After Wounded Knee: Correspondence of Major and Surgeon John Vance Lauderdale while Serving with the Army Occupying the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 1890-1891
The Wounded Knee Massacre of December 29, 1890, known to the U. S. military historians as the last battle in "the Indian Wars," was in reality another tragic event in a larger pattern of conquest, destruction, killing, and broken promises that continues to characterize U. S. policies toward Native Americans. Arriving to take up his duties at the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota only days after this encounter between the Seventh Cavalry and Lakota Civilians, in which more than 260 Lakota men, women, and children were killed, Army Surgeon John Vance Lauderdale wrote a series of extended letters to his wife describing what happened. This body of correspondence contains details of daily life on the Pine Ridge Reservation under military occupation. He also shares his views on the Wounded Knee massacre itself and on other tragic events, such as the cold-blooded murders of Few Tails and Lieutenant Casey. Lauderdale treated the wounded, both Seventh Cavalry soldiers and Lakota civilians. He had little sympathy for the military command and expressed outrage at the tactics used against the Lakota, who he saw as being goaded into  a situation by white ranchers, land speculators, government agents, and the U. S. Army. After Wounded Knee contains letters that are part of the John Vance Lauderdale Papers in the Western American Collection Yale University's Beinecke Library. It is a "must read" title for anyone interested in what happened to a Lakota remnant on a cold winter's morning more than a century ago.  --Midwest Book Review