WOUNDED KNEE, 1890/1973

Miles , fearful that Big Foot 's destination was the stronghold and his presence would rekindle the crisis , deployed both the 6th Cavalry and 9th Cavalry to block the Minniconjou , but Big Foot was not headed for the stronghold and evaded them . Big Foot 's band was intercepted by Major HYPERLINK "http /en .wikipedia .org /w /index .php ?title Samuel_Whitside action edit \o "Samuel Whitside " Samuel Whitside and approximately 200 troops of the 7th Cavalry . Whitside transferred Big Foot to an army ambulance due to a severe case of pneumonia and escorted the Lakota

to their camp for the night at Wounded Knee Creek . The army supplied the Lakota with some tents and rations , and then conducted a census , determining that there were 120 males and 230 women and children . The following morning , the Lakota found that the remainder of the 7th Cavalry , with its commander Colonel James W . Forsyth , had arrived through the night , accompanied by a battery of Hotchkiss guns of the 1st Artillery . The cannons were set up on a low hill overlooking the Lakota encampment . Forsyth informed his command that the Lakota were to be taken to a military camp in Omaha Nebraska . According to John Kaminski , the ghost dance , which after the massacre at Wounded Knee soon faded from widespread Indian practice - but not consciousness - accurately foreshadowed what was to come for the luckless Lakota

Massacre

The 7th Cavalry had been ed by the commander of the Department of the Platte , General John Brooke , to disarm Big Foot 's band before marching them to Nebraska . Having escorted them to the camp-site the evening before , and setting patrols around the two (military and Lakota camps , both sides regarded the Lakota as virtual prisoners . Forsyth chose not to try to disarm their prisoners that evening . The following morning...