Wounded Knee Massacre Analysis

"I heard the word fire and took it and am certain that it came from behind the Soldiers. I saw a man passing busily behind who I took to be an Officer. The firing was a little time after. I saw some persons fall. Before the firing I saw a stick thrown at the Soldiers. The word fire I took to be a word of Command. I had in my hand a highland broad Sword which I brought from home. Upon my coming out I was told it was a wrangle between the Soldiers and people, upon that I went back and got my Sword,” said Benjamin Burdick. This account shows the confusion that was ever-present during the Boston massacre. It also shows that the colonists and the soldiers may have been equally violent during the Boston Massacre.

On the day of September 11, 1857, an emigrant party camped at Mountain Meadows was brutally killed by the Mormon militia aided by Indians. This essay examines two viewpoints regarding the massacre found in Sally Denton’s “American Massacre” and in “Massacre at Mountain Meadows” by Ronald W. Walker, Richard E. Turley, and Glen M. Turley.

There were many people and settlers involved in the Sand Creek Massacre. A very important settler was Colonel John M. Chivington. Chivington was in charge of many Colorado volunteers during the Colorado War. John was appointed by the governor of the whole Colorado Territory. The governor's name was William Gilpin. William didn’t mind any of the Indians. ”Gilpin offered to make Chivington chaplain, but Chivington is supposed to have said: ‘I feel compelled to strike a blow in person for the destruction of human slavery.’”( Myers 2) Chivington was under direct orders of Maj. Gen. Samuel Ryan Curtis during the war. During this time the settlers decided they wanted to make a peace treaty with the Native Tribes. The Tribes have always respected the whites but the whites wanted to

Although the horrors of the American Civil War and Reconstruction within Indian Territory were fresh. Yet, the presence of Indian Territory changed drastically between 1865 and 1889, because of the “Second Trail of Tears”, the unrest of the Southern Plains tribes of western Indian Territory, and the impact of U.S. Polices on Indian Territory.

When examining early American history it is commonplace, besides in higher academia, to avoid the nuances of native and colonizer relations. The narrative becomes one of defeat wherein the only interaction to occur is one of native American’s constant loss to white colonizers. It is not to say that the European colonizers didn’t commit genocide, destroy the land and fabric of countless cultures, but rather when looking at history it is important to take a bottom’s up approach to storytelling. We must examine in what ways the native Americans fought English colonization, not just through war, but also through the legal system that was established after the area was colonized.

West of the Revolution: An Uncommon History of 1776 (2014) is Claudio Saunt’s third book. Saunt, who completed his undergraduate work at Columbia and received his PhD from Duke, has taught at the University of Georgia since 1998 and is currently the department head of American Studies and the Associate Director of the Institute of Native American Studies. His other major works are A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816 (1999) and Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of the American Family (2005).

During the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had formed policies which reduced land allotted to Native Americans. By enforcing these laws as well as Anglo-American ideals, the United States compromised indigenous people’s culture and ability to thrive in its society.

The Trail of Tears was a testament to the cruelty and disrespect we showed toward the Native Americans. This paper will show how the United States used its legislative power and brute force to remove the Indian tribes. From the election of Andrew Jackson, and the implementation of the Indian Removal Act. The Creeks, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole and their actions against the removal process. Finally, how the Cherokee used the legal process to fight evacuation of their nation.

As a child, I have always been intrigued about the vast traditions and the colorful histories of various Indian Tribes. I choose Dee Browns “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee” in order to be further educated about the Native American nations. I was familiar with the piece long before I even knew it was a book by watching and love the HBO special on “Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee”.

“The Indian presence precipitated the formation of an American identity” (Axtell 992). Ostracized by numerous citizens of the United States today, this quote epitomizes Axtell’s beliefs of the Indians contributing to our society. Unfortunately, Native Americans’ roles in history are often categorized as insignificant or trivial, when in actuality the Indians contributed greatly to Colonial America, in ways the ordinary person would have never deliberated. James Axtell discusses these ways, as well as what Colonial America may have looked like without the Indians’ presence. Throughout his article, his thesis stands clear by his persistence of alteration the Native Americans had on our nation. James Axtell’s bias delightfully enhances his thesis, he provides a copious amount of evidence establishing how Native Americans contributed critically to the Colonial culture, and he considers America as exceptional – largely due to the Native Americans.

Although The Sand Creek Massacre is known for occurring on November 29, 1864 there are specific reasons this incident happened and they all take place before 1864. It all started during the 1850’s, where the the gold and silver rush brought many white settlers near the Rocky Mountains and the surrounding foothills. This event is known as the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush of 1658 which angered many people known as the Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians. They soon began attacking the white men which caused the number of soldier to decrease this then led to the Colorado War of 1863-1865.The battle began to get out of hand that territorial governor John Evans sent a Militia Commander known as John M. Chivington. Now this man was very well known for his passion of extinguishing all of the Indians once he was let in the clergy. The Civil War raged in the east in the spring of 1864 where Chivington launched a violent campaign against the Cheyenne and their allies. The troops attacked any and all Indians and their villages, but the Cheyenne were joined by Arapaho, Sioux, Comanche, and Kiowa in Colorado and Kansas, went on a defensive warpath. Evans and Chivington then raised the Third Colorado Cavalry which was a reinforced militia of short term volunteers who went by the name of “hundred Dazers.” It was a summer of scattered clashes and small raids, but the Cheyenne and Arapaho were finally ready for peace. The Indian representatives then met with Evans and Chevington on September 28, 1864 at

Lee was killed because they found out that he was part of the Massacre. If you wonder how he was the part of it well I’m about to tell you. Major John Higbee that was in command of the force at Mountain Meadow persuaded John D. Lee to be and William Bateman to act as a decoy to draw the emigrants out from the protection of their wagons. John D. Lee and William Bateman were waving a white flag, marched across the field and talked to the emigrants to leave their weapons, wagons, and cattle for there could be no harm from the Mormons. That was a lie. The emigrants listened to Lee and they were walking with a mormon by their side. Every emigrant men and women had a Mormon by their side with a gun. Then after a quarter mile Major John Higbee yelled ‘’ Halt! Do your duty!’’. Then that's when the massacre happened. Right when he said that, all the Mormons shot the emigrants that were beside them. Only seventeen kids survived and they were maybe at least 7 years old or younger. There was one kid that was only 4 years old and saw his mother get killed by a mormon. He said it was the most horriblest thing he ever saw because he was right beside his mother when he saw her get shot in the head. The mormons let those 17 kids leave on their own.The next day after the massacre Colonel Dame and Lt. Colonel Haight visited the site of the massacre with John Lee. He described how it looked that when the massacre happened. John Lee, Colonel Dame, and Lt. Colonel Haight went back home and told about the massacre to everyone. Some blamed Brigham Young but he never knew about the massacre. Everyone were wondering who was responsible about the massacre. When Young’s official Mormons heard about that, they were worked on blaming the Indians or the emigrants themselves. By November John D. Lee completed a fictionalized account of the massacre, attributing all the killing to the Indians and send it to Young. When Young received it he began on his report about the Indians doing

This movie was pleasantly surprising. It was an enjoyable watch and told a story that kept the plot line and details close to the real history of the Sioux Indians’ lives, starting with The Battle at Little Big Horn.

The defeat of the first United States army by a coalition of Native Americans is the focus in Collin Calloway’s The Victory with No Name. In this historical account, Calloway addresses what occurred on November 4th, 1791, when an Indian army consisting of a variety of Indian tribes, led by Little Turtle and Blue Jacket, ambushed the first American army near the Wabash River to protect themselves from American expansion of the Northwest Territory. The American army, led by Revolutionary War veteran Arthur St. Clair, was ill-equipped with men, horses, and weaponry, and ignorant about Indian whereabouts and tactics. Calloway organizes his argument by describing America’s desire for land, the invasion and settlement of Indian land, and the resistance formed by Native Americans. Calloway continues by illustrating the defeat of the American army and the aftermath of the battle between Native Americans and the U.S. By drawing on extensive historical evidence that illustrated the events before, during, and after the battle, Calloway presents a detailed historical narrative that challenges the idea that “winners write the history…even when they lose” and offers a narrative that shows both the Native American and the U.S. perspective, ultimately giving credit to the Indians for their victory. However, Calloway provides information that is irrelevant to his argument and the book, which makes it difficult to follow along throughout the story.

On the morning of December 29, 1890, many Sioux Indians (estimated at above two hundred) died at the hands of the United States Army near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Indians were followers of the Ghost Dance religion, devised by Wovoka, a Paiute prophet, as a spiritual outlet for Indian repression by whites. The United States Army set out to intercept this group of Native Americans because they performed the controversial Ghost Dance. Both whites’ and the Sioux’s misunderstanding of an originally peaceful Indian religion culminated in the Battle of Wounded Knee. This essay first shows how the Ghost Dance came about, its later adaptation by the Sioux, and