Mistaken Assumptions

White fear and anger over the Ghost Dance focused on one Indian, Sitting Bull, Sioux chief and medicine man who had been the last to surrender to the Army and accept government authority.  It was actually Sitting Bull who was skeptical of the Ghost Dance, but he refused to intervene to stop it either.  Ironically the Indian agents believed that he had set off the Ghost Dance frenzy that they so feared, and wanted him arrested for it.

Major General Nelson Miles ordered his arrest in December 1890 along with that of Big Foot, a leader at the Cheyenne River Reservation.  On December 15th the Indian police seized Sitting Bull but a fight broke out.  In the fight six policemen, six Sioux, and Sitting Bull were killed.

After Sitting Bull's death, some 400 Sioux fled south to the Cheyenne River Reservation.  Most of them surrendered at Fort Bennett but the rest (about 38 in all) took refuge with Big Foot.  The Army kept close watch on Big Foot and because of the intense surveillance, he took his people, along with the remaining Sioux and fled to the Pine Ridge Reservation in the Dakota Badlands.

The Army pursued the fleeing Indians with several cavalry units and caught up with them within a few miles.  They arrested Big Foot and gave him a military escort upon his request to a place they camped 20 miles outside of Pine Ridge Reservation, called Wounded Knee.

Next time...a wild shot
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On March 22, 1765, hoping to raise sufficient funds to defend the vast new American territories won from the French in the Seven Years’ War, the British government passes the notorious Stamp Act.   The legislation levied a direct tax on all materials printed for commercial and legal use in the colonies, and helped plant seeds for a far larger movement against the British government and the eventual battle for independence.