War
In the winter of 1890, the Sioux Indians had been upset over a series of treaty violations by the US involving land divisions among tribes in South Dakota. There were a series of skirmishes over this but the biggest and most important one was the Wounded Knee Massacre. The Sioux had encamped themselves at Wounded Knee Creek and were handing over their weapons to US troops. One deaf Indian refused to give up his weapon, there was a struggle, and someone's gun discharged in the air. One of the US commanders heard this and ordered his troops to open fire. What remained when the shooting stopped was 153 dead Indians (mostly women and children) and 25 dead US troops most of which was due to friendly fire. There was a public uproar when word of this reached the Eastern US and the Government reestablished the treaty they had broken with the Sioux to avoid any further public backlash.
Read more about this topic: Ghost Dance War
Famous quotes containing the word war:
“The most absurd apology for authority and law is that they serve to diminish crime. Aside from the fact that the State is itself the greatest criminal, breaking every written and natural law, stealing in the form of taxes, killing in the form of war and capital punishment, it has come to an absolute standstill in coping with crime. It has failed utterly to destroy or even minimize the horrible scourge of its own creation.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“Christians would show sense if they dispatched these argumentative Scotists and pigheaded Ockhamists and undefeated Albertists along with the whole regiment of Sophists to fight the Turks and Saracens instead of sending those armies of dull-witted soldiers with whom they’ve long been carrying on war with no result.”
—Desiderius Erasmus (c. 1466–1536)
“I realized how for all of us who came of age in the late sixties and early seventies the war was a defining experience. You went or you didn’t, but the fact of it and the decisions it forced us to make marked us for the rest of our lives, just as the depression and World War II had marked my parents.”
—Linda Grant (b. 1949)