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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">The Lie We Keep Telling About Wounded Knee</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Levi Rickert</div></div>
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<div><p><img class="gmail-caption gmail-moz-reader-block-img" title="The open grave at Wounded Knee in 1890. (Photo/File)" src="https://nativenewsonline.net/images/2022/Wounded_Knee_grave.jpg" alt="The open grave at Wounded Knee in 1890. (Photo/File)" width="521" height="366" style="margin-right: 0px;"></p><p>The open grave at Wounded Knee in 1890. (Photo/File)</p></div>
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Details </dt><dd>
By <span>Levi Rickert</span> </dd><dd>
December 29, 2025
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<p><span><strong>Opinion.</strong></span>Today marks the 135th
anniversary of the Massacre of Wounded Knee, which occurred during the
wintry week between Christmas and New Year\u2019s in 1890.</p>
<p>Nine days before the massacre that left hundreds of Sioux men, women
and children dead, an obscure weekly newspaper in South Dakota published
an editorial following the death of Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting
Bull. In the opinion piece, L. Frank Baum, publisher of the <em>Saturday Pioneer</em>, wrote:</p>
<p>\u201cThe Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are
masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier
settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few
remaining Indians. Why not annihilation? Their glory has fled.\u201d</p><p>Early on the morning of Dec. 29, 1890, at Wounded Knee Creek in South
Dakota, Sioux people who had been captured the previous afternoon by
members of the U.S. 7th Cavalry Regiment were surrendering their
weapons. A shot was fired. The cavalry then opened fire on unarmed Sioux
elders, women and children. While an exact account will never be known,
historians believe between 250 and 300 Sioux were killed that day.</p>
<p>Snow fell heavily that December week. The Sioux ancestors who were
killed were left on the frozen plains of the reservation until a burial
party arrived days later to place them in a mass grave.</p>
<p>After the killings, Baum again took to his newspaper\u2019s editorial page. This time, he wrote:</p>
<p>\u201cThe Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon
the total extirmination [sic] of the Indians. Having wronged them for
centuries we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it
up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures
from the face of the earth. In this lies future safety for our settlers
and the soldiers who are under incompetent commands. Otherwise, we may
expect future years to be as full of trouble with the redskins as those
have been in the past.\u201d</p>
<p>Ten years later, Baum published a children\u2019s book titled <em>The Wonderful Wizard of Oz</em>,
which was later adapted into one of the most famous films of all time.
As a child, my siblings and I would make popcorn and watch the movie
during its annual television broadcasts. As an adult, after learning of
Baum\u2019s virulent racism and calls for the extermination of Native people,
I stopped watching it. Baum\u2019s family later apologized for his racist
editorials.</p>
<p>Baum did not single-handedly cause the genocide of Native Americans, but his words contributed to it. His <a href="https://diogenesii.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/baum.pdf">editorials</a>
helped normalize violence and extermination as acceptable policy.
History matters. If you know your history, you know your place in this
world.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth doesn\u2019t appear to understand history. </p>
<p>On September 25, 2025, Hegseth<a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/calvary-soldiers-who-massacred-hundreds-at-wounded-knee-get-to-keep-their-medals-of-honor"> announced</a>
that he would not rescind the Medals of Honor awarded to approximately
20 members of the U.S. 7th Cavalry for their actions at the 1890 Wounded
Knee massacre. He wasn\u2019t preserving history. He was protecting a lie.</p>
<p>That lie \u2014 that what happened at Wounded Knee was a battle deserving
of the nation\u2019s highest military recognition \u2014 has been told for over
130 years. But Native Americans know the truth. It wasn\u2019t a battle. It
was a massacre of women, children and elders. And it remains one of the
most painful, unresolved wounds in American history.</p>
<p>The soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were not heroes that day.</p>
<p>In defending his decision, Hegseth has framed the debate around what
he calls \u201cwoke\u201d politics and vowed to put an end to what he called
\u201chistorical revisionism.\u201d But this is not revisionism. This is
accountability. This is truth. </p>
<p>In 1990, on the 100th anniversary of the massacre, Congress passed a
resolution expressing \u201cdeep regret\u201d to the descendants of those killed
at Wounded Knee. Tribal leaders, historians and descendants of survivors
have spent decades calling for the revocation of the medals \u2014 not as an
erasure of history, but as a correction of it.</p>
<p>The National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) released a <a href="https://www.ncai.org/news/ncai-statement-on-pentagon-decision-to-maintain-medals-for-soldiers-at-the-wounded-knee-massacre">statement</a> following Hegseth\u2019s announcement that said \u201csuch despicable violence should not have been lauded in the first place.\u201d </p>
<p>\u201cHonoring those involved in the Wounded Knee Massacre with the United
States\u2019 highest military award is incompatible with the values the
Medal of Honor is meant to represent,\u201d NCAI Executive Director Larry
Wright Jr. said. \u201cCelebrating war crimes is not patriotic. This decision
undermines truth-telling, reconciliation, and the healing that Indian
Country and the United States still need.\u201d</p>
<p>Earlier this month, Congress passed the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act that was signed into law that <a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/currents/wounded-knee-massacre-site-protection-bill-passes-congress">protects 40 acres</a> of the Wounded Knee massacre site.</p>
<p>The law places the land in restricted-fee status, meaning it cannot
be sold, taxed, gifted or leased without approval from Congress and the
Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes, which jointly <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/oglala-and-cheyenne-river-sioux-tribes-buy-land-near-wounded-knee-massacre-site">purchased the land</a> three years ago.</p>
<p>Ironically, U.S. Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), who sponsored the Senate
version of the legislation, has never supported the Remove the Stain
Act, legislation that calls for revoking the medals given to the 7th
Calvary members who massacred innocent Sioux people 135 years ago, Even
though the Removed the Stain Act has been introduced in the Senate
numerous times, it has never made ii to the Senate floor for a vote.
Sen. Rounds needs to support this legislation.</p>
<p>As we have learned many times in recent years \u2014 from boarding school
acknowledgments to MMIP awareness campaigns \u2014 remembering a tragedy is
not the same as reckoning with it. </p>
<p><strong><em>Thayék gde nwéndëmen - We are all related.</em></strong></p><h4 role="heading">More Stories Like This</h4><p><a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/another-weapon-of-mass-destruction">Another Weapon of Mass Destruction</a><br><a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/colorado-cannot-heal-until-it-confronts-sand-creek-honestly">Colorado cannot heal until it confronts Sand Creek honestly</a><br><a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/native-american-mothers-deserve-to-live">Native American Mothers Deserve to Live</a><br><a href="https://nativenewsonline.net/opinion/technology-rooted-in-tradition-is-strengthening-cherokee-nation">Technology Rooted in Tradition is Strengthening Cherokee Nation</a></p><div>
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<p><em><strong>Stand with Warrior Journalism today.</strong></em></p>
<p>Levi Rickert (Potawatomi), Editor & Publisher</p>
</div>
<div id="gmail-author_infobox"><p>About The Author</p><p><br></p><p>Levi
"Calm Before the Storm" Rickert (Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation) is the
founder, publisher and editor of Native News Online. Rickert was
awarded Best Column 2021 Native Media Award for the print/online
category by the Native American Journalists Association. He serves on
the advisory board of the Multicultural Media Correspondents
Association. He can be reached at <a href="mailto:levi@nativenewsonline.net">levi@nativenewsonline.net</a>.</p></div><br> </div></div></div>
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