Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Chapter Summary & Analysis - Wounded Knee Summary

Wounded Knee Summary

The Sioux belief in the Ghost Dance religion and the resurrection of dead spirits is the only factor in the lack of a massive Sioux uprising after the murder of Sitting Bull. In their grief and anger, many of the Sioux leave the reservation to join with Big Foot's Minneconjous tribe. Big Foot hears of Sitting Bull's death and leaves to move to Red Cloud's reservation for protection but is intercepted by U.S. soldiers and taken to a camp at Wounded Knee. Big Foot, extremely ill with pneumonia, leads his people to the camp where an altercation occurs accidentally burgeoning into the massacre of several hundred of Big Foot's people.

The U.S. soldiers leave the dead bodies of the Indians where they will lie for days in a blizzard. The wounded Indians are taken to the Indian agency at Pine Ridge where an Episcopal mission is converted to a temporary...
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