Above photo: The Wounded Knee Memorial in Wounded Knee, South Dakota. Stock Image.
Heads to President Trump’s Desk for Signature.
Washington—Yesterday, the “Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act” passed the U.S. Senate unanimously and is heading to President Donald Trump’s desk for signature. The House version passed the House earlier this year in January, and both versions of the bill were sponsored by South Dakota’s congressional delegation, including U.S. Representative Dusty Johnson and U.S. Senators Mike Thune and Mike Rounds—all Republicans.
The bill directs the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to place 40 acres around the Wounded Knee Massacre Site in restricted fee status, and would be a part of the Pine Ridge Reservation with the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe jointly owning it. Both tribal leaders thanked South Dakota’s congressional delegation and issued statements.
“It is now poised to become an Act of Congress: an important Act that will preserve the memory of the Wounded Knee Massacre and the legacy and sacrifice of our ancestors,” said Oglala Sioux President Frank Star Comes Out in a statement. “Significantly, it also promotes tribal self-determination and allows us to protect our Wounded Knee site in perpetuity. We thank Representative Dusty Johnson as well as Senator Rounds and Majority Leader Thune for getting this bill through both chambers of Congress. It is fitting that this action comes as we prepare to commemorate the 135th anniversary of the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29th.”
According to statements made by both tribal leaders, more than 350 Lakota men, women and children were killed by the U.S. Army’s Cavalry on December 29, 1890. Their bodies would lay in the cold for days, and then were all buried together in a mass grave. 19 soldiers were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for their participation at Wounded Knee, and efforts to rescind the medals have been ongoing for decades.
Secretary of War, formerly the Dept. of Defense, Pete Hegseth announced in September that the soldiers who were awarded medals would keep them. Since, tribal leaders have announced new efforts to continue to honor those who lost their lives. On Oct. 2, South Dakota State Representative Peri Pourier, who is also an Oglala Sioux Tribal citizen, introduced legislation in the state’s house of representatives that would dedicated each December 29 as “Wounded Knee Day of Reflection”.
“The U.S. Cavalry shot at and murdered more than 350 unarmed Lakota babies, girls, boys, women, men, and elders at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation,” said Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Chairman Ryman LeBeau in a statement. “The U.S. Cavalry stopped our people out on the high plains as they were seeking peace, surrounded them with guns and cannons, disarmed them, opened fire, and murdered them. Today, we stand to acknowledge the atrocities committed against the Lakota people to continue to heal, to protect, to educate, and most importantly, to ensure that we never forget the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890.”
The land previously was owned by the Czywczynski family. Both the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River tribal governments agreed to purchase the land in 2022—the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council paid $255,000 for a 51% share and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribal Council paid $245,000 for a 49% share.
“Nearly 135 years after hundreds of lives were lost in the Wounded Knee Massacre, the time is now here to properly memorialize the lost and preserve the land,” U.S. Rep. DustyJohnson said in a statement Thursday evening. “I look forward to seeing the president sign this into law to ensure the land remains sacred for generations to come.”
When signed, the land around the Wounded Knee Memorial will be protected for time immemorial.
Darren Thompson is the Managing Editor of Last Real Indians Native News Desk and the Director of Media Relations for the Sacred Defense Fund, an Indigenous-led nonprofit organization based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’s an award winning multimedia journalist enrolled at Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, where he grew up. He can be reached at darren@sacreddefense.org.
