Before daybreak, 39 Indian policemen storm
Sitting Bull’s cabin on the Grand River and place
him under arrest. As he is being led away, an angry
mob of Indians surrounds the police. In the panic
that follows, a member of the crowd shoots the po-
lice commander in the leg. The police commander
in turn shoots Sitting Bull in the side, while another
Indian policeman fires a bullet into his head, killing
the Lakota leader instantly. In the gunfight that fol-
lows, seven Lakota crowd members and six Indian
policemen are killed before the U.S. soldiers can
intervene.
December 29U.S. soldiers massacre Lakota Indians at
Wounded Knee.
As the Ghost Dance movement spreads through the
Lakota Sioux (see entry for SUMMER 1890), some
3,000 Ghost Dancers camp together on the Pine
Ridge Reservation. At the request of several lead-
ers of the Oglala Lakota band, who fear that the
United States will resort to a military campaign to
break up the camp, most of the Ghost Dancers show
their willingness to cooperate with authorities byA mass grave for the victims of the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 (Courtesy of the Montana Historical
Society, Helena)