Wounded Knee

Matt's notes: For my Oral Report on Wounded Knee, I wanted to focus mainly on the Ghost Dance Rituals because that was the primary cause of the battle.

http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKghost.html

The Ghost Dance religion promised an apocalyspe in the coming years during which time the earth would be destroyed only to be recreated with the Indians as the inheritors of the new earth. The white man would be destroyed and the buffalo would return, and deceased ancestros would rise to once again roam the earth free of violence and disease.
Government agents described the Ghost Dance as an "absurd craze" "demoralizing and disgusting." They also thought that it would ultimately lead to a violent rebellion.

Eye Witness Accounts of the Ghost Dance
http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/eyewit.html

"They danced without rest, on and on...Occasionally someone thoroughly exhausted and dizzy fell unconscious into the center and lay there "dead"...After a while, many lay about in that condition. They were now "dead" and seeing their dear ones...The visions...ended the same way, like a chorus describing a great encampment of all the Dakotas who had ever died, where...there was no sorrow but only joy, where relatives thronged out with happy laughter...The people went on and on and could not stop, day or night, hoping...to get a vision of their own dead...And so I suppose the authorities did think they were crazy - but they were not. They were only terribly unhappy."

Emily's notes: -- “The memory of that day still evokes passionate emotional and politicized responses from present-day Native Americans and their supporters. The Wounded Knee Massacre, according to scholars, symbolizes not only a culmination of a clash of cultures and the failure of governmental Indian policies, but also the end of the American frontier. Although it did bring an end to the Ghost Dance religion, it did not, however, represent the demise of the Lakota culture, which still thrives today. <http://www.dickshovel.com/WKmasscre.html> ”
 
-I didn’t realize the affects of this Massacre still live on strong today personally and politically among Native Americans.  Also that this was the peak of colliding cultures in America, a lot of aspects were coming together in this massacre not just the Europeans taking over power in America.  It's interesting that this invasion and massacre of the Indians was the failing point of their government. 
 
--December 29, 1890
Ghost Dance Religion
“one of the primary goals of the Bureau of Indian Affairs was to convert the Indians to Christianity, they did not recognize that the fundamental principles of the Ghost Dance were indeed Christian in nature and had the effect of converting many to a belief in the one Christian God. In addition, Wovoka preached that, to survive, the Indians needed to turn to farming and to send their children to school to be educated. Ironically, while these efforts would appear to coincide with the goals of the Bureau, the Ghost Dance was outlawed by the agency. The Bureau feared the swelling numbers of Ghost Dancers and believed that the ritual was a precursor to renewed Indian militancy and violent rebellion.” [Should identify source of quotation; Lorie Liggett, "Ghost Dance Religion" at http://www.bgsu.edu/departments/acs/1890s/woundedknee/WKghost.html]
 
-I didn’t realize plans to convert Indians happened so soon at this time, its clear they were afraid of an Indian uprising occurring and losing the land to the Natives.   Did the Bureau of Indian Affairs never realize that the Ghost Dance followed some Christian aspects, and if they did would they have allowed it to continue if they thought it could help convert the Indians to Christianity? Do people think today that the Indians intention with the Ghost Dance was to renew Indian militancy and bring violence?
 
--Image 8.10 [Should include url]
 
-I feel this image alone speaks for itself as do the other ones.  In this photo you can see the face and body of the Native American very vividly.  You can also see in the background what seem to be other victims of the massacre.  The caption said that they thought him to be a medicine man, the massacre must have been clear enough that when others returned to the scene it was easy to pick out member of the tribe.  

Kerri's Notes:

8.7 A Lakota Ghost Dancing shirt, believed to protect its wearer from bullets.
I found this interesting because the shirt did not look like t could protect anyone from bullets.  I am assuming that it is clearly a mental thing.  I guess it is all what you think the shirt is going to protect you from.

“The Wounded Knee Massacre, according to scholars, symbolizes not only a culmination of a clash of cultures and the failure of governmental Indian policies, but also the end of the American frontier. Although it did bring an end to the Ghost Dance religion, it did not, however, represent the demise of the Lakota culture, which still thrives today.” [Should identify source of quotation]

I was interested in why the Wounded Knee Massacre could not bring an end to the Lakota culture.  It seems as though it did everything else that it was planning on doing?  I was intrigued as to why this was not able to happen.

Was the Wounded Knee Massacre named from the Wounded Knee creek?

8.4 A copper smelting facility pours smoke into the air at Butte, Montana, site of the world's richest copper deposits and home to the Western Federation of Miners. (This double view was designed for viewing in a stereoscope, which gave the illusion of three dimensions.)

I did not really understand the significance of this picture and how it was really related to the massacre itself. [It isn't.]