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History of the United States II / Unit 2   USH2 0181 worked example, 60 to 90 seconds

Wounded Knee

Captions available

The idea

On December twenty-ninth, eighteen ninety, Seventh Cavalry troopers entered the camp of Spotted Elk's Lakota band, also known as Bigfoot's, at Wounded Knee Creek to disarm them. A shot was fired, and the soldiers opened fire on men, women and children. The anchor gives the dead as between one hundred fifty and three hundred; Digital History gives three hundred. Twenty-five American soldiers were casualties, the anchor says.

In practice

A mass grave dug in the frozen ground, and, in the same weeks, military decorations awarded for the action.

Where people slip

The anchor records twenty Medals of Honor given to soldiers for Wounded Knee; Digital History records twenty-two. State the deaths and the medals together, as the sources do, and let the two facts stand side by side without comment. The sources call it a massacre, and so does this course.

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