surrounding the Indians were afraid to fire because many of their own men were still mixed up with the Minicoujous. Captain Gapron, one of the officers commanding the Hotchkiss guns, noticed that one of the gunners was so nervous that he was afraid the man would fire out of sheer excitement. He ordered the friction primer removed from the gun so that it couldn't be fired at the troops. As the groups separated, though, the surrounding soldiers opened fire, and the Hotchkiss guns on the hill did enormous damage. In the smoke, dust and confusion, old men, women, and children were killed and wounded. Since many of the Indian men and women were wrapped in blankets, it was difficult to tell the men from the women in the confusion of the fight. When a warrior went down, the one nearest to him, man or woman, would seize his rifle and begin to fire back. The soldiers, seeing only the flash of the rifle and a blanket covered figure through the dust and smoke, fired back, and a number of women were killed in this manner. Dewey Beard, an Indian survivor, remembered later only the glint of brass buttons through the murk of the confused fighting.Smoke and Dust
The fight with Minicoujous and the soldiers all mixed up together in the smoke and dust lasted about five minutes and, to this day, it is impossible to tell who killed whom. During this time, soldiers very likely killed as many soldiers as Indians killed Indians. After this first five minutes, the Indians broke for cover, joined by their women and children, and the soldiers, who had been in the camp, headed for their original positions outside the camp. Later on, an officer said that he admired the way in which the Indians handled their Winchesters. These apparently were the good guns that Big Foot told his people to save. The cannons silenced the fire from the camp shortly after both sides ran for cover. Only a few Indians, who had taken refuge in the tipis and fighting from there, had remained. Yellow Bird was one of these, and he had sought shelter in one of the Sibley tents that had belonged to the scouts. From here, by slitting a hole in the canvas wall, he shot several soldiers before someone noticed where the fire was coming from. Cavalrymen riddled the tent with bullets and a Hotchkiss gun fired two shells directly into it. Later, Yellow Bird's charred body was found within the remains of the tent. The main and final action now moved down to the dry creek where most of the warriors had followed the women and children for shelter. A Hotchkiss gun was moved down from the hill to zero in on the gulch because "bullets were coming like hail from the Indians' Winchesters," as Corporal Paul Weinert was to recall later. "The wheels of my Hotchkiss gun were bored full of holes and our clothing was marked in several places. Once a cartridge (weighing two pounds) was knocked out of my hand just as I was about to put it in the gun, and it's a wonder it didn't explode. I kept going farther, and pretty soon everything was quiet at the other end of the line." With the main fighting over, one by one, wounded people started coming out of the dry creek and, helped by the soldiers, made their way to the hospital area set up north of the cavalry camp. Phillip Wells was one of those who went down to the village to see how many wounded could be helped. About a dozen people were badly wounded, but still alive. One of the wounded survivors named Frog was being helped from the village area when he saw a burned Indian body lying within what had once been an army tent. Looking around for someone who could speak Indian, he saw Phillip Wells, one of the interpreters. He called Wells over and asked, "Who is the man lying burned there?" Wells told him that it was Yellow Bird. Later, Wells related that Frog raised himself up a little higher, raised his closed fist, pointing it in the direction of the dead Indian, shot out his fingers (which among the Indians is a deadly insult meaning I could kill you and not be satisfied doing it. I am sorry that I could do no more to you), and then used words trembling which I could not catch. But he said this, which I did hear, speaking as though to the dead man: "If I could be taken to you, I would stab you," and then turning to me he said, "He is our murderer; only for inciting our young men, we would have all been alive and happy." The disarming of the Indians was the main mistake though in that type of situation. Later, an Army General, General Miles would have sense enough not to attempt the same as Forsyth in a related situation.. They had always had their arms for hunting and to give up your hunting rifle, especially a coveted Winchester was a difficult thing to do especially for a hungry people who needed to contingently supply other rations from what game still remained. To give up your source for food procurement especially to one who constantly lied to you and whom you could not trust, yes, would be a difficult thing to do. Had Major Whiteside been in command, from his actions the day before; refusing to demand the Minicoujous guns, quite possibly he may have used wiser protocol on the fateful morning compared to Forsyth’s mistake. The fighting had lasted a little over an hour and when it was over, 146 Minicoujous were counted dead and were later buried. The dead Included 84 men and boys, 44 women, and 18 children. These were not the total Indian dead and wounded, because many others were carried off by surviving Indian relatives and friends. It was, therefore, impossible to make a count of these. Fifty-one wounded Indians were taken to the Pine Ridge hospital and, of these, at least seven died later, mainly because, out of fear, they would not let the army doctors treat them. Thus, the total known Minicoujou dead numbered 153. Very few of Big Foot's people escaped death or at least injury. Among the non-Indians, there were twenty five dead and thirty nine wounded. In asking the question, "What caused Wounded Knee?" one would like to be able to point his finger at one single thing and say "This caused it, or that caused it." In the case of Wounded Knee, this is impossible, because there were a number of things causing it, and each one of these things could not have caused it alone. Each one of the factors involved, leading up to the final tragedy, depended on one or several other factors.All the Factors
Therefore, one cannot point to any one thing and say that it was the cause. To explain Wounded Knee fully, one has to point to all the factors involved and to note their connections.Wounded Knee was brought about by:
a) Wovoka. b) Kicking Bear’s and Short Bull’s invention of the Ghost Shirt protection. c)Forsyth’s attempt to disarm the Sioux of their weapons and hunting rifles. Why did the Army have to have the Indians hunting rifles? No soldier had been killed, at least in any significant numbers since the Custer battle, 14 long years earlier, wherein most every one will or should agree that Custer deserved his fate. Because Indians are doing a superstitious dance is the reason to disarm them? Even an Army General wisely would not carry through with this request under similar circumstances less than a month later. d)Yellow Bird’s obsessed, blind faith in Wovoka, Kicking Bird and Short Bull and the ‘bullet proof’ power of the Ghost shirts and hence stirring up the young braves. e)Federal Indian Policy of not honoring their Treaties. This Policy of Greed culminated in the frustration of the people for the preceding 14 years which, in turn, goaded them to strike out at almost any provocation, plus Yellow Bird's inciting the warriors, plus the presence of the soldiers. f)All these factors working together and influencing one another caused Wounded Knee, and one does not have a true picture of the tragedy unless he sees all these connections.Please note:
Additional Information about this historical project:
The writing above is from Ed McGaa's book Crazy Horse and Chief Red Cloud and was sourced from Dr. John Bryde a former Jesuit Pine Ridge Missionary in the forties who interviewed the old timers in their own language- Lakota which he spoke fluently. It is their words directly. Early white writers, most often errant and often prejudicially biased in cover up and false superiority never had this access which Fr Bryde had nor the added more accurate communication which he possessed. His attitude was also different. He had a high respect for his Interviewees.
© Ed McGaa - All Rights Reserved
Ed McGaa, J.D., was born on the Oglala Sioux reservation in South Dakota and is a registered tribal member. He served in Korea as a Marine Corporal before earning an undergraduate degree at St. John's University in Minnesota. He then rejoined the Marine Corps to become a Phantom F4 fighter pilot in Vietnam, where he flew in more than a hundred combat missions. Upon his return McGaa danced in six annual Sioux Sun Dances. The Sun Dance led him to the seven Mother Earth ceremonies under the tutelage of Chief Eagle Feather and Chief Fools Crow, two Sioux holy men. Eagle Man holds a law degree from the University of South Dakota and is the author of Red Cloud: Biography of an Indian Chief; Mother Earth Spirituality: Healing Ourselves and Our World; Rainbow Tribe: Ordinary People Journeying on the Red Road; Native Wisdom: Perceptions of the Natural Way; and the novel Eagle Vision: Return of the Hoop.Special thanks to Ed McGaa for permission to reprint his writing on Wounded Knee.
Special thanks to Firefly for the lead on this report.
Last updated on January 25, 2007