The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Wounded Knee Massacre - 1890 - Mar. 13th, 2003

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKmscr.html ^ | Lorie Liggett

[SAMWolf]

I do sleep a few of hours a night, does that count?

[Sparta]

Impressive.

[andysandmikesmom]

You are welcome...glad you enjoyed it...

[andysandmikesmom]

I am always surprised, when I see how little many other families know about their ancestors....I was just so very lucky to be born into a family of talkers, who loved telling the old tales...unless all these things are written down, talking and tale telling are the means by which a family retains a connection with their very own past...

One other thing I should mention about this Sioux ancestry...my grandfather, had two other brothers, fathered by my great grandfather, and great grandmother...you can see the glaring difference in appearance between them and my grandfather...the Indian or Sioux traits were passed down to my dad and his sister, both who have the very high cheekbones, and had jet black hair, which is not supposed to exist in 'whites'....still neither my dad nor his sister looked like what one often thinks of an Indian looking like...actually they were most often taken for being Jewish(cant explain that one, tho I am often mistaken for being Jewish, which none of us are)

Now when my aunt had her first baby during the 1940s, she had him in a very small community hospital, in a small town...her hubby was away at war, and she was pretty much alone in the hospital...in that time, often you did not even get to see your baby, until some lengthy time had elapsed from birth...

When they finally brought her baby, she unwrapped the blanket, and screamed for the nurses to come back...she was sure they had given her the wrong baby, as this baby was what my aunt called an 'Indian' baby...well, they assured her this was her baby, as being such a small hospital in a small community, my aunts baby was the only baby that had been born in the last three days...

To this day, my cousin is always taken for being 100% Indian....and the older he gets, the more he looks like the pictures of older Indians...

None of the rest of us cousins have that appearance, he is the only one....but as heredity and traits go, I suspect that somewhere down the line, one of our kids will give birth to a baby, which bears no seeming resemblance to its parents...and I can just hear them wondering, as my aunt did so long ago, why this baby looks just like a picture they might have seen, of an Indian baby..

[andysandmikesmom]

I really was blessed to have been born into such a family...

[The Real Deal]

The United State Congress passed Concurrent Resolution #153 in October, 1990 to recognize Wounded Knee as a massacre and issued a statement of deep regret.

It took 100 years for the government to say were sorry. I'm glad that the Indians get to have gambling now. At least that way they can make some money for themselves. Though neither is justifiable, what happened to the American Indians is far worse than what happened to the slaves. It is all very sad.

[GailA]

Found a great Patroitic music page Page

If the American Flag could speak, I think this is what it might say:

I am your Flag, and I am proud to be your Flag. Together we live in the greatest nation in the world. A free nation where I can fly freely in the breeze outside your home, on the street, in your schools and courthouses.

I am not just a piece of brightly colored cloth, I am a symbol that represents something great. My red stripes indicate hardiness and courage. My white is a symbol of purity and innocence. The blue color is vigilance, perseverance, and justice.

I was in the hand of my first President in the blood and snow of Valley Forge. I was there when my nation was born - small, with a wilderness at her back and seas at her sides, and not one friendly neighbor to whom she, as a struggling infant orphan, could call for help in distress.

I saw that child survive and grow strong. Most people forget, but I still see in my memory those bright and brave young men and women who died at Pearl Harbor, Normandy, Coral Sea, the Asian Jungles, throughout Europe, Korea and Vietnam.

And when they died for me, I wrapped them in my love and draped my honor over their caskets. Yes, I must speak because their voices have been silenced forever. I fly proudly over their green graves, praying that wars might end forever. Never forgetting them, I rise every morning to watch over the graves of our finest, whose years were short but whose service was longer than we can ever measure.

I, the American Flag, have lived long, traveled far and endured much. A million lives and more were sacrificed to give me the right to speak.

You can climb any mountain! Possibilities? They're unlimited - except as you limit them with a cynical, bitter, negative attitude! Yes, when you see me in church, school or flying on the streets - listen to my stars and stripes as I cry out to every boy and girl, every man and woman. "Dream Your Dreams" - "Dare To Believe" - You Can Make It In America.

I am the American Flag. Be humble enough to know where your glory and greatness come from. "Old Glory," I'm called. What is my glory? My glory is the freedom that I give to every law respecting man, woman and child. I live in the hearts of all people who yearn for freedom to laugh, to love, to pray, to play, to marry and to have children.

I have called out to countries, "Come to my shores, all who are tired, poor, oppressed, and yearning to breathe freely. Come and I will be your guarantee of liberty." I say to my people, "Be proud, be humble, and last,… be renewed! If you get a lump in your throat when you hear the Star Spangled Banner, or break out in a cold chill with goose bumps when I pass by waving freely, or tears shade your eyes when you sing "God Bless America", never think you are getting sentimental or weak. No, that is a sign of being strong, loyal, and dedicated to a cause, a principal - "one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all......."

[SAMWolf]

It's those kinds of stories that each family has that needs to be passed on. Thanks, andysandmikesmom.

[SAMWolf]

Though neither is justifiable, what happened to the American Indians is far worse than what happened to the slaves.

I agree with you there, Government policy was just short of genocide concerning the Ameican Indian.

We have the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde up near Lincoln City and they have a Casino that does very well and as far as I know they do a lot of good with the money they make. It's really good to see. This is from their site. The Casino was created to enhance economic self-sufficiency opportunities for the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, its members and surrounding communities; to promote economic diversification by the Tribes: to support a variety of housing, educational and cultural programs under the direction of Tribal Council.

[SAMWolf]

Love that "What the American Flag would say". Brings a tear to your eye.

[Victoria Delsoul]

After the death of Sitting Bull in 1890, a band of Sioux fled into the badlands of South Dakota where they were captured by the U.S. Cavalry near Wounded Knee. While the Sioux were being disarmed, a young warrior pulled a gun and shot an officer. The U.S. troops responded by opening fire and killing nearly 200 Sioux men, women, and children.

The so-called "Battle" at Wounded Knee marks the final, tragic chapter in the Indian Wars, which had reached their height between 1869 and 1878. During these years, the Army fought over 200 battles against Native American tribes, who sought to protect their homelands and buffalo hunting practices against incursions made by white settlers and the railroad.

[SAMWolf]

During these years, the Army fought over 200 battles against Native American tribes, who sought to protect their homelands and buffalo hunting practices against incursions made by white settlers and the railroad.

Hi Victoria. A clash of cultures caused by Western expansion.

[Victoria Delsoul]

Evening Sam.

A clash of cultures caused by Western expansion.

Tough times for sure.

[Western Phil]

One could say much about Government policy in its relationship to our first citizens most of it negative. The following bit of history occuring after Wounded Knee may be of interest. I believe Ted Zuern was a Priest on the Reservation for a time:

From “Call Them Sioux” by Ted Zuern S.J.:

When the United States was founded, there was discussion of including American Indians as citizens. There was talk of having an Indian state with Indian representation in Congress, but it was not accepted by those who founded the United States. The United States began with no Indians as citizens. Indians had tribal citizenship, although they did not use the term “citizenship” in their tribes or nations which were far older than the United States.

. . .

Frequently the United States is accused of placing Indians on the worst land in the country. What is meant by “the worst land” is usually land that could not be farmed. That is true, but I have been told by Lakotas that “we were not farmers. We did not want to farm.” That also is true, but the federal government spent a lot of money trying to turn Indians into farmers. The Indians knew what they wanted but had no voice to make that choice known.

Once the buffalo herds were decimated, and the Lakotas were placed securely on the reservations with no opportunity to escape, the federal government made a logical move. It provided cows for the Indians and allowed the Indians to become cowboys. It almost worked. It was a natural move, but hardly anyone who is not Indian remembers it.

The land was allotted to the various heads of households. Each had his own land and was given his own cattle. But the sense of community was too strong in the Indians to operate as individual ranchers. They operated in common and disregarded the boundary lines of the government’s allotments. They had never believed that man could own the earth, their mother. At the end of the nineteenth century and into the 1920's they became the ranchers of the west. They were successful. They ran large herds of cattle in war and peace. If they had been allowed to continue, there would be a different story today of the American Indians. They were masterful horsemen. To be come cowboys was the right thing for Indians of the prairies. They would not be fighting enemy tribes, but they would use the same technique to run their herds.

During the first World War, when an exceptionally large number of Indians who were not citizens of the United States volunteered to fight with its forces abroad, the change began to take place. It was at that time that the Lakotas needed a leader, a man who could look ahead and make the right decisions for the people. They did not find a leader. They had no voice in government to improve their status.

As the war began, the price of wheat began to increase. Then it skyrocketed. Even land on Indian reservations could make a profit if sown in wheat for such prices. Wheat farmers beseeched the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the right to lease the Indian land on the reservations and raise wheat. It was here that leadership was needed. They needed somebody who could look ahead and make the decision. Superintendents of reservations in the Bureau of Indian Affairs were told by Washington authorities to allow the wheat growers to lease the land. So the land was leased.

The Indians leased the land and had checks coming to them as they sold the cattle. “We didn’t sell cattle by the carload; we sold them by the trainload,” a long deceased Indian told me. For a time all went well. Leasing land for wheat was profitable. Then came the agricultural depression of the early twenties. No one could make money growing wheat on Indian land. The leases were worthless. The cattle were gone. The land needed years to return to the state in which it could support herds of cattle again. The Indians suffered a psychological blow that some experts claim was as severe as the establishment of reservations. The Lakota men were again without a meaningful role to play. The Lakota world was destitute.

[SAMWolf]

Thanks Western Phil, interesting read.

They had never believed that man could own the earth, their mother.

That, IMHO, is one of the causes of the problems between the two cultures, one based on private ownership of land and the other that did not understand not believe in that concept. How was that to be resolved?

[M Kehoe]

Maj. Malcolm Keogh (7th Cav. 1876), may he rest in peace.

5.56mm

[PhilDragoo]

I was reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee when it was first published in 1970.

At some point I slogged to a halt and put it down.

As in a dream, running in water, we can't gain on it.

The wretched excess of the westward ho honkies shooting the buffalo from trains leaving them to rot.

In context, there were massacres both ways, and no joy.

A friend thereafter being a coyote half Indian half Spanish killed himself sitting under a tree overnight to freeze to death.

Then working for a famous "native American" artist who burned us, watching him roll on the ground with his bottle of Ripple as his Jewish wife cursed him.

Lift us up to the high-flying eagle spirit of the codetalkers, and their clean courage.

A lady came from Vassar to the Navajo Reservation and married Sheepherder, and they battled alcoholism.

In 1996 Gordon House killed a family of four in his wrong-way DUI run on the Interstate.

Last year Lloyd Larson repeated the feat in another DUI wrong-way Interstate head-on killing four.

At the other end were the bright young faces who came out for our Senate candidate and their fathers with medals.

We were up in Carson Forest and had to return a pack to a guy from Kentucky staying with a police woman at one of the pueblos.

We drove in during a fiesta and followed a police unit til it stopped.

Out stepped a very tall, powerful man in loincloth, mocs, feathers and paint.

We were welcomed for food and drink, delivered the pack and returned up north.

Many times of reflection on mesas, visits to springs, the Pedernal razor, Bandelier.

Now all pueblos seem to have casinos with bright lights, floor shows, and the stars are unchanged.

[SAMWolf]

May they all rest in peace.

[SAMWolf]

Eveing PhilDragoo.

Interesting thoughts and observations tonight.