Wounded Knee, South Dakota

Wounded Knee Creek was the site of the 1890 massacre by the U.S. Army of 150 Lakota men, women, and children headed from Standing Rock reservation to Pine Ridge under the leadership of Spotted Elk. The band left Standing Rock in fear for their safety after an Indian police officer killed the Lakota Chief Sitting Bull. In 1973, the trading post at Wounded Knee village was the site of a 71-day standoff between federal troops, illegally deployed on U.S. soil, and activists from the American Indian Movement (AIM) who had taken over the village following a ceremony commemorating the 1890 massacre.

Indian Territory

The Indian Removal Act of 1830 authorized the government to move eastern tribes to land west of the Mississippi. Cherokee Chief John Ross sued the government, and the U.S. Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Marshall held the government had an obligation to...