Wounded Knee Battlefield

The story

Written by AI from this property's National Register nomination and the record above; every sentence is checked against its sources before it appears here. Corrections: privacy@treealive.com

Wounded Knee Battlefield is a National Historic Landmark site near Batesland, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in Shannon County, listed in the National Register in 1966.

Why it's listed

It was listed under criterion A, with national-level significance in military history and in exploration and settlement. Its period of significance runs from 1890 to 1891, covering the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee and the 1891 burial of the dead.

Physical character

The battlefield takes in Wounded Knee Creek, a dry ravine, a shallow depression and a burial hill above the mass grave, marked by a granite shaft monument set off with a chain link fence and brick columns. The monument was placed in 1903, a Catholic church was built in 1913, and a store and gas station complex went up in 1930.

Historical context

Major Samuel M. Whitside camped at Wounded Knee in 1890, and troops sent out searched for Chief Big Foot's band, who were escorted in about 2:00 p.m.; the massacre erupted about 9:15 a.m., as they clashed with the Seventh Cavalry. A burial party interred the dead in 1891, and in 1903 Joseph Horn Cloud put up the granite monument, dedicated with offerings placed for the dead.