Wounded Knee Massacre
Seventy-year-old Sioux chief Big Foot was killed by the 7th U.S. Cavalry during the massacre at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890. Three days later his body was found frozen where he had been killed. The South Dakota reservation had been left in disarray when Sioux leader Sitting Bull was killed by Indian police on December 15, and as Big Foot led his tribe away from the reservation on December 28, they were surrounded by 7th Cavalry troops. The next morning, when the cavalry tried to disarm the Sioux, shots broke out and during the next 6 hours, 146 Sioux men, women and children were killed. The 7th Cavalry lost 30 killed.
Image: National Archives
