Comparing Wounded Knee and Palestine

 

Wounded Knee was a massacre of nearly 300 Lakota people by soldiers of the US Army. 

It occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the state of South Dakota.

 

The previous day, a detachment of the 7th Cavalry Regiment stopped Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and forced them to camp at Wounded Knee Creek. 

 

 

The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James W. Forsyth, arrived and surrounded the encampment. The regiment was supported by a battery of four Hotchkiss mountain guns.

 

  

Crazy Horse family members tell the story in a book they wrote called Crazy Horse: The Lakota Warrior's Life & Legacy.  

On December 29, the cavalry surrounded Spotted Elk's camp. Four Hotchkiss artillery pieces, which would fire two-pound explosive shells at a rate of nearly one per second, were pointed at their village.  They had our people place their guns into a buckboard [wagon], until they had collected nearly every weapon we owned. Once they had collected our weapons, they fired a carnage of bullets indiscriminately into our people's camp. 

Spotted Elk was sitting in the box of a buckboard at the time and attempted to stand and ask for a cease-fire when two soldiers fired their rifles into his chest and he slipped to the ground. As he tried to get back up, another soldier fired four bullets into him with his pistol at point-blank range.

The village was comprised of mostly old people, women and children. The war against the Lakota had been over for about 15 years and so Spotted Elk's band was no threat.  They had come to the Pine Ridge reservation to participate in the Ghost Dance, a spiritual movement that was trying to revive the people.  The US government was determined to crush this movement. 

Several of the soldiers involved in the mass killing received Medals of Honor from Washington.

Comparing Wounded Knee and Palestine

Wounded Knee comes to mind as I watch the images of Israel's recent Zionist rampage against the Palestinian people. 

When they fought back to defend themselves they were called terrorists by Tel Aviv and their supporters in western capitals. This is similar to the way the Lakota (and other native people) were called 'savages and redskins' by the ruling white oligarchies ('Great White Father') in Washington.

I'm all for non-violence but when the US military starts (or helps others) to kill defenseless people just because their land and resources are wanted, then the people under attack have the right to defend themselves.  And when a people are occupied and colonized as the native people in North America and the Palestinian people are, international law is on their side.  

They have the right to resist.

The similarities between Wounded Knee and Palestine are that neither of them had the capability to defend themselves. The Lakota had virtually no allies on the East coast of the US. They were on their own and disarmed.

The Palestinian people today (essentially disarmed and under attack) though have active supporters on every corner of the planet. The US and Israel continue to show the world their dark side as they participate in this genocide on Palestine.

We must all actively support the Palestinian people and the native people who still suffer from the ravages of Washington's occupation and colonization of their North American lands.

The US-Zionist military empire is filthy.

Bruce