soldiers over the hill as reinforcement; BIA Police then shot and killed Sitting Bull and his son; Sitting Bull’s Hunkpapa Lakota fled south to Chief Big Foot, leader of Minicoujou Lakota at Cheyenne River; WHEREAS, Chief Big Foot was sick with pneumonia as the Mnicoujou made their way to Pine Ridge to help Red Cloud negotiate peace with the Army; yet, Major Whitside stopped Big Foot and his people at Wounded Knee, told them that they could not go to Pine Ridge, but must go to the military camp at Wounded Knee, where the Army intended to disarm our Lakota, arrest them and take all of his horses; In the bitter cold of December 1890, the 7 th Cavalry ordered our relatives to camp overnight surrounded by Hotchkiss Guns; WHEREAS , in the early morning of December 29, 1890, the Army lined up our men and large boys in front of the soldiers and disarmed them; As Black Coyote, the last man, was disarmed, the soldiers seized him roughly and the gun went off straight up in the air. The 7 th Cavalry commenced firing at the disarmed line of men in front of them and the Hotchkiss guns fired throughout the camp killing children, women, and old men; WHEREAS , Soldiers shot women with babies on their back. The shooting went on for hours. Little boys hid in a ravine, and the soldiers called to them that they were safe now, they could come out. When the boys came out from the ravine hideaway, the soldiers killed them; WHEREAS , Our Mnicoujou relative, Dewey Beard lost his parents, his wife and babies that day. He was shot several times. He said simply, “They murdered us.” Dewey Beard was known as Wasu Maza , “Iron Hail,” for his many wounds sustained at Wounded Knee; 350 of our Lakota People were murdered; WHEREAS , General Miles said, the Wounded Knee Massacre was “the most abominable criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children.” Yet, Congress awarded 24 medals to the soldiers who killed women and children at Wounded Knee; WHEREAS , the Oglala Sioux Tribe (51%) and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (49%) recently collaborated in joint recovery of 40 acres of land, in undivided interests, adjacent to the Granite Obelisk Memorial at Wounded Knee; these 40 acres are part of the Massacre site and are sacred to the Oceti Sakowin as Memorial and Sacred Site Land; and together, the Tribes pledged that the lands will be preserved as a Sacred Site and Memorial, with no commercial development; WHEREAS , Rep. Dusty Johnson introduced H.R. 3371, the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act in order to recover the 40 acres of the Wounded Knee Massacre Site in restricted fee status as Indian country, with the names of the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes on the title; prohibits state and local taxation; re-affirms tribal civil and criminal law jurisdiction; We thank Rep. Dusty Johnson; WHEREAS, South Dakota Senators Mike Rounds and John Thune offered S. 2088, the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act to restore our lands to “Indian country” by acknowledging the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and Oglala Sioux Tribe restricted fee title; We thank Senators Mike Rounds and John Thune;
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