Indianz.Com > News > Native Sun News Today: Wounded Knee descendants come together on massacre anniversary
Public meetings discuss Wounded Knee belongings returned to descendants
Wednesday, January 4, 2023
Native Sun News Correspondent
RAPID CITY, South Dakota — A public meeting to discuss sacred belongings recently returned to Wounded Knee descendants took place on December 16, 2022, from 5 PM – 9 PM and December 17 from 2 PM – 9 PM at New Life Church, 415 McArthur St. in Rapid City, SD. At press time, details of the agenda for the 2-day meeting were still being confirmed.
Wounded Knee is the site of an infamous massacre on December 29, 1890, where more than 250 unarmed Lakota men, women, and children were slaughtered by U.S. Army Calvary. A worker in charge of clearing the battlefield stole the belongings from the bodies of the dead, then sold them to a Massachusetts trader who donated them to the Founders’ Museum in Barre, Massachusetts, in 1892.
After decades of negotiations, the museum finally returned about 150 sacred belongings to the Lakota people in ceremonies on November 5, 2022. The collection of belongings includes ceremonial pipes, weapons, moccasins, clothing, and the dried umbilical cords traditionally kept by tribal members throughout their lives.
The items returned to the Lakota people were all authenticated by multiple experts, including tribal experts. They are now in safekeeping at Oglala Community College at Kyle.
On December 3, 2022, approximately 50 people gathered in Eagle Butte to discuss plans for the sacred belongings. Relatives from Pine Ridge and Standing Rock as well as Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST) members attended the meetings, including newly elected tribal presidents Ryman LeBeau of CRST and Frank Star Comes Out, Oglala Sioux tribe. Participants also came from the Crow Creek Reservation and Pierre.
Marlis Afraid of Hawk, (Mnicoujou, enrolled in the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), a respected elder who holds an office with the HAWK 1890 Descendants Group, said that the December 3 meeting was “the first time in a long time the Descendants came together as one.” Manny Iron Hawk (Titunwan Okowozu), spokesperson for the HAWK 1890 group, said he was very pleased with the turnout which indicates increased awareness and concern for the sacred belongings. Also, the attendance and the atmosphere of the gathering show that “the relatives want to get involved” in deciding the future of the items brought home.Related Stories

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