Wounded Knee Essay

Just a few days after Christmas o f 1890 a horrible event broke out, this event, Wounded Knee was this very event. Wounded Knee illustrates one of the final events in a long series of violent conflicts motivated by racism, disrespect and lack of understanding. There have been various accounts having to deal with this event, like a video made of the monument to where hundreds of native Americans were killed by the U.S army. It shows where the massacre occurred and how little the native Americans' deaths were honored. There was also a documentary made about Wounded Knee, this showed how brutal the massacre was and it actually shows real people giving accounts passed on to them, which makes it seem more real. There was also a paragraph written on Wounded Knee, this talked about exactly what happened and gives real dates. Even though this happened many years ago the same issues, though less extreme, are still going on today.

Wounded Knee was an extremely brutal and violent event, at the end of many different acts discrimination. The documentary showed that after the first initial killings the children went into hiding, and the U.S army would call them out and tell them that if they came out they would be brought to safety. All that really happened once they got out was that the soldiers shot them like they did the rest of the people. In the video of the monument, it shows where the massacre took place. Although, the monument dedicated to the native Americans was not as elaborate as it should have been for what all those innocent people went through. It was written that the "battle" started when the U.S army had gotten drunk and decided to get back at the native Americans, who they believed were at fault for Custer's death. There wasn't any real justice to them harassing the native Americans, just the fact that they didn't like them. All of these details show just some of the extremes that the native Americans had to endure just because of their race and that the army simply didn't like them or understand them.

Wounded Knee was just one of the brutal ending attacks on the native Americans in the U.S. Taking in all of this information made me realize that even though those exact things aren't happening now, there are still traces of racism and has been throughout our history. I also noticed that being U.S citizens we have a past of extreme disliking of anyone who isn't exactly like us. It was noticeable that those soldiers really didn't understand exactly who these native Americans were or what their culture was all about. I personally think that our country should really look and see that we have done some really bad things and that in some aspects these issues are still going on today.