Transcript Wounded Knee - Beechen Cliff School Humanities Faculty

Life After Little Bighorn
Life After Little Bighorn
• After the Battle of Little
Bighorn, the Americans
took revenge, attacking
Native Americans, even
those tribes who did not
fight in the battle.
• The buffalo had
disappeared, from
Americans over-hunting
them, and the Native
American way of life had
changed.
Life After Little Bighorn
• With no buffalo to hunt,
the Sioux and other
Indians on the Great
Plains were forced to
live off handouts from
the US government.
• Watch the video clip.
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=GUiUnTxmf
rc
• In what ways are the
American government
trying to change the
Native American way of
life?
The Ghost Dance
• What was the Ghost
Dance meant to do?
• What do you think the
Americans thought of
the Ghost Dance?
• http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=7PQjNHp83A
Wounded Knee
Chief Big Foot
• 7th Cavalry soldiers were ordered to arrest and
disarm a Sioux band of Ghost Dancers under Chief Big
Foot.
• Big Foot’s camp numbered 350 Sioux, including 230
women and children.
• The Camp flew a white flag of peace from Big Foot’s
tipi.
• On 29th December 1890, 470 U.S. soldiers (armed
with rifles and Hotchkiss guns) moved on the camp.
Hotchkiss Gun
1. How many Sioux were
camped at Wounded Knee?
2. What evidence is there
that the Sioux were peaceful?
“The American troopers found
only two rifles.
Black Coyote refused to hand over
his rifle – shouting that he had
paid much money for it. He fired
his gun and immediately soldiers
returned fire .
A few Sioux tried to run away. Then
the Hotchkiss gun on the hill
opened fire – firing a shell a
second. Many men
women and children
were killed”
Over 300 men, women and
children were killed at Wounded
Knee. They were buried in a mass
grave, many still wearing their
“invincible” Ghost Shirts.
3. Why do you think
Black Coyote refused to
hand over his rifle?
4. How did the American
soldiers react?
5. How many Sioux were
killed at Wounded Knee?
Was Wounded Knee a Battle or a
Massacre?
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQDkefN5
-bk
• Using what you already know, and what you
saw in the video clip, write a paragraph in
your exercise books explaining whether you
think Wounded Knee was a battle or a
massacre and why.