Native American leaders are condemning the Pentagon after it allowed the families of soldiers who participated in the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre to retain their military medals, calling the decision a distortion of history and a barrier to reconciliation.
“Celebrating war crimes is not patriotic. This decision undermines truth-telling, reconciliation, and the healing that Indian Country and the United States still need,” said Larry Wright Jr., director of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).
The NCAI emphasized that Wounded Knee was not a “battle” but the deliberate mass killing of more than 350 unarmed Lakota men, women, and children who had sought safety from invading U.S. soldiers at Wounded Knee Creek.
Ryman LeBeau, chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, called the December 1890 massacre “one of the darkest days in U.S. history,” recounting how U.S. Cavalry forces surrounded the Lakota on the plains, disarmed them, and opened fire — killing women and children, some reportedly shot in the back.
Although some U.S. history books describe Wounded Knee as the last major battle of the American Indian Wars, leaders argue it was the culmination of a centuries-long campaign of displacement, ethnic cleansing, and genocide against Native Americans. NCAI representatives also note the historical significance of Wounded Knee, citing that Adolf Hitler studied the destruction of Native peoples during U.S. westward expansion as a blueprint for his Lebensraum policies in Eastern Europe.
The controversy has reignited debates over how the United States remembers its history and honors military service, with Native leaders insisting that acknowledgment of past atrocities is crucial for healing and reconciliation.
