Sitting Bull was killed. His followers gathered at the Pine Ridge Reservation to await what would happen next. Expecting the second-coming of their ancestors and a new earth they spoke of things to come. Led by a chief named Big Foot, federal troops rounded up the band and brought them to a place called Wounded Knee. Chief Big Foot, dying of pneumonia, sat with army officers talking.
Shots rang out as Indian braves and troopers fired at each other.
No one knew where the first shots were fired. From the ridge line above the camp the army's Hotchkiss gins raked Indian teepees as men, women and children fled for their lives. When the fighting was over 300 Sioux were dead or dying in the freezing December cold. Twenty-five soldiers lost their lives. Later several were given Congressional Medals of Honor for their part in the massacre.