Greene talks about his book, american carnage, wounded knee, 1890. It looks at the south dakota massacre, the causes and the aftermath. He recounts worst hand firsthand recollections from lakota indians about the day in which the u. S. Cavalry fired on their camp. Killing about the kansas city 300. Public library hosted this program. How many of you have heard of wounded knee . I suspect virtually everyone has. It is probably, next to the battle of little big warned, the one armyindian and counter most people ive heard of. My knowledge comes from high school, junior high school. I grew up in new york state. I remember reading in the magazines of the day, this is way back in 1958, 59, probably most of you were not even around then. I remember reading in the pulp magazines of the day that provided fodder for my interests. I know they each carried articles on wounded knee. I remember asking my grandmother, who was born in 1881, she was a young girl, nine years old when wounded knee occurred and about 1958, 59 i approached her and i can remember being in the room him in the house and i asked her if she remembered anything about hearing about wounded knee. I believe she told me that she thought vaguely that it sounded familiar to her. But that was a long time ago and she was an old lady. My first visit to the site came in 1969 when i was a graduate student at the university of south dakota. Wounded knee is a big story, has a very important story, but it is not a pretty story. My purpose with american carnage was not only to clarify the mechanics of the event as it unfolded out of the ground, but to show how it indeed became a massacre. I wanted to show why it happened at all. And to explain what transpired therwards as it respects lakota people who survived it. Wrigley stated the book starts in 1938, washington, d. C. Nearly 50 years after the massacre. As lakota survivors sought government recognition and compensation for what had happened to them in 1890. The story then flashes back to discuss lakota existence on the plains and the wars with the u. S. Government and the succession of treaties, notably, the fort laramie treaty of 1868 and the establishment of the great sioux reservations and what is now essentially all of south dakota west of the missouri river. Its that also deals with the repeated government reductions of that land including the taking of the black hills which contained gold. Together with the increasing inroads of white settlements, all of this was accompanied by gradual cultural disruption among the lakota people including going ascension that arose between the progressive and traditionalists elements among them. This was further aggravated over time by the arrival of drought and epidemics of sickness, all of which was succeeded by surprise cutbacks in government rations. By late 1880 nine, this devastated and overwhelmed by late 1889, this devastated and overwhelmed the lakota people. This led to the lakotas uncertainty regarding their continued existence as a people. Fostering a devastation that led many of them to turn to the ghost dance as a way to rejuvenate culturally and to ensure their survival as a people. The coming of the ghost dance became the direct catalyst and precursor for the military occupation of the sioux reservations that in due course culminated in the death of sitting bull. And determined the resulting flight of chief bigfoot and his people south of the Cheyenne River to their doom on Wounded Knee Creek. All of this is thoroughly chronicled in the book, for those of you wouldve seen the book, i think you can appreciate the amount of research that went into it. Also, the roles of the principal leaders like red cloud, sitting bull, american horse. Also the foremost ghost dance leaders, short bull and kicking bear. And James Mclachlan and military leaders like Major General nelson miles. He was the overall commander of operations in south dakota. Brigadier general john brooke, especially colonel james forsyth, who commanded the seventh calvary and the first artillery contingents at wounded knee. Among the controversies related to wounded knee and interest that link are the following, the socalled and perhaps aptly named Crook Commission and the part played by Major General charles crook in financing an george crook in financing an agreement where the sioux surrendered millions more acres of their land in 1889. The contributory role of onsite press representatives in fomenting rumors about inflamed fears among settlers who believe that a fullfledged indian war was either imminent or ongoing. The issues surrounding the death of sitting bull two weeks before wounded knee to include the dubious role of the flow bill cody and seeking the medicine the dubious role of buffalo bill cody and seeking the medicine mans arrest on the Standing Rock reservation will stop the long enduring question of army premeditation for the massacre at wounded knee. The means by which the wounded me confrontation the wounded knee confrontation involves into a fullfledged massacre of men, women, and children. The Army Killings of the oglala woman and her three children at Whitehorse Creek that same day just five days from the massacre at wounded knee. The question of seventh calvary asgeance at wounded knee revenge for the massacre of custers force 14 years earlier. And the award of medals of honor to some of the soldiers at wounded knee. There is full discussion of the collateral armyindian fighting that followed wounded knee elsewhere on the pine ridge reservation. This is not just a military account, it is the story of the lakotas. I included a lot of their accounts. It further explains what happened to the lakota survivors of wounded knee and the matter of their fight for government recognition and compensation for the human losses they endured all the way into the 1930s and 1940s. You may be interested to know that some of the wounded knee survivors lived until the late 1970s. Can you imagine that . Still alive. Of course, they were babes and toddlers at the time in 1890. They were still living on this earth while you and i were here. Wipes me out. Little known is the fact that general miles in retirement became a champion or compensating the sioux for what had happened to them at wounded knee. As early as 1891, miles had turned the event into the most abominable criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children. That is nelson miles who was in command of operations there. He wrote that to his wife just a day or two after. Those are characterizations that his superiors in washington, d. C. Did not embrace. I greatly appreciate the fine effort that went into the books production by the editors and staff of the university of oklahoma press. They are topnotch in my book. Literally. [laughter] it contains 16 chapters, nearly 50 illustrations and six maps allnew maps, together with complete notes, nine appendices, a conference of index, and a thorough bibliography. One appendix comprises the entirety of the fort laramie treaty of 1868 which is indeed a critical reference regarding the lead up to wounded knee. As i mentioned, i would like to share with you a reading from the book, but first i want to orient you a little bit to the map that you see to my right. To my left, it is to your right. This site is quite small and quite concentrated. It occupies only a quarter section. This is only 160 acres. This is on the sioux reservation of pine ridge, south dakota. Besides i would like you to be aware of, this is Wounded Knee Creek which runs along the eastern periphery of the area. You can see a ravine that runs down to Wounded Knee Creek. This was very critically important to what happened at wounded knee. This is a very deep ravine. It is some 25 feet deep, 2530 feet deep. It is as wide as 150 feet in places. It is a dry ravine, it does not have water. And sometimes it might have water, but it did not have it on december 1890. This portion is called the pocket. Do you see the pocket up here . That was of upmost significance to what happened. The roads, this is a road to the pine ridge agency. About 18 miles to the south, southwest, west and the southwest. This road called fast course road runs in the northwest direction towards other tribal communities in that vicinity. The army camp is located up here where the two bivouac areas are, i am showing the tents. Around in different places, this is a line of exes down here. Xs. Ne of this represents a chain guard, troops who surrounded the camp the night before wounded knee. These people were all brought in the day before wounded knee and they had been captured by major with science unit. They were brought to wounded knee and the second squadron of the seventh calvary was sent for at pine ridge, 18 miles driving around midnight. They came in surreptitiously, probably moving around like this rather than coming right up through the area to alarm the people who were in the camp here, the indian camp. This is a temporary feature, this is not a village, this is a camp. Next to the army camp, you see its these guns up here. These are hotchkiss guns. They fired percussion shell and the shell that imparted against the people. This was an antipersonnel type of weapon. The guns were trained on the camp, there were four of them. They could deliver about 20 rounds altogether per minute. So, in 1890, this was a pretty significant technology. Right up in the area above the village, you can see two rows of troops. These are troops be and k. Troops b and troop k. The seventh calvary. They were brought down from up above as a reserve force when the indians began leading in this council area at their own whim, they were ordered to bring in their weapons and some of them did not come back and so the army put these two troops down to keep them in place, or leaving and going back to the camp to the teepees. The council area is where the shooting breaks out on december 29. Im curious how many of you have actually been to wounded knee. Wow. Pretty impressive. Im impressed. Every people has impressions about events that have shaped them and the lakota sioux are no exception, testimony of wounded knee as given by participants in the proceedings of december 29 of 1890 in the form of immediate and reminiscent statements constitutes important renderings with personal insights into what occurred to those who survived that date as well as to their family members, other relatives, friends from and to those who did not. Didriends, and those who not. Taken together, the accounts of the people signify how it deadly the action became as it intensified from the initial shooting into a defensive reaction by troops, climaxing in an unchecked and devastating slaughter of innocents. One hesitates to use the term bloodlust in explaining what happened at wounded knee, but did the tribesmen involved in particularly those noncombatant women, children, and elderly men who became circumstantially targeted after the violence erupted, the expression would assuredly connote a substantive and literal overtone. Regarding lakota oral history, it must be understood that by 1890, many of those people, following more than two decades of reservation living has become had become increasingly conversant in english or education as well as through daytoday contact with whites over their predecessors of the 1860s and 70s in the wilds of dakota, wyoming, and montana. The competency that perpetuated thereafter. Furthermore, by their closer physical proximity to whites, their statements were more easily sought out and conveyed than before. As a result, as time passed from wounded knee, lakota survivor accounts of the event, while necessarily translated expressions, have provided a generally clear declarations replete with richer volume and content over regulations from over recollections from the earlier days. Importantly, beyond heartfelt assertions, the evident redundancy regarding aspects of the event exemplifies the peoples honesty and further ensures the validity of the accounts. The following largely composite narrative based on sioux reminiscences to convey a measured assessment of their harrowing experiences at that place. Joseph horn cloud, from Cheyenne River reservation, described the initial shooting. It was just like a hailstorm with shots in all directions. In the confusion, come all we in the confusion, all we thought about was to get away, the morning was cloudy and damp and the smoke from the guns did not rise but settled right on us. From then on, nothing could be seen very plain. The soldiers were rushing around shooting all of us that they could see to shoot. High back was hit in the hand as he dashed blindly. In the combat, iron hail armed with only a knife sought to get a gun and rush the soldiers so closely that the man fired his car being right next to the warriors ear, momentarily deafening him. In the rising smoke, the indian yanked the gun away, stabbing the man who grabbed iron hand by the throat before the lakota knifed him repeatedly until he died and then took his gun and ran towards the ravine behind the camp. Iron hail was wounded before he got there, an injury that severely debilitated his right arm. He finally shot a soldier, but received a flesh wound in the leg as he into the gulch. Others who broke through the soldiers raced with the women and children into the ravine, and then ran in either direction. Iron hail experienced several encounters with soldiers and other playing tribesmen as he fleeing tribesmen as he headed west up the dry wash where he ultimately witnessed his own mother being killed. Soldiers on both sides of the ravine shot at her and killed her, he said. I saw lots of women and children lying along the ravine, some alive, and some dead. I told some young men to take her it and do all they could to take courage and do all they could to defend the women. An awful fire was concentrated on them now and nothing could be seen for the smoke. In the bottom of the ravine, the bullets raise more dust than there was smoke so that they could not see one another. They made excavation in which to hide them. Women and children were killed together. One mother lay dead, he said, her breasts covered with blood and her little child was standing by her nursing. Alice ghost horse was a 13yearold girl from Cheyenne River. She remember the calvary man shooting at every lakota that was running and it did not matter if you were a child or a woman. They shot at you anyway. We dived in like frightened rabbits. The gunfire was pretty heavy and people were hollering for their children and the children were crying everywhere. Her father went back to help the others, but soon returned wounded in the leg. He took alices young brother and moved down the ravine, telling alice that her mother, he would return for them. Soon afterwards, my father came crawling back and said, they killed my son and started to cry. So, he cried a little bit. My father said, we should move to a better hiding place, but my mother objected again saying we should all die here together. She told me to stand up so i would get hit, but my father pulled me back down. They called to a deeper part of the ravine and then alices father left again to help others. More people took shelter in the ravine. Four of them died right there, but there was nothing that anybody could do. One man who arrived told us my father and was killed instantly. And we all cried for little bit to cause the soldiers were still firing their rifles at anything that moved. Alice and her mother remained hidden in the brush in the deep recesses of the ravine until late afternoon. When the sounds of gunfire finally slackened. The wounded highback also made it to the ravine where he crawled beneath the bodies of other casualties seeking protection. Though he still took more bullets. Peter one skunk, struck in the head during the soldiers opening volley, also made his way to the ravine and hid. He eventually caught a horse and broke free from the turmoil, but the amount was killed and one skunk played dead and was left alone by the troops. The mount was killed. In time, he found another horse and got away. Elsewhere, as the action continued, some of those who headed west in the ravine found protection from the soldiers in the subordinate gulch area known as the pocket. The included horn cloud, several of his brothers and several cousins along with two old man, a woman named helena longbow, and her small son. One brother, william clout, was killed. Several more received wounds there. And brother named white plants was badly injured but subsequently recovered. Iron hail said he killed at least five soldiers while in the pocket. When a hotchkiss gun was brought down, brought forward to fire directly at those who had found shelter there, he said. It became a storm of thunder and hail. There went up from these dying people, a medley of death songs that would make the hardest heart weep. The death song is expressive of their wish to die. It expresses that the singer is anxious to die to. To die, too. At this time, i am unable to do anything more and it took arrest, telling my brothers to keep up courage. The cannon were now pouring their shots and breaking down the banks which were giving protection. The soldiers were pretty close to the edge. Even if there was no more shooting, the smoke was so thick that the wounded could not live for it. It was suffocating. The hotchkiss had been shooting rapidly and one indian had gotten killed by it. His body was penetrated in the pit of the stomach by a shell which tore a hole through his body six inches in diameter. The man was insensible but breathed for an hour before he died. A young woman was shot through between the shoulders. I heard a laugh and she was smiling while unconscious that she was wounded. The next moment, a young man was shot down right in front of this woman. When the men fail, his bow and arrows fell all around on the ground. Iron hail shortly regained his strength and moved farther up in the pocket. He found women and children all wounded in a dugout pit seeking shelter from the troopers shooting at them from above. In the same place, he recounted was a young woman with a pole in her hand and a black blanket on it. When she lifted it up, the soldiers would whistle and yell and poor volleys into it. Volleys into it. He told the women he would fight for them, and he cared not if he died there. The infants were all killed now and he would like to die among the infants. He managed then to shoot and kill yet another soldier and to knock still one more from his horse. Iron hail stayed in the pocket for a time and as the sun went down, cautiously crept out and away while soldiers intermittently fired at him from distant points. Cloud hadjoseph horn somehow escaped from the pocket and he related the many women and children ran west along the road where they became targets en who killedvalryma some there. Others managed to traverse a nearby fence field where more were shot down. Horn cloud moved fluidly through the area, collected numerous courses that he distributed to othe