Battle of Wounded Knee

Historical Context Note

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.6: Indigenous Writing and Culture of North America - United States.
Vol. editors: Joshua Bartlett (High Point University), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Sarah Henzi (Simon Fraser University), Padraig Kirwan (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Domains

Battle

Dates

Date of occurrence 1890-12-29

Places

United States (Location)

Cultural Identities

First Nations/Indigenous US-American

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

On 29 December, over 200 Sioux men, women, and children were slaughtered at the Battle of Wounded Knee, named for a small hamlet in North Dakota. The group of Sioux, who left their reservation and were thus regarded as hostiles, surrendered to federal troops on the night of 28 December. However, tensions were high. A scuffle invariably broke out during the disarmament of the Sioux and shots rang out, therby precipitating a wholesale massacre of the captured Indians. The U.S. federal troops used machine guns at close range against the Sioux, an enemy armed with knives and clubs.

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

96 words

Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "Battle of Wounded Knee". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 08 February 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5356, accessed 26 November 2024.]