1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:03,480 Speaker 1: Hey, history fans, here's a rerun for today, brought to 2 00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:07,440 Speaker 1: you by Tracy V. Wilson. Welcome to this day in 3 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:10,360 Speaker 1: History Class from how Stuff Works dot Com and from 4 00:00:10,360 --> 00:00:12,600 Speaker 1: the desk of Stuff you missed in History Class. It's 5 00:00:12,640 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: the show where we explore the past one day at 6 00:00:14,880 --> 00:00:17,079 Speaker 1: a time with a quick look at what happened today 7 00:00:17,079 --> 00:00:23,960 Speaker 1: in history. Hello. I'm Holly Fry and I am sitting 8 00:00:23,960 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: in this week for Tracy V. Wilson. It's December twenty nine, 9 00:00:28,320 --> 00:00:30,440 Speaker 1: and we are talking today about an event that happened 10 00:00:30,480 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: in eighteen ninety, which was the Wounded Knee massacre. But 11 00:00:34,680 --> 00:00:37,000 Speaker 1: first we have to talk about the Ghost Dance. The 12 00:00:37,040 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 1: Ghost Dance was a spiritual movement originally established in eighteen 13 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:44,600 Speaker 1: sixty nine by a piute dreamer called wad Suab, and 14 00:00:44,640 --> 00:00:48,199 Speaker 1: while in a trance state, Wadzuab dreamed that the spirits 15 00:00:48,280 --> 00:00:50,760 Speaker 1: of the departed we're going to return and make the 16 00:00:50,760 --> 00:00:54,360 Speaker 1: world into a paradise of eternal life without conflict among people's. 17 00:00:55,320 --> 00:00:57,520 Speaker 1: Based on his visions, he began to urge people to 18 00:00:57,600 --> 00:01:00,320 Speaker 1: perform a traditional round dance over a seri reas of 19 00:01:00,440 --> 00:01:03,560 Speaker 1: nights as a form of religious practice. This was intended 20 00:01:03,600 --> 00:01:05,760 Speaker 1: to connect to the land of the dead with the 21 00:01:05,800 --> 00:01:08,200 Speaker 1: promise that the souls of the departed would come back 22 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:11,840 Speaker 1: to their loved ones in several years, and his ghost Dance, 23 00:01:11,920 --> 00:01:14,919 Speaker 1: as it was called, caught on and spread from Mason 24 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:18,560 Speaker 1: Valley in Nevada to California and up the Pacific Coast. 25 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:23,399 Speaker 1: Wadzuab died in eighteen seventy two and the ghost dance movement, 26 00:01:23,400 --> 00:01:26,920 Speaker 1: which was still in its infancy, faded out from practice. 27 00:01:27,360 --> 00:01:30,119 Speaker 1: But that wasn't actually the end of the ghost dance. 28 00:01:30,360 --> 00:01:33,120 Speaker 1: It was revived by Jack Wilson, who also went by 29 00:01:33,200 --> 00:01:36,520 Speaker 1: Wovoca in the eighteen eighties after he had a vision 30 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:39,120 Speaker 1: during an eclipse and he began to preach to the 31 00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:42,880 Speaker 1: Paiute people that their deceased ancestors would return from the dead, 32 00:01:43,520 --> 00:01:46,040 Speaker 1: and that white people would eventually be gone from the earth, 33 00:01:46,080 --> 00:01:49,200 Speaker 1: and that peace, health, and prosperity would return to the 34 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:53,040 Speaker 1: Native American tribes. And to ensure that this cleansing and 35 00:01:53,080 --> 00:01:57,200 Speaker 1: transition to a new world of prosperity happened, according to Avoca, 36 00:01:57,480 --> 00:02:00,240 Speaker 1: the ghost Dance had to be performed for five nights 37 00:02:00,240 --> 00:02:03,240 Speaker 1: in a row, and then those five nights of dancing 38 00:02:03,280 --> 00:02:07,120 Speaker 1: repeated every six weeks. Now, at this point in history, 39 00:02:07,160 --> 00:02:10,840 Speaker 1: relations between Native Americans and the US government were not good. 40 00:02:11,360 --> 00:02:15,120 Speaker 1: The US had repeatedly broken treaty agreements virtually everyone they 41 00:02:15,160 --> 00:02:18,000 Speaker 1: had signed with the Native Americans, and they also pushed 42 00:02:18,040 --> 00:02:22,360 Speaker 1: Native Americans onto smaller and smaller parcels of land and reservations, 43 00:02:22,440 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: so that the land that they had lived on for 44 00:02:24,480 --> 00:02:27,800 Speaker 1: in many cases years and years and years, could be seized. 45 00:02:28,440 --> 00:02:32,959 Speaker 1: The Ghost Dance was an entirely pacifist movement which forbade violence, 46 00:02:33,200 --> 00:02:36,080 Speaker 1: but just the same it terrified the U. S Government, 47 00:02:36,080 --> 00:02:39,200 Speaker 1: which did not understand it. Over the course of eighteen 48 00:02:39,240 --> 00:02:42,080 Speaker 1: ninety there was increasing consternation on the part of the 49 00:02:42,080 --> 00:02:46,040 Speaker 1: government and military that this embrace of traditional customs and 50 00:02:46,040 --> 00:02:50,120 Speaker 1: the rejection of white culture would lead to trouble. From 51 00:02:50,160 --> 00:02:53,639 Speaker 1: the White Field Agent perspective, they saw large numbers of 52 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:57,160 Speaker 1: Native Americans gathering, and they jumped to conclusions that they 53 00:02:57,160 --> 00:03:00,560 Speaker 1: were doing something threatening. And by this point the Ghost 54 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:03,760 Speaker 1: Dance had spread once again, and some of the Lakota 55 00:03:03,800 --> 00:03:06,800 Speaker 1: Sioux had begun to practice it. There had also been 56 00:03:06,840 --> 00:03:09,640 Speaker 1: an addition to the dance of so called ghost shirts 57 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:13,840 Speaker 1: decorated with red paint and other ornamentation, which they believed 58 00:03:13,840 --> 00:03:16,440 Speaker 1: would protect them from bullets fired by the guns of 59 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:21,399 Speaker 1: white men. A large gathering of people traveled in December 60 00:03:21,840 --> 00:03:24,880 Speaker 1: to see the Lakota leader, Sitting Bull, and practice the 61 00:03:24,919 --> 00:03:28,959 Speaker 1: ghost dance together. Believing that the Native Americans were practicing 62 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:32,560 Speaker 1: a war dance as a prelude to an uprising, Indian 63 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:36,960 Speaker 1: agency police moved in to arrest Sitting Bull on December 64 00:03:36,960 --> 00:03:40,440 Speaker 1: fift eight, and this led to a fight in which 65 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:44,280 Speaker 1: Sitting Bowl was killed. Two weeks later, a group of 66 00:03:44,280 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: ghost dancers, having fled Standing Rock Reservation we're Sitting Bull 67 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:50,960 Speaker 1: had been killed, were captured and brought to a camp 68 00:03:50,960 --> 00:03:53,720 Speaker 1: at Wounded Knee Creek with the Lakota Sioux chief Spotted 69 00:03:53,720 --> 00:03:56,800 Speaker 1: elk by the U. S. Army seventh Cavalry that was 70 00:03:56,840 --> 00:04:00,960 Speaker 1: on December. The camp was surrounded by the military with 71 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:04,160 Speaker 1: an armed perimeter. On the morning of the twenty nine, 72 00:04:04,760 --> 00:04:10,040 Speaker 1: an Army colonel named James Forsyth demanded that the Lakota disarm. 73 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:13,920 Speaker 1: There is conflicting information as to how things unfurled from there. 74 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:18,400 Speaker 1: The Lakota may have begun their ghost dance agitating the soldiers, 75 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:21,520 Speaker 1: but we don't know for certain. A young Lakoda man 76 00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:25,520 Speaker 1: named Black Coyote refused to disarm according to accounts by 77 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:29,479 Speaker 1: white soldiers, but Lakoda accounts of the incident indicate that 78 00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:32,359 Speaker 1: Black Coyote was deaf and he simply did not understand 79 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:35,680 Speaker 1: the command to disarm. But as an attempt was made 80 00:04:35,720 --> 00:04:39,120 Speaker 1: to forcibly take Black Coyotes rifle, the gun went off 81 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:44,440 Speaker 1: and this catalyzed an intense short range firefight. Because of 82 00:04:44,440 --> 00:04:48,080 Speaker 1: the close quarters, some cavalry members were firing on their 83 00:04:48,080 --> 00:04:51,560 Speaker 1: fellow soldiers at times, and when the whole thing ended 84 00:04:51,680 --> 00:04:54,480 Speaker 1: less than an hour after it had begun, between one 85 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:58,160 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty and three hundred Lakota were dead. Tabulation 86 00:04:58,200 --> 00:05:02,320 Speaker 1: of that number is inconsistent. An estimated half of the 87 00:05:02,360 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 1: Lakota who had been killed were women and children, and 88 00:05:05,320 --> 00:05:09,080 Speaker 1: thirty one U S cavalrymen were also killed. If you 89 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,120 Speaker 1: would like to hear more about this tragic incident, there 90 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:13,040 Speaker 1: is an episode in the Stuff You Missed in History 91 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:16,480 Speaker 1: Class archive by previous hosts Sarah and Katie that was 92 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:19,760 Speaker 1: originally aired in two thousand nine. I want to thank 93 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:23,279 Speaker 1: Chandler Mays and Casey Pegram for they're always amazing work 94 00:05:23,320 --> 00:05:25,679 Speaker 1: on the audio for this podcast, and if you would 95 00:05:25,680 --> 00:05:27,960 Speaker 1: like to subscribe to This Day in History Class, I 96 00:05:28,040 --> 00:05:30,080 Speaker 1: encourage you to do so. You can do that on 97 00:05:30,120 --> 00:05:33,520 Speaker 1: Apple podcast, the I Heart Radio app, or anywhere you 98 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:36,640 Speaker 1: get your podcasts. You should also check in with This 99 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:39,400 Speaker 1: Day in History Class tomorrow. But I'm afraid it is 100 00:05:39,440 --> 00:05:47,280 Speaker 1: another tragedy.