Massacre at Wounded Knee Creek

The first document is an excerpt from Black Elk’s autobiography regarding the Wounded Knee Massacre. The second document is an excerpt from President Benjamin Harrison’s annual message describing the conflict and progress of the program to decrease Native American’s landholdings. The audience of these two excerpts is the general public. However, in general, Native Americans were more interested considering that it was their land and people diminishing. I find it interesting that President Harrison refers to the Native American’s land as “waste land”; however, for the newcomers, the land is suddenly infinitely valuable due to the prospect of farming. In reality, the newcomers would have probably been able to bargain with the Natives to do their own farming there, consequently, the Natives could have kept their land and the newcomers would have still prospered and been fed. In Flying Hawk’s recollection of the events at Wounded Knee, he concludes by stating “I was there and saw the trouble,-but after the shooting was over; it was all bad.” This conclusion is highly impactful. It summarizes all that was occurring with their lives at this time. They were warring with the new come Americans and they were losing their homes to them. These documents make it clear that the newcomers came in and overturned the Native American’s way of life. The culture of this time appears to be that of a dictatorship. It seems that the new comers told the Native Americans what to do, when to do it, and if they didn’t do exactly as asked, there would be war.

hese three documents are an exerpt of an autobiography, a report for the accounts of what happened at Wounded Knee Creek, and a recollection from someone who was there. The audience for whom these documents were directed are the people who need or want to know what happened at Wounded Knee in 1890. What I found interesting about these three documents was the point of view from each of them. Two of them being from an