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Indian Ritual Marks Deaths at Wounded Knee

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From Times Wire Services

Amid a howling winter storm, more than 400 people held an Indian spiritual ceremony Saturday at a mass grave where Sioux Indians were killed by federal troops a century ago.

Indian spiritual leaders led a dawn blessing of the site and a releasing-of-the-spirits rite on a frozen, wind-swept hill on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in southwest South Dakota.

The ceremony, conducted in Lakota, a Sioux language, brought tears and sobs from the mostly Indian crowd, who braved temperatures of 25 degrees below zero for the centennial memorial.

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“We are here to wipe away the tears, to mourn the dead . . . something that should have been done 100 years ago,” said Indian leader Birgil Kills Straight. “It was our intent to, at some point, accomplish the ceremony of wiping the tears. Today we do that.”

Sioux spiritual leader Arvol Looking Horse, said: “Today we pray for peace, as you do, to pray for all mankind.”

“The massacre at Wounded Knee is one of many dark moments in American history,” South Dakota Gov. George S. Mickelson said.

Mickelson said he was “pledging my own commitment to learn from our past in order to build a future for all South Dakotans regardless of race or culture.”

The governor said he will keep trying to persuade federal officials to create a national monument at Wounded Knee.

Scores of Sioux men, women and children were killed by U.S. soldiers at Wounded Knee in an event that some historians say signified the end of the Indian wars.

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The Army has said 150 men, women and children were killed at Wounded Knee, while Indians say the number is more than 300.

Twenty-nine soldiers were killed, and the Medal of Honor was awarded to more than 20 of the troopers.

Nearly 300 horseback riders and others on foot endured wind-chill temperatures as low as 50 degrees below zero on their way to the ceremony Friday.

They ended what for some was a two-week, 220-mile trek retracing the final journey of Chief Big Foot and his band before they were killed at Wounded Knee.

The riders assembled their horses in a circle at the massacre site Friday and prayed for peace within the Sioux Nation and throughout the world.

“I’ve learned that the pain and the frostbite, the suffering that you feel is part of the ride,” said Ron McNeil, a descendant of Sitting Bull, a Sioux leader whose death led to the battle at Wounded Knee. “It is our offering to the creator to show him how sincere we are in our prayers.”

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Although the memorial horseback ride, a powwow Friday night, and Saturday’s ceremonies were to be spiritual and nonpolitical, the presence of former American Indian Movement leaders Russell Means and Dennis Banks created a rift among some Indians.

Some said they did not want to ride with Means or Banks, who drew international attention in the 1970s for their militant actions pressing Indian rights.

“The ride was for unity and peace, an effort to mend the sacred hoop and bring our people back together,” Looking Horse said.

In 1973, Means led a siege of Wounded Knee that won headlines. Two Indians were killed and one federal marshal was seriously wounded in the incident.

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