Wounded Knee Massacre - Remembrance

Remembrance

A church was built on the hill behind the mass grave in which the victims had been buried. In 1903, descendants of those who died in the battle erected a monument at the gravesite. The memorial lists many of those who died at Wounded Knee along with an inscription that reads:

"This monument is erected by surviving relatives and other Ogalala and Cheyenne River Sioux Indians in memory of the Chief Big Foot massacre December 29, 1890. Col. Forsyth in command of US troops. Big Foot was a great chief of the Sioux Indians. He often said, 'I will stand in peace till my last day comes.' He did many good and brave deeds for the white man and the red man. Many innocent women and children who knew no wrong died here."

The Wounded Knee Battlefield was declared a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1965 and was listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

Beginning in 1986, a group began the Big Foot Memorial Riders to continue to honor the dead. The ceremony has attracted more participants each year and riders live with the cold weather, as well as the lack of food and water, as they retrace the path that their family members took to Wounded Knee. They carry with them a white flag to symbolize their hope for world peace, and to honor and remember the victims so that they will not be forgotten.

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Famous quotes containing the word remembrance:

    Praising what is lost
    Makes the remembrance dear.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)

    I have been told, that in some public discourses of mine my reverence for the intellect has made me unjustly cold to the personal relations. But now I almost shrink at the remembrance of such disparaging words. For persons are love’s world, and the coldest philosopher cannot recount the debt of the young soul wandering here in nature to the power of love, without being tempted to unsay, as treasonable to nature, aught derogatory to the social instincts.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    There’s rosemary and rue. These keep
    Seeming and savor all the winter long.
    Grace and remembrance be to you.
    William Shakespeare (1564–1616)