By the late 1800s, the U.S. government had seized most Native lands, forced tribes onto reservations, broken numerous treaties, and suppressed traditional religions and cultural practices.
During this period, a spiritual movement known as the Ghost Dance spread among Native nations. It promised renewal, the return of ancestors, and freedom from colonial oppression. U.S. officials grew fearful and misinterpreted the movement as a threat of armed rebellion.
Spotted Elk’s band was already suffering - many were hungry, ill, and seeking to surrender peacefully. They were intercepted by the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry and escorted to a camp near Wounded Knee.
On the morning of December 29, soldiers attempted to disarm the Lakota. Tensions were high. A shot rang out - its source remains uncertain.
What followed was devastation. Soldiers opened fire with rifles and Hotchkiss cannons. Many Lakota were unarmed..women and children were shot while trying to escape.
By the end, approximately 250 to 300 Lakota were killed, with many later dying from wounds or exposure. Around 150 of the dead were women and children.
Twenty-five U.S. soldiers also died, some likely due to friendly fire. The bodies of the Lakota were left frozen in the snow and later buried in a mass grave.
The U.S. government initially described the event as a “battle,” but historians widely recognize it as a massacre. Twenty Medals of Honor were awarded to participating soldiers - an action that many continue to view as deeply unjust. Wounded Knee is often considered the symbolic end of the Indian Wars.
Production Note:
James Mooney was an ethnographer and largely self-taught scholar of Native American tribes, gaining expertise through independent study and long residencies among various communities - particularly the Cherokee. He conducted significant research on Southeastern tribes as well as nations of the Great Plains.
Mooney is especially known for his ethnographic work documenting the Ghost Dance movement following the death of Sitting Bull in 1890. In 1894, he recorded a series of Native American Ghost Dance songs, preserving an important spiritual and cultural expression of that era.
“American Canyons” is interwoven with remastered original recordings from Mooney’s 1894 Ghost Dance song collection (courtesy of the Library of Congress).
