“There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes, Yet is not washed from its filthiness.” Proverbs 30:12

By Riley J. Hood—Milwaukee County Constitution Party
 On July 4th, 2020 President Trump held an Independence Day celebration at Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Julian Bear Runner of the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council said, “The lands on which that mountain is carved and the lands he’s about to visit belong to the Great Sioux nation under a treaty signed in 1851 and the For Laramie Treaty of 1868 and I have to tell him he doesn’t have permission from its original sovereign owners to enter the territory at this time.”
This begs the question, were the Sioux it’s “original sovereign owners? I hardly think so. According to www.warpaths2peacepipes.com, “The Sioux tribe originally lived as Woodland Indians along the upper Mississippi in Minnesota, Iowa, and Wisconsin. The were forced west by the French and their Chippewa allies.” Their horses and rifles were not original to their tribe, they were introduced by white people. Our nation’s history is one of violence by Indigenous peoples against us. They often sided with our enemy, the French when we were colonists, the British during the Revolution. They revolted in 1862 during our Civil War. These were acts of violence that broke Treaties in place. After Little Big Horn, later in 1876, American troops trapped 3,000 Sioux at the Tongue River valley; the tribes formally surrendered in October, after which the majority of members returned to their reservations. By 1876, America lost patience with Indians and after a decade of total war which included logistical warfare, to wit, destroying the buffalo, the Sioux were thoroughly defeated.
According to britainicca.com, “Such was the state of the Lakota when the Ghost Dance religious movement swept across the Plains in 1890. The Ghost Dance was not a new movement: the first iteration took hold around 1870 among the Northern Paiute in Nevada, but it faded out after a few years.” It was revived in 1889 by a Paiute named Wovoka, whose father had been a devotee of the first Ghost Dance. Wovoka also learned about the Bible from white ranchers.
During a total solar eclipse on January 1, 1889, according to Britannica, “Wovoka fell unconscious and experienced a dream. God told him that the Indians needed to remain peaceful and regularly perform a ritual circle dance. If they followed these instructions, then in 1891 God would return the earth to its natural state prior to the arrival of European colonists. He would bury the white settlers under 30 feet of soil and would raise Indian ancestors from the dead.” This was what the Lakota wanted to hear. They modified the Ghost Dance, “incorporating white ghost shirts painted with various symbols that they believed would protect them from bullets.”
In October 1890 Daniel F. Royer arrived at the Pine Ridge Agency to assume command. Many of the Lakota on the reservation were Ghost Dancers, and he thought it was a prelude to an attack. Royer asked the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to relocate the Ghost Dancers. In November the Army deployed to Lakota reservations to suppress the Ghost Dance. Sitting Bull, Chief of the Hunkpapa Lakota tolerated the Ghost Dancers, and was to be relocated.  On December 15th, 43 tribal policemen went to Sitting Bull’s cabin, where a fight with the Ghost Dancers ensued. 9 Hunkpapa including Sitting Bull were dead.
Lakota opposed to reservation life armed themselves and gathered in “the stronghold” in the South Dakota Badlands. The Oglala Chief Red Cloud and Miniconjou Chief Big Foot tried to negotiate a peace preservation of Sioux traditions. Neither men were Ghost Dancers, and of course Ghost Dancing wasn’t a Sioux tradition. The 7th Calvary was to arrest Big Foot and his followers and send them to Fort Omaha.
 “The Massacre,” according to Britannica.com, “On December 28, 1890, the 7th Cavalry, commanded by Col. James W. Forsyth, reached the Miniconjou camp near Wounded Knee Creek,” and “Big Foot saw Forsyth’s scouts and informed them that he would surrender without resistance. On December 29 Forsyth convened with the Miniconjou to begin the process of weapons confiscation. He herded them into a nearby clearing, had their men form a council circle, and surrounded the circle with his cavalry. He also positioned four Hotchkiss guns on a hilltop bordering the clearing.”
Things went sour when after a few guns were turned in, a cache of hidden weapons were found after a search was executed. The search then became on ongoing affair. In response, “A man named Sits Straight began to dance the Ghost Dance and attempted to rouse the other members of the band, claiming that bullets would not touch them if they donned their sacred ghost shirts.” That put the soldiers in attack mode.  Britannica states, “When a deaf Miniconjou named Black Coyote refused to give up his gun, the weapon accidentally went off,” and the 7th Cavalry opened fire. “Scores of Miniconjou were shot and killed in the first few moments, among them Big Foot. Some women and children attempted to flee the scene and sought protection in a nearby ravine, but the Hotchkiss guns fired on their position.” Other Miniconjou were shot by mounted soldiers, “The 7th Cavalry did not discriminate.” “Immediately following the massacre, Forsyth ordered the transportation of 51 wounded Miniconjou to the Pine Ridge Agency. Hundreds of Lakota who lived there fled the area in horror; some even ambushed the 7th Cavalry in retaliation,” prompting the dispatch of more troops to the area “to quell further resistance.” Modern scholars estimate that between 250 and 300 Miniconjou were killed in total, including women and children. At least 25 soldiers also died, “many likely fallen to friendly fire.” After Wounded Knee, the Ghost Dance sputtered out, and Wovoka died a beggar.
The Bureau of Indian affairs claimed this was battle. Some think it was the 7th Calvary’s revenge for the Little Big Horn. Col. Forsyth was removed from command, and faced an investigation, in which was he cleared. 20 Calvary men were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, which was a reflection of times.
The Indians were moved to reservations, were according to the Sioux, “Six years after their sacred lands were taken from them, Lakotas were prohibited by the Code of Indian Offenses from practicing their ceremonies, dances, or celebrations. The federal government banned these practices to force Native Americans to abandon their “heathenish rites and customs.”
In 1973 Wounded Knee was where the American Indian Movement sent 200 armed men to declare an “Independent Oglala Sioux Nation” and refused to leave until the federal government ousted the presiding Sioux chairman, and promised to honor all Indian treaties, and correct the treatment of American Indians throughout the country. Federal troops besieged the area for 71 days, reaching a settlement after two deaths and several exchanges of gunfire.
Regarding the 7th Calvary, one can could assert their actions were unprofessional, but remember the Sioux prided themselves on teaching their women and children to kill white men. This is retroactively using our standards against, as all socialists do. What the 7th Calvary didn’t do is launch a purposeful attack, which is military’s job. They are certainly not guilty of premeditated murder, although everyone including myself would have hoped for a better outcome. Most people don’t rejoice at the death of over 250 people.
Wovoka actually lived with white ranchers. How did he reward them? By preaching a false prophecy of hatred. Burying all white people under 30 feet of soil. These men may have been “unarmed” but they were hardly peaceful. As to being immune to bullets by powerful medicine men, Geronimo and others would say the same things before going on a murder spree.  The Milwaukee County Constitution Parry asserts that in most conflicts, there is plenty of guilt to go around, but according to socialists only white Christian men are ever of guilty of anything. It is long past due, that agitators are confronted with facts of their own actions, and be brought to the realization that they are sinners like the rest of us.