By Sankirtana Das
A recent article from America: The Jesuit Review describes an official church statement from Bishop Scott E. Bullock of Rapid City and the De Smet Jesuit Community of West River entitled “A Faithful Response to the Wounded Knee Decision.” Their response objects to an announcement by the current Secretary of Defense (or War) honoring a group of soldiers who received medals after brutally killing an estimated 300 Lakota women, children, and men (the majority women and children). Historians have described the December 29, 1890 event at Wounded Knee as a massacre, not a battle. The document also draws upon a personal letter General Nelson A. Miles sent to his wife just several weeks after the killings. He described the event as “the most abominable, criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children.”
Lakota Chief American Horse, who survived the slaughter, testified to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1891 of the horror he witnessed. He said, “After most all of them had been killed, a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth, and they would be safe. Little boys who were not wounded came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight, a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there.”
In light of such testimonies, a group of soldiers at the time still received Medals of Honor. That decision has been mulled over by Congress for decades. A report commissioned last year by the previous Secretary of Defense sought to examine the issue again, but it never appeared. Its findings seem to have been repressed.
Read more: https://iskconnews.org/opinion-wounded-knee-and-the-principles-of-dharma/
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