Wounded Knee Museum

A Museum commemorating and providing additional information about the Massacre at Wounded Knee. The museum provides information, artifacts, and tours that shed light on what happened at Wounded Knee.

In the Fall of 1890, the Sioux indians were in the death throes of their nation's legacy. The Native American tribe was being pushed out of the plains by new settlers headed west. Sioux chieftains, listening to the prophecies of a medicine man named Wovoka, believed the dead would soon return to hunt with the living and a tidal wave of new soil would eradicate the white settlers, but only if they performed the "Ghost Dance." The Ghost Dance, seen by settlers through the Winter season, created a frightening representation of indian culture.   
  
After asking for help from Washington, Washington told local military leaders to arrest indian superiors in an attempt to quell a possible uprising. Chief Sitting Bull was killed in a standoff and Chief Big Foot was the next Chief on the list. Big Foot, hearing of the armies plans to capture him, led his tribe southwards to the Pine Ridge Reservation, but was intercepted by American troops on December 28th. Shots were fired as the tribe scrambled to escape, but american forces peppered the indian camp with cannon fire as well as cutting off their means of escape. At the end of the fight, 300 men, women, and children of the Sioux nation lay dead including Big Foot. Scattered fighting followed in the coming months, but this total destruction of the Sioux nation led to the ultimate end of the Indian Wars.

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/knee.htm