The Wilmington morning star., 1940-06-13
WASHINGTON
DAYBOOK
Nv JACK STINNETT


WASHINGTON, June II - Maybe It's the
spirit of the times but it's beginning to look as
if congress finally were going Ito lquldate the
liability of the United States"
don't mean anything about the national
debt. That would be about as far from the
sn,r,t If the times as you could go. What l
mean ia "liouidate the liability of the United
States for massacre of Sioux Indian men, "on'
on and children at Wounded Knee "a creek IN
South Dakota) December 20, 1890"
It seems that some time back, the United
States realized it had made a pretty bad mis-
take massacriug all those poor Sioux at Wound
ed Knee and decided to dc something about 1t.
Secretary Ickes (as far as the present admin
i~stration is concerned, he's the Little White
Father of all the Indians that are left to us)
80. sold. "The. massacre can be viewed both
as an injury to the individuals who were killed
mr. wounded and as an injury to the entire
Sioux tribe"
The facts of the case are these: The Sioux,
considerably battered about by the White Jury
that followed the Custer massacre, had fallen
OH v SdSS A$OS OAAS
hut something happened to those promises OF
bacon, corn meal, blankets and beef from the
United States government. Along came a meol-
cine man (ethnologists refer to him as a SORT
Of messiah) who had the idea that if the Indians
would all get together for a good old Ghost
Dance, everything would be all right.
Probably because nothing else worked, the
Sioux thought they would try it. And they as
sembled some four or five hundred strong IN
the gulley Of Wounded Knee creek, just north
Of the Nebraska line. That's where the Sew
enth Cavalry found them during the Christmas
HOLIDAYS of 1890. The Seventh Cavalry ex-
ecuted a pincers movement and demanded their
surrender. Not a shot was fired. The Sioux
gave up.
The men were herded up the canyon one way,
the women and children in another. Old Chief
Big Foot, who was one sick Indian, was
brought out on a stretcher and laid in the mid
die. The Indians started surrenderlng their
guns. Nobody knows how it happened, but
somebody's gun went off and the slaughter
started.
In these days Of blizkriegs and stukas and
lotion tanks. I'm not going to dwell on the
gruesome details. The dead and injured were
reported around 400, including 80 soldiers, al
though one commentator has been unklnd
enough to say that THIS was because the dTIly ,
enveloping movement was so small they got
in the way of their own bullets. Anyway it
has been definitely established that a pretty big
percentage of the dead and injured were women
and children. And what was for some years
referred to as the great Battle of Wounded
Knee now has become known officially, in con.
gress and in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, as
the Massacre Of Wounded Knee.
Several times, conscientious congressman
have tried to do something about it, but the
movement never gained much Roadway. Now
for some strange reason (maybe it really is just
the spirit Of the times) SO years after, the ef-
fort to "liquidate the liability Of the United
States for the massacre Of Sioux men, women
and children" is out in the open and seems to
be going places.
The idea, under the bill reported out Of com.
mittee in the house Of representatives, is to al
lot 1000 for each Indian killed and a similar
amount to each wounded on a basis Of disability
determined by the tables of the Veterans
bureau.