Commentary

DECEMBER 1890 - Remembering Wounded Knee: The Pictures are Embedded in My Mind

Levi Rickert, editor-in-chief in Native Condition. Discussion »

The pictures of frozen Sioux ancestors savagely killed by the US Calvary on this date in 1890 are embedded in my mind.

Remembering Wounded Knee, Chief Big Foot Frozen in Our Memory

Strangely enough, through the years, I have been told by pompous non-Indians that American Indians were conquered and that's what happens to conquered people and we, as American Indians, should simply "get over it and forget." Even some middle-class successful (whatever that means) American Indians suggest we get past the "victim" mode and forget.

I still remember the pictures embedded in my mind of the frozen dead.

Our Jewish friends purposely have a saying "Lest we forget" so that the world acknowledges they will never ever endure another Holocaust.

American Indians will not - and cannot - forget what happened at Wounded Knee on this date in 1890. It was bad enough that our warrior men were killed, but history records that half as many women and children were also savagely killed that day.

Estimates of the exact number ancestors killed that day range from 150 to 300. It does not matter the exact number. I still remember the pictures embedded in my mind of the frozen dead.

History tells us they were left there for two or five days in the brutal frigid wintry plains of South Dakota before a burial party came. It does not matter the exact number of days. I still remember the pictures embedded in my mind of the frozen dead.

Wounded Knee is a symbol for all American Indians of what happened to our ancestors.

Attorney General Holder Visits Memorial

The Lakota who survived have left testimony for history to judge of what happened on this date in history. They tell us that innocent died by Hollister rapid fire weapons. They tell they were outnumbered.

History tells us that some 150 wounded ancestors were taken to a church still adorned with the Christmas decorations because December 29 is only four days after Christmas.

No Peace on Earth at Wounded Knee.

How could there be when the dead were placed in a single open grave and buried on top of one another?

Call us all whiners, I don't care. I still remember the pictures embedded in my mind.

Tell me I have a victim mentality, I don't care. Besides, anyone who really knows me knows that is not true. I still remember the pictures embedded in my mind of the frozen dead. I do care about what happened.

My sadness is for the frozen ancestors who symbolize the vast mistreatment by the federal government towards American Indians of every generation - before and after 1890.

We, American Indians, will never forget Wounded Knee.

The pictures are too vivid.

posted December 29, 2011 6:00 am est