Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Massacre Won’t be Rescinded

(Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight via the North Dakota Montitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. soldiers for their role in the Wounded Knee Massacre will not be rescinded.

The massacre occurred on Dec. 29, 1890. Lakota people were camped near Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation in southwestern South Dakota, where they were surrounded by hundreds of Army soldiers. A shot rang out while the soldiers tried to disarm the camp, and chaotic shooting ensued.

Fewer than 40 soldiers were killed (some by friendly fire, according to historians), while estimates of Lakota deaths ran from 200 to 300 or more, depending on the source. After some of the bodies froze on the ground for several days, a military-led burial party placed them in a mass grave.

Hegseth used the word “battle” to describe the massacre.