Dusty Johnson: “In December 1890, Chief Spotted Elk and his band of Lakota, including many women and children, were moving from the…”

“In December 1890, Chief Spotted Elk and his band of Lakota, including many women and children, were moving from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, the reservation, to the Pine Ridge Reservation. As was mentioned, they were stopped by the Army's 7th Cavalry, and they were forced to make camp at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The next morning, on December 29, the 7th Cavalry attempted to disarm the Lakota. A struggle ensued, a shot rang out, and before long, the 7th Cavalry was opening fire on the Lakota. Almost all of them were unarmed. As was mentioned earlier, most were women and children. More than 300 noncombatants were killed. Mr. Speaker, this was a massacre. Too many think of Wounded Knee as something that happened in the long ago past and in a faraway place. The inaccuracy of that view was driven home to me in June when I went to the site, and I spoke to the descendants of Wounded Knee. There, I sat at length with an elder whose grandmother survived that day. He grew up hearing from her own voice of the fear, the violence, and the tragedy of that day. Mr. Speaker, this was not a history book. This was his grandmother. Close by, at St. John's Church, I looked at the site where the wounded and the dying were taken. The floorboards of that church are still stained with their blood. These are real people. These are real places. These are not ancient tales of a distant land. Our Nation has struggled with how best to remember, to mourn that terrible day.…”