High Plains Book Awards, Nonfiction (Finalist), Parmly Billings Library
Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize,(Finalist), Center for Great Plains Studies
Spur Award, Best Western Historical Nonfiction Book, Western Writers of America
Outstanding Academic Title, Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries
As the year 1890 wound to a close, a band of more than three hundred Lakota Sioux Indians led by Chief Big Foot made their way toward South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation to join other Lakotas seeking peace. Fearing that Big Foot’s band was headed instead to join “hostile” Lakotas, U.S. troops surrounded the group on Wounded Knee Creek. Tensions mounted, and on the morning of December 29, as the Lakotas prepared to give up their arms, disaster struck. Accounts vary on what triggered the violence as Indians and soldiers unleashed thunderous gunfire at each other, but the consequences were horrific: some 200 innocent Lakota men, women, and children were slaughtered. American Carnage—the first comprehensive account of Wounded Knee to appear in more than fifty years—explores the complex events preceding the tragedy, the killings, and their troubled legacy.
In this gripping tale, Jerome A. Greene—renowned specialist on the Indian wars—explores why the bloody engagement happened and demonstrates how it became a brutal massacre. Drawing on a wealth of sources, including previously unknown testimonies, Greene examines the events from both Native and non-Native perspectives, explaining the significance of treaties, white settlement, political disputes, and the Ghost Dance as influential factors in what eventually took place. He addresses controversial questions: Was the action premeditated? Was the Seventh Cavalry motivated by revenge after its humiliating defeat at the Battle of the Little Bighorn? Should soldiers have received Medals of Honor? He also recounts the futile efforts of Lakota survivors and their descendants to gain recognition for their terrible losses.
Epic in scope and poignant in its recounting of human suffering, American Carnage presents the reality—and denial—of our nation’s last frontier massacre. It will leave an indelible mark on our understanding of American history.
Author(s): Jerome A. Greene
Edition: Hardcover ed.
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Year: 2014
Language: English
Pages: xviii, 599
City: Norman
Tags: Wounded Knee Massacre, S.D., 1890; History / Native American; HISTORY / United States / 19th Century; History / Military / United States; History / United States / State & Local / Midwest
List of Illustrations ix
Foreword by Thomas Powers xi
Preface xiii
Prologue 3
1. Wild Indians 9
2. New World 23
3. Broken Faith 37
4. Trauma 55
5. Seeking to Endure 65
6. Perception 83
7. Deployment 127
8. Stronghold 149
9. Grand River 167
10. Pursuit 191
11. Bloodbath 215
12. Place of the Big Killings 271
13. Direct Corollaries 289
14. Close Out 307
15. Aftermath 339
16. Survivors 363
Appendix A: Treaty with the Sioux—Brulé, Oglala, Miniconjou, Yanktonai, Hunkpapa, Blackfeet, Cuthead, Two Kettle, Sans Arcs, and Santee—and Arapaho, [April 29,] 1868 [Ratified February 16, 1869] 381
Appendix B: Ghost Dance Leaders Recommended for Arrest and Confinement 390
Appendix C: Standing Rock Police Who Arrested Sitting Bull 392
Appendix D: U.S. Army Casualties, Sioux Campaign, 1890 394
Appendix E: U.S. Army Estimate of Lakota Casualties at Wounded Knee 399
Appendix F: Lakota Casualties 402
Appendix G: Medals of Honor for the Pine Ridge Campaign, 1890–91 417
Appendix H: General Miles’s Congratulatory Message to His Troops at the Conclusion of the Sioux Campaign 419
Appendix I: List of Wounded Knee Survivors as of May 1941, Compiled by James Pipe On Head 423
Notes 425
Bibliography 535
Index 575
