A video screen grab shows members of the American Indian Movement during a February 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee. (YouTube)
(Tribune News Service) — Fifty years ago Sioux protesters led by members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee — the site of the terrible 1890 massacre of 300 Sioux by the U.S. Seventh Cavalry — demanding better treatment from the government for Indians. Within hours, federal agents surrounded the town, beginning a 71-day standoff.
From the Evening Tribune, Wednesday, Feb. 28, 1973
Gunfire erupts in Dakota Sioux siege Evening Tribune News Report
WOUNDED KNEE, S.D.—Federal officers exchanged gunfire with up to 300 hostage-holding Indians and brought in armored personnel carriers today in an attempt to drive them from the historic settlement of wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Reservation.
The Indians seized the settlement and hostages last night. They fired hunting rifles today at practically everything that moved around the trading post hamlet where Indians had their last tragic clash with the U.S. cavalry 83 years ago.
An 1891 engraving depicts an 1890 battle at Wounded Knee. (WikiMedia Commons/ Yale Collection of Western Americana, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Cars that came within rifle range were fired upon. So were low-flying planes carrying photographers. Local airports were warned to keep planes away from the area.
Two armored personnel carriers with the inscription “ U.S. Army” on their sides were trucked into Pine Ridge, the tribal headquarters town 14 miles from here. approaches to the town were sealed off.
Federal officers refused to reveal any plans they might have to rush the Indians in their strongholds at the trading post and a church overlooking the 1890 battle site.
An 1891 painting called the Ghost Dance of the Sioux Indians in North America by Amédée Forestier (1854-1940). (WikiMedia Commons)
Oglala tribal chief Dick Wilson said the Indians had seized hunting rifles and ammunition at wounded Knee and could possibly hold out “for weeks.”
They might have a least two machine guns, he said. The U.S. marshals ringing the town, many of them dressed in bright blue coveralls, were heavily armed.
The Indians were organized by the American Indian Movement (AIM). They seized the Wounded Knee Trading Post last night, clearing out artifacts, guns and ammunition.
The FBI said at least 17 persons were arrested as they attempted to get out of the area. Sioux reservation authorities put the number of hostages at 10, most of them occupants of the trading post.
A spokesman for the American Indian Movement said the demonstrators had vowed “to die if necessary” unless their demands are met.
The spokesman, Carter Camp of Ponca City, Okla., said in a telephone interview that the hostages had not been hurt and were in no danger “unless the police come in here and try to annihilate us.”
He said the Indians would would hold the hostages until Sens. Edward M. Kennedy, D- Mass., and J.W. Fulbright, D- Ark., come to the 2,500-square-mile Pine Ridge Reservation.
“If they come in here shooting, it’s going to be pretty hard to distinguish between Indians and white people,” Camp, a national coordinator of AIM said.
“The hostages are in no danger from Indian people. They understand that. But they’re in the same place as Indian people, so they’re in the same danger if they (law enforcement officials) decide to invade.”
Camp said the Indians were members of AIM and the Oglala Sioux Nation. He said the Indian demands included an investigation of the dealings of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Interior with the Oglala Sioux.
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