I think one of the reasons that the Wounded Knee Massacre is the last time that Native Americans are mentioned in most U.S. History courses is because it would serve as a good book end in the scope of Frederick Jackson Turner’s “frontier thesis” that the United States ultimately would have “won” for good against Native communities that they were trying to assert total control over. Basically, this means that this event has been framed as the Native peoples’ last stand before being forced to accept the “inevitable fate of conquest” and anything that happened after that doesn’t have to do with “industrialization, urbanization, and other forms of nation-building” is therefore not important in the grand scheme of U.S. History1. I don’t think it is a coincidence that this is the last event featuring Native peoples mentioned in most classes as this event, originally dubbed the Battle of Wounded Knee, was perpetrated by the 7th Cavalry; the same group that was overwhelmingly defeated at the Battle of the Greasy Grass. The conflict at Greasy Grass was such a humiliating defeat for the U.S. military at what was also an important time of celebration for the United States at its first centennial. For this reason, the parallel of having that same cavalry “winning” against the Native peoples this time in addition to its occuring after Sitting Bull’s death (who, as we know, was also involved at Greasy Grass) and his Hunkpapa fleeing to be under the protection of Big Foot’s band is a convenient place to shift attention away from Native Americans’ long standing resistance2. For many years this event being labeled a battle instead of what it was—-a massacre—- would neatly tie up the frontier chapter of American history depicting the U.S. as the ultimate “winners” by sort of propagandized the United States government as this all-powerful entity that will always eventually triumph over anyone else who may have previously put up a fight. As historians, it is important to recognize that there is an agenda in some spaces to make oneself look better in a historical framework, so it is very important to look beyond this and gather information from all perspectives such as the Native Americans in this case in order to be able to pinpoint biases and be able to look beyond what you’ve been taught to better be able to see the fuller picture.
- Slide 9 of the PowerPoint from October 2nd
- Slide 5 of the PowerPoint from October 2nd