Posted on 12/28/2004 9:53:04 PM PST by SAMWolf
The following is a letter from General Nelson A. Miles to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1917 concerning the Massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890:
Washington, D. C. March 13, 1917
The Honorable Commissioner of Indian Afairs
Sir:
I am informed that there is a delegation in Washington now who came here from South Dakota and who are representatives of the remnant of what is known as the Big Foot Band of Northern Sioux Indians.
I was in command of that Department in 1889, 1890, and 1891, when what is known as the Messiah craze and threatened uprising of the Indians occurred. It was created by misrepresentations of white men then living in Nevada who sent secret messages to the different tribes in the great Northwest calling upon them to send representatives to meet Him near Walker Lake, Nevada.
This was done, and returning to their different tribes in the Northwest and West, and even in the Southwest, they repeated the false statement to the different tribes that the Messiah had returned to earth and would the next year move East,driving large herds of wild horses, buffalo, elk, deer and antelope, and was going to convert this into an Indian heaven--in other words, the Happy Hunting Grounds.
This, together with the fact that the Indians had been in almost a starving condition in South Dakota, owing to the scarcity of rations and the nonfulfillment of treaties and sacred obligations under which the Government had been placed to the Indians, caused great dissatisfaction, dissension and almost hostility. Believing this superstition, they resolved to gather and go West to meet the Messiah, as they believed it was the fulfillment of their dreams and prayer and the prophecies as had been taught them by the missionaries.
Several thousand warriors assembled in the Bad Lands of South Dakota. During this time the tribe, under Big Foot, moved from their reservation to near the Red Cloud Agency in South Dakota under a flag of truce. They numbered over four hundred souls. They were intercepted by a command under Lt. Col. Whitside, who demanded their surrender, which they complied with, and moved that afternoon some two or three miles and camped where they were directed to do, near the camp of the troops.
During the night Colonel Forsyth joined the command with reinforcements of several troops of the 7th Cavalry. The next morning he deployed his troops around the camp, placed two pieces of artillery in position, and demanded the surrender of the arms from the warriors. This was complied with by the warriors going out from camp and placing the arms on the ground where they were directed. Chief Big Foot, an old man, sick at the time and unable to walk, was taken out of a wagon and laid on the ground.
While this was being done a detachment of soldiers was sent into the camp to search for any arms remaining there, and it was reported that their rudness frightened the women and children. It is also reported that a remark was made by some one of the soldiers that "when we get the arms away from them we can do as we please with them, " indicating that they were to be destroyed. Some of the indians could understand English. this and other things alarmed the Indians and scuffle occured between one warrior who had rifle in his hand and two soldiers. The rifle was discharged and a massacre occurred, not only the warriors but the sick Chief Big Foot, and a large number of women and children who tried to escape by running and scattering over the prarie were hunted down and killed. The *official reports make the number killed 90 warriors and approximately 200 women and children.
*(Note: "Official reports" = Armys' version, actual number killed was closer to 350)
The action of the Commanding Officer, in my judgement at the time, and I so reported, was most reprehensible. The disposition of his troops was such that in firing upon the warriors they fired directly towards their own lines and also into the camp of the women and children. and I have regarded the whole affair as most unjustifiable and worthy of the severest condemnation.
In my opinion, the least the Government can do is to make a suitable recompense to the survivors who are still living for the great unjustice that was done them and the serious loss of their relatives and property--and I earnestly recommend that this may be favorably considered by the Department and by Congress and a suitable appropriation be made.
I remain
Very truly yours,
(SGD.) NELSON A. MILES
Lt. General, U. S. Army
It should be noted that 20 Congressional Medals of Honor were awarded to the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry for bravery in this "battle"... sigh...
Hi miss Feather
LOL. The guy who sold me my house was a former Golden Knight.
An excellent book on it was written by his son, CAPT Edward L. Beach, Jr. It's called "The Wreck of the MEMPHIS" and was published in 1966.
So good, you feel like your going through the hell those boys went through.
Pat
I'm a member of the Presbyterian Church, USA, where the liberals continue to fight a decades-long war to unseat the Bible as the basis of our faith and install secularism and socialist ideas. The laity has mostly defeated them, but they will not accept the will of the majority and just keep fighting. It's really sad that a church so closely associated with the American founding has been reduced to this by the liberals.
To view go digitalglobe.com
FYI: I think they're getting a lot of hits so download time might be slow.
I also didn't know Capt. Beach wrote "Run Silent, Run Deep," a really good story and on of the best submarine movies. I thought the Bungo Straits had to be a made-up name - until I found out it's a real place!
I laid the tiles on the floor with the spacers in place, took a perma marker and drew around them, removed the tiles, then starting cutting the carpet out of the space.
Grouting is next.
Dennis and I had planned to replace the carpet which is badly worn this next year. But that won't happen now, so this mini face lift will help improve the looks of the door area. I'd already painted the door a dark taupe with a lighter taupe around the small window in the door.
Freeper fastattacksailor pointed out that Captain Edward Beach's middle initial was "L" not "J".
Sorry for not catching that error before posting. That's what I get for rushing.
There were a lot of MOH's awarded that weren't really deserved early on. I know the requirements have been considerably tightened up.
IIRC, there were a buttload of CMHs given out for actions at Little Big Horn, too (which, I'm pretty sure there were several acts of bravery - especially those guys who had to go get water. That had to suck...) which I believe several of them were recinded later, since they didn't quite meet the bar...
Bit giving them out for what happened at Wounded Knee? That was a farce...
Thanks fastattacksailor.
Another book to add to my reading list.
Was there a jump tower in the back yard?
I believe his son wrote the book.
I remember the Clark Gable movie, seen that a few times.
Glad to hear the project went well. You must be doing something right, mine never turn out easy.
I agree with you there, I also think there'as a move by the Lakota to have the US Army Battle Streamer recinded for Wounded Knee.
I believe the 7th Cav refers to it as "The Battle of Pine Ridge" on their streamer...
Ad-aware (make sure it is Lavasoft, there are bad imposters)
http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
and Spybot Search and Destroy, PepiMK Software,
http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
work well and are free downloads. Spybot can dig out several of the Cool Web Search variants, which are really tenacious. Download as files to the disk, shut down your computer normally and then restart in safe mode, and install and run them.
Install and set up in the start menu folder Spywareblaster. This will run continuously in the background and block spyware in operation. Works well.
http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/products.html
These all update manually in the free versions. Update once a week or so.
I also browse with Firefox with the Java turned off. Firefox does not accept ActiveX scripts. Obviously many web sites won't work properly under these conditions, but why leave the front and the rear doors open all the time, but instead unlock them after consideration?
Javacool also has a Beta SpywareGuard, which I will report on after I have run it for a while. Supposed to do very good stuff.
Good luck on your infestation. I think Spybot will get it out.
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