Wounded Knee Massacre

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Pages: 4

In the later half of the 19th century, the black hills in the Dakotas land is considered sacred to the Sioux people, but the US government wanted to take that land. The Sioux people defeat a troop of US Soldiers that come to take their land, which angers the government. The movie then shows a young indian boy named Ohiyesa, who was later forced to change his name to Charles Eastman, being taken my his father to be assimilated and taught at a christian school in Illinois. We then see that the Sioux are forced to leave their land and flees to near the Canadian border. Some of the tribe then leaves to live on a reservation. Sitting bull, the great chief, then gives in sometime later and leads the rest of his people to live on the reservation. …show more content…
If there was a less chaotic atmosphere and the soldiers didn’t seem as on edge and scared by the Indians, the situation would’ve been much less hostile and more peaceful. If the soldiers paused a second to listen to the fact that the man who wasn’t complying was a deaf-mute, the first shots could’ve been easily avoided. The soldiers also had no reason to shoot down and kill innocent people who were just fleeing to a safe place because they didn’t want to fight. This tragedy was avoidable if there was more understanding and …show more content…
The massacre done to the Sioux at Wounded Knee was unwarranted and a terrible tragedy that the US soldiers are to blame for because they lacked communication and patience. The things done over this time period resembled that of a genocide, the US government targeted the Native American people, which ended in mass murders of their people, much like the massacre in this film. Nobody involved in highly in the government in this movie cared about the Indians, including Henry Dawes who became selfish over time. The things that the US government put this group of people through was an act of injustice and lack of