The Killing Fields of Wounded Knee The Plains Sioux and U.S.

Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee by Jeffrey Ostler Review by: Brad Lookingbill Reviews in American History, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sep., 2005), pp. 379-386 Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30031814 . Accessed: 18/02/2014 00:00
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THE KILLING FIELDS OF WOUNDED KNEE

Brad Lookingbill

Jeffrey Ostler. The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clarkto Knee. York: Wounded New Cambridge University Press, 2004. xviii + 387 pp. Photographs, illustrations, maps, notes, and index. $65.00 (cloth); $21.99 (paper). On December 29, 1890, as many as 300 Sioux were killed or mortally wounded by U.S. soldiers at Wounded Knee creek. After a winter blizzard spread a white blanket over the bloody mud, Dr. Charles Eastman, a fullblooded Santee Sioux physician, attempted to rescue possible survivors on New Year's Day. Beneath a mound of snow, he uncovered a little girl about four years of age lying next to a corpse. Her name was Zintkala Nuni, or Lost Bird. She was wrapped in a shawl and wore a buckskin cap, which bore traditional beadwork crafted into the design of an American flag. Despite mild frostbite, she was still alive. Brigadier General Leonard W. Colby, commander of the Nebraska militia, eventually adopted the orphan and gave her the name Marguerite.1 More than one hundred years later, historians continue to ask: what happened at Wounded Knee? JeffreyOstler, professor of history and department head at the University of Oregon, turns his gaze toward the killing fields to find answers. He seeks to revise the classic narrative of Robert M. Utley's The Last Days of the Sioux Nation (1963), which called it "a regrettable, tragic accident of war ... for which neither side as a whole may be properly condemned."2 Dissatisfied with existing scholarship, Ostler revisits a rich cache of documents in the National Archives as well as an impressive number of secondary sources. He untangles a contested process negotiated through a century of "empire" building. Instead of the "last Indian war," he sees America's legacies of conquest. Ostler argues that America's commitment to an expansionist ideology of manifest destiny ultimately led to Wounded Knee. His story arc resembles Knee(1970), although his Dee Brown's best-selling BuryMy Heartat Wounded approach to the subject is more analytical.3He engages in the kind of analysis typical of New Westernhistorians such as PatriciaNelson Limerick,who once called the frontier the "f-word."4 Likewise, he prefers the "c-word,"conquest,
Reviews in American History 33 (2005) 379-386 2005 by The Johns Hopkins University Press

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and uses it as the title for the first part of his narrative. During the nineteenth century,U.S. imperialism and colonialism prominently featured armed forces. Rather than spreading peace, justice, freedom, or democracy across North America, he contends, they constituted a weapon of massive destruction. Although he concedes that no one deliberately planned to massacre the Plains Sioux, he finds that the "reliance on overwhelming military power to intimidate and coerce had exactly that result" (p. 9). What ended at Wounded Knee began with Lewis and Clark, or so Ostler argues. Starting with the expedition of Lewis and Clark, Ostler sketches the designs of a democratic republic to erect an "empire of liberty" in occupied territories. He gives passing attention to the "winning of the West" by an alliance of Sioux bands, who drove the Cheyenne, the Kiowa, the Crow, and the Pawnee away from their homelands.5While mindful of the Seven Council Fires of the Plains Sioux, he provides limited coverage of the close encounters between Indian people and the "Jeffersoniantrespassers." He truncates the game of geopolitics played by Sioux leaders, saying little about their strategic adaptations to the spread of cholera, measles, smallpox, horses, alcohol, and firearms. His account dispenses with the Lewis and Clark expedition in two pages and swiftly closes chapter one with forward-looking statements on "a history and future of intentional acts of genocide and ethnocide" (p. 39). Given the title of his book, readers may be disappointed by the sparse information in the narrative about what the Corps of Discovery actually did. The plot of Ostler's narrative thickens during the 1850s, when the negotiations for treaties between the United States and the Plains Sioux began. From the beginning, "touching the pen" started an erosion of autonomy for the latter through a concerted effort by the former. After sporadic episodes of spirited resistance and ethnic cleansing, the Peace Policy of President Ulysses S. Grant concentrated the bands on the Great Sioux reservation. Ostler asserts that the Grant administration planned to use insurgent attacks on nonIndians as "a pretext for final conquest of the northern militants" (p. 61). He examines how Sioux insurgents tried to stop an invasion into the Black Hills, where gold tempted prospectors. Even though the Fort Laramie Treaty guaranteed the promised lands, officials in Washington D.C. broke their promises. They announced that bands not settled on the reservation by January 31, 1876, would be considered hostile. In fact, three columns of soldiers mobilized to drive them into the hands of the government agents. Surrounded on all sides, the followers of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse found nowhere to escape. Thus began the Great Sioux war, which Ostler portrays in chapters three and four. Although he avoids retelling the battle of Little Big Horn, he relates its imperial implications quite dramatically.During the late summer of 1876, additional troops entered the fray to avenge the death of Lieutenant Colonel

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George A. Custer and his Seventh Cavalry. Meanwhile, U.S. policymakers concentrated upon what Ostler calls their "otherwar aim: gaining fictive legal title to the Black Hills" (p. 66). Congress took the Black Hills thanks to the intrigue of the Manypenny Commission, seizing millions of acres of territory from the Plains Sioux. Ostler stipulates that the "militants were not demoralized" by the campaign against them from 1876 to 1877, even though the war chiefs could not stop the "growing wave of defections" (pp. 76-7). Crazy Horse surrendered after the battle of Wolf Mountains, but he was bayoneted in the back by a frantic guard escorting him to jail. After fleeing to Canada, Sitting Bull finally surrendered as a prisoner of war in 1881. With clarity and precision, Ostler traces the political maneuvering that shaped Indian affairs at this turning point. In part two, Ostler develops five chapters on "Colonialism"to analyze the subsequent mismanagement of Indian affairs. Unfortunately, his narrative obscures the presence of "the wolves," that is, the indigenous auxiliaries of the military on the reservation. To maintain surveillance over vast distances with a shrinking force of regulars, the U.S. Army recruited native peacekeepers to carry out the mission. With a general population estimated at 15,000, Indian scouts in Sioux country numbered more than 2000 by 1890.Against the odds, they were expected to keep natives safe from strangers. They included such prominent Sioux as Hump, who donned a uniform as a scout. Even Crazy Horse before his death expressed a desire to ride with the bluecoats as a scout against tribal enemies such as the Nez Perce. Driven by a variety of motives, translators and guides formed an indispensable corps of cultural brokers. They made significant contributions to operations in the occupied territories. Their story deserves to be told, but Ostler barely acknowledges them.6 In chapter seven, Ostler laments the "Colonial Education" instituted after 1879. His remarks on educational institutions such as Carlisle Indian School resemble recent ones by Ward Churchill, albeit with less vitriol.7 He seems particularly resistant to the notion that they offered any opportunities for students to "save" both the Indian and the man. Young warriors, in fact, exhibited a great deal of pride through competitive sports at school. They acquired skills for trades to make them less dependent on the agencies. They obtained practical knowledge to bring honor to Indian people, even if they faced pressure to assimilate. They seldom considered themselves powerless to the relentless regimentation but helped to shape the institutions for their own ends. Among the most successful of the students, Carlisle graduate Luther Standing Bear became superintendent of a day school at Pine Ridge in 1891.8 Ostler focuses upon the suffering of children, though, and calls it "cultural genocide" (p. 168).

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In chapters eight through ten, Ostler evaluates the effects of factionalism and the struggles for power during the reservation era. He exploits anecdotal evidence and offers speculative commentary on Sioux reactions to the government's intolerance of religious diversity. Indeed, the rank and file continued to practice Sun Dances in secret. In order to increase the number of Christian churches competing with one another for souls at the agencies, Red Cloud and Spotted Tail cunningly requested Catholic priests to labor among them. Crow Dog, whose conviction for the murder of Spotted Tail was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1883, emerged from the narrative as a human being caught up in events beyond his control. Quarrels among rival leaders erupted with frequency,which sometimes ended in violence. According to Ostler, the Plains Sioux realized "the necessity of finding new forms of collective action" following the imposition of the Dawes Sioux Act in 1888 (p. 221). Part three titled "Anticolonialism and the State" makes-up over one-third of Ostler's book. Borrowing from Michael Adas's study of millenarian protest movements in Europe, he dubs ghost dancers "prophets of rebellion."9 He depicts the movement for spiritual empowerment as an "ideological and in many ways a direct challenge to U.S. authority" (p. 262). Comparing them to "Luddites of another time," he believes that Wovoka, a Paiute proclaimed the "Messiah," recognized the futility of violent resistance to military power (p. 311). Wovoka incorporated a blend of Christian and native elements into his anticolonial gospel. He predicted a great cataclysm, which would annihilate non-Indians. A cohort of Plains Sioux made pilgrimages to meet him, returning to their people to teach them the dance to end colonial rule. Agent James McLaughlin fumed about Sitting Bull, who seemed to encourage the dance at Standing Rock. When attempting to arrest the war chief at his cabin on December 15, 1890, a Sioux policeman working for the agency shot him in the head. Sitting Bull's grieving followers fled in fear and joined a band led by Big Foot, another ghost dancer. Although the number of ghost dancers may have reached as high as 5000 at one time, no more than 1300 Sioux resided in their camps by late 1890 (p. 319). In Ostler's assessment, the Sioux "heterodoxy" of the ghost dance did not transform pacifist teachings into something militant. He chides President Benjamin Harrison for ordering armed forces into action based upon faulty intelligence about gathering threats at the agencies. He dismisses the sermon of Short Bull, a "prophet of the Messiah," whose words appeared in official reports and in press releases. "Now, you must know this, kill all the soldiers, and that race will be dead," declared Short Bull at one camp. Of course, the troops in harm's way got the message. They were told to proceed with "utmost care and prudence," because a shot fired against them ostensibly signaled an ambush.10"But even if Short Bull's sermon is authentic," Ostler

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opines, "all it shows is a change in the timing of the cataclysm." He insists that it provides "no support for the idea that the ghost dancers were planning any action themselves" (p. 297). However one reads the message of the ghost dancers, most readers would find it difficult to gloss over a sermon about killing all the soldiers. Based upon Ostler's final three chapters, the U.S. Army appears to bear responsibility for what Samantha Power once called "a problem from hell," genocide.1 His narrative depicts the graphic scene of Big Foot's camp at Wounded Knee creek, which paralleled the agency road on Pine Ridge. Ostler uses emotionally charged words such as "terrorize"to describe "lightening strike" actions by the military (pp. 304, 312). He insinuates that soldiers harbored rape fantasies as they gathered the women in the "valley of death" (pp. 338-41). He alleges "genocidal impulses" inside the chain of command (p. 359). Under Colonel James Forsyth, troops from the Seventh Cavalry began moving from tipi to tipi, confiscating knives, axes, and rifles. When a shot rang out, regulars opened fire with rifles, revolvers, hotchkiss guns, and finally, cannons on a hilltop. In the crossfire, point-blank executions and shocking atrocities occurred. While it is accurate to say that men in uniform made mistakes in Sioux country, their intention was not, strictly speaking, genocide. Nevertheless, Ostler attempts to blame General Nelson A. Miles, commander of the Division of the Missouri, for what happened. He twists Miles's instructions to officers rushing to disarm Big Foot, claiming that they were ordered to "destroy Big Foot's people if he fights" (p. 350). On the contrary, Miles ordered: "If he fights, destroy him." Clearly,the troops intercepting the leader received no instructions from Miles to slaughter followers of the ghost dancer. They were to destroy Big Foot contingent only upon his refusal to submit to authorities (p. 334). Alluding to the general's ambitions, Ostler posits that Miles aimed at destroying the camp in order to seize control over the reservations. Declaring the army "a machine for killing," he indicts Miles for having "the largest hand" in the circumstances leading to the violence (pp. 338-60). Ostler's indictment of Miles disregards known facts, particularly in regard to the near anarchy witnessed on Pine Ridge. The military personnel under the general's command faced a dangerous situation not of their own creation. The officers in the field did not know their enemies from noncombatants and did not have effective control of the situation on the ground. Without training as peacekeepers, the rank and file became lost in the fog of war. Even before soldiers rapidly deployed for duty, the reduction of rations by the government agents caused terrible distress at Pine Ridge. They could not make the trains run on time and failed to deliver the beef. Because of the absent buffalo herds and the summer drought conditions, many of the Plains Sioux were

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living in dire straits. Without adequate supplies and physicians, the health and medical services remained provisional at best. Garbled translations and mixed communication exacerbated tensions during the operation. Most disconcerting, the Indian Bureau-perhaps the most inept bureaucracy of the Gilded Age-interfered with the military at almost every turn.12Miles's imperial machinery was not well oiled, to say the least. Simply stated, Ostler mistreats Miles in his narrative. In response to an emergency, Miles actually intended to expand humanitarian efforts to the Plains Sioux. In fact, he called for increased rations. Moreover, he turned to the auxiliaries for their help in the field. He hoped to control the ghost dancers without an incident and worked to restrain the outbreak that occurred on his watch. Immediately after the fateful day of December 29, 1890, Miles angrily relieved Forsyth from command of the Seventh Cavalry for permitting what he decried as a "brutal,cold-blooded massacre." In 1891, the WarDepartment conducted an investigation that exonerated the regulars. Congress awarded Medals of Honor to twenty of them, though several were probably unmerited. Meanwhile, a federal court declared that a state of war existed during the outbreak. For the remainder of his career,Miles continued to call for recompense to the families of the Sioux killed at Wounded Knee. With a distinguished record of service, he eventually became the Commanding General of the U.S. Army.13 Eschewing a fair and balanced accounting of the evidence, Ostler distrusts the records of the men in uniform. The general pattern of military operations from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee, he concludes, was to regard Indian people as hostile and to threaten them with force. Therefore, he dismisses previous historical narratives for accepting an official whitewashing of the intimidation and coercion. He alleges "an underlying logic of racist domination" as well as "a long and ongoing history of injustice"in the oppression of the Plains Sioux (pp. 367-8). He points to the present levels of poverty and unemployment, poor housing and health problems, domestic violence, and alcoholism, which persist as legacies of conquest. It's time for "an end to economic and political colonialism," he writes, and for the alteration of "powerful structures" that constrain the sovereignty of colonized people (p. 369). Repeating the cant of postcolonial theory, his closing argument should resonate with critics of an American "empire." A major flaw of this argument is that America did not constitute an "empire" in a literal sense of the word. In the words of Niall Ferguson, the American approach to colonies "has too often been to fire some shells, march in, hold elections, and then get the hell out-until the next crisis."'14 The iron fist of U.S. colonialism did not drive soldiers to kill, as Ostler submits. On the other hand, its recklessness often left occupied territoriesin a mess. Without a "formal empire," the armed forces were expected to respond to crisis after

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crisis on the American frontier. Before 1890, policymakers in Washington D.C., maintained unrealistic expectations about the ability of an "informal empire" to build cultural bridges in remote places. Good intentions to spread republican institutions seldom paved good roads for peace, tending rather to overstretch the infrastructures of power. With resources squandered on uncoordinated bureaucracies, the federal government failed to properly handle the challenges of multi-ethnic state building. The United States wrought havoc in Sioux country because its reach extended well beyond its grasp. Whatever happened in Sioux country,no one should ever forget the killing fields of Wounded Knee. No monument can appropriately mark the crooked gulch where the dead bodies once laid heaped and scattered, but the Wiping of Tears Ceremony at the site in 1990 lifted the spirits of a nation. Arvol Looking Horse, the keeper of the Sacred Calf Pipe in the ceremony, traveled to the Empire State in 2001 and offered prayers for victims of the World Trade Center attack on September 11."5 Looking beyond the bleakness, the Plains Sioux have dug their way out from the wreckage of history that nearly buried them in the nineteenth century. Brad Lookingbill, Associate Professor of History, Columbia College of Missouri, is the author of WarDance at Fort Marion:Plains Indian WarPrisoners (forthcoming from University of Oklahoma Press in 2006).
1. Robert M. Utley, The Last Days of the Sioux Nation (1963), 1-5. 2. Ibid., 230. 3. Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at WoundedKnee (1970). 4. Patricia Nelson Limerick, "The Adventures of the Frontier in the Twentieth Century," in The Frontier in American Culture, ed. James R. Grossman (1994), 67-102; and Kerwin Lee Klein, "Reclaiming the 'F' Word, Or Being and Becoming Postwestern," Pacific Historical Review 65 (May 1996): 179-215. See also Gerald Thompson, "The New Western History: A Critical Analysis," in Old West/New West, ed. Gene M. Gressley (1994), 51-71. 5. Richard White, "The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," Journalof AmericanHistory 65 (September 1978): 31943. See also James O. Gump, The Dust Rose Like Smoke:The Subjugation of the Zulu and the Sioux (1994). 6. Thomas W. Dunlay, Wolvesfor the Blue Soldiers (1982); Utley, The Last Days of the Sioux Nation, 132; and S.L.A. Marshall, CrimsonedPrairie:TheIndian Warson the GreatPlains (1972), 187. Ostler refers to the number of Indian scouts on p. 301n34. 7. Ward Churchill, Kill the Indian, Save the Man: Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools (2004). See also Patti Jo King, "Ward Churchill-Questionable Identity and Questionable Scholarship," Indian Country Today, February 24, 2005. 8. David Wallace Adams, Education for Extinction:AmericanIndians and the BoardingSchool Experience,1875-1928 (1995); and Jon Reyhner and Jeanne Eder, AmericanIndian Education:A History (2004). See also Luther Standing Bear, My People the Sioux (1928). 9. Michael Adas, Prophets of Rebellion:Millenarian Protest Movements against the European Colonial Order (1979). 10. "Hurrying up the Great Day," Chicago Tribune,November 22, 1890.

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Genocide denotes specific crimes committed with "the intent to destroy, whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group," or so stated the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. One component of the U.N. definition includes "forcibly transferring children." 12. R. Eli Paul, "Your Country is Surrounded," in Eyewitness at WoundedKnee,ed. Richard E. Jensen, R. Eli Paul, and John E. Carter (1991), 25-31. 13. Jerry Green, "The Medals of Wounded Knee," NebraskaHistory 75 (Summer 1994): 2008; and Robert Wooster, Nelson A. Miles and the Twilight of the FrontierArmy (1996). See also

11. SamanthaPower, A Problem FromHell:America and theAge of Genocide (2002),62-3.

Row:ArmyPerceptions Indians(1995). fromOfficers' SherryL. Smith, TheView of Western TheRiseandDemise 14. Niall Ferguson,Empire: World andtheLessons Order of theBritish for

GlobalPower (2004), 315. 15. Jim Adams, "Pipe Carriers Lead Ceremonies to Quiet Spirits at Ground Zero," Indian Country Today, December 12, 2001.

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