Wounded Knee Massacre Analysis

Words: 525
Pages: 3

The Wounded Knee Massacre was a very upsetting and shocking event that sat in the hearts of many Native Americans. In Black Elk’s account of the Massacre he constantly stressed how often he “felt that something terrible was going to happen.” Now, before the massacre even took place, a good amount of policemen from Standing Rock decided to arrest Sitting Bull but he decided against this. His resistance caused a quarrel which ended in Sitting Bull’s death. The night before the massacre, Black Elk couldn't hardly even sleep; he walked around most of the night. Once he was awoken he immediately went after his horses but this was cut off by the sounds of shooting in the east. What he witnessed were many bodies of men, women, and children lying in heaps as if the tried to escape. This work could have been taken two different ways in this time period. The general population could have just dismissed this piece …show more content…
Around this time they began to monitor and cease the flow of immigration as a whole but majorly against the Chinese with the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. People also began to push west and remove Native people from their lands either by force or by more violent means. This really connects with this piece because it really shows a first hand account of the prejudice and the measures that were taken to move the Native Americans out of their lands. This work really exemplifies the lengths to which Americans would go to get what they wanted, no matter what the cost was to other people. In this unit we really focused on the normal farmer and the movement and expansion towards the west and the effect it had on the Native people of this land. This work shows the little sympathy that Americans had for Native Americans and immigrants during this time. They tie very well into each other because it shows and provides evidence for many horrible