The Massacre at Wounded Knee The massacre that occurred, in the winter of 1890, at Wounded Knee was uncalled for and cruel. The Native Americans were scared and searching for hope. People were coming into their home, stealing their land, and killing their people. The Europeans over reacted when the Natives began to dance. When the Indian police took the Native Americans to a camp near Wounded Knee, they were listening to orders and not rebelling. They gave the Europeans no reason to shoot at them. Somewhere in-between 153 to 300 Native Americans were killed (Gitlin, 2011, pg. 91). Men, women, and children were killed. None of them had done anything wrong. The Indian police didn't just open fire at people that could have been a possible threat. They opened fire at everyone. Native Americans and …show more content…
When they were stopped from escaping and taken to the camp they were following orders. They didn't rebel or try to run away. They went with them to the camp and handed over their weapons. Although they were angry they did not act upon it. They listened to the Indian police and did what they told them to do. The Native Americans gave the police no reason to shoot at them. Once they were at the camp they caused no trouble. They didn’t attempt to escape. They didn’t refuse to hand over weapons. "The Indian men had no intention of fighting," (Richardson, 2010, pg.6). All they did was follow orders and then start to dance the Ghost Dance. They began to dance because they were scared. They were surrounded by about 500 soldiers with massive guns. All of their weapons had been taken from them so their only way to defend themselves was to turn towards hope and dance the Ghost Dance with faith that the messiah would save them. They put on their ghost shirts to protect them from the bullets. When they started dancing was when the police began to shoot. (Takaki,