When Wilson learned of a planned AIM protest against his administration at Pine Ridge, he retreated to tribal headquarters where he was under the protection of federal marshals and Bureau of Indian Affairs police. Wounded Knee SiegeĪIM’s growing prestige and influence, however, threatened the conservative Sioux tribal chairman, Dick Wilson. AIM’s highly visible publicity campaign on the case was given considerable credit for the verdict, winning the organization a great deal of respect on the reservation. They had their greatest success on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, after a group of young white men murdered a Sioux man named Yellow Thunder.Īlthough Yellow Thunder’s attackers received only six-year prison sentences, this was widely seen as a victory by the local Sioux accustomed to unfair treatment by the often racist judicial system. In 1972, a faction of AIM members led by Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier sought to close the divide by making alliances with traditional tribal elders on reservations. However, many mainstream Indian leaders denounced the youth-dominated group as too radical. Borrowing some tactics from the Vietnam war protests of the era, AIM soon gained national notoriety for its flamboyant demonstrations. The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in 1968 in an effort to stop police harassment of Indians in the Minneapolis area. Whatever the motives, the massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was one of the last major confrontations in the Indian Wars, America’s deadly series of wars against the Plains Indians and other Native Americans. Some historians speculate that the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were deliberately taking revenge for the regiment’s defeat at Little Bighorn in 1876. ![]() Surrounded by heavily armed troops, it’s unlikely that Big Foot’s band would have intentionally started a fight. The conflict at Wounded Knee was originally referred to as a battle-the Army troops involved were later rewarded with Medals of Honor-but in reality it was a tragic and avoidable massacre. (Some historians put this number at twice as high.) Nearly half of them were women and children. soldier and a shot was fired, although it’s unclear from which side.Ī brutal massacre followed, in which an estimated 150 Indians were killed. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Big Foot, a Lakota Sioux chief, near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. On December 15, 1890, reservation police tried to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux chief, whom they mistakenly believed was a Ghost Dancer, and killed him in the process, increasing the tensions at Pine Ridge in South Dakota.ĭid you know? Nearly half of the Sioux killed at the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre were women and children. Many Sioux believed that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and rejected the ways of the white man, the gods would create the world anew and destroy all non-believers, including non-Indians. The vast majority, however, were never prosecuted.This Day in History: - Massacre at Wounded Knee These are just a few examples of KKK members who were convicted and did serve time for murder and other crimes. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is thought to have gained crucial support due to public outrage over the disappearance and murder of these young men. ![]() An additional Klan member was convicted of manslaughter in 2005, and spent the remainder of his life in custody. ![]() The seven convicted men began serving time in 1970, but all were out of prison by 1977. Several Mississippi Klan members, including one "Imperial Wizard" as well as members of local law enforcement, were convicted of the 1964 murder of three civil rights workers: James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner. Three of these men were convicted of murder decades later - one in 1977, the others in 20. ![]() He spent the remainder of his life in custody.Īlabama Klan members bombed the 16th Street Baptist Church in 1963, killing four young girls: Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley. The Mississippi Klan member who assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers in 1963 was tried three times and finally convicted of first-degree murder in 1994. However, between 19, nearly all 250,000+ members quit the Klan in Indiana. He received a life sentence but was paroled in 1950. In 1925, the "Grand Dragon" of the Indiana Klan was convicted of the murder, rape, and kidnapping of Madge Oberholtzer. Some of these convictions are thought to have negatively influenced Klan membership, with this loss of members even leading to the demise of the second and third incarnations of the KKK. Klan members have been convicted and served time in prison for various crimes over the years.
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