Wounded Knee Massacre

Your Dec. 26 front-page story on the Sioux (Lakota) Nation and the “Ghost Dance” centennial (Dec. 29) of the Wounded Knee massacre, one of the black marks in our nation’s history, was of great interest to me.

I knew, painted and interviewed 25 Indians who survived this massacre. And it was a massacre with the military firing on unarmed Indian men, women and children. I got the true story from these First Americans and my book on it was published in 1959 by Duell, Sloan & Pearce, titled “Ghost Dance.” It has been republished by Bison Books and is currently available. Four of these old-timers were also survivors of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. I interviewed and painted 72 of them and have put them together as a collection.

My book recounts how John Sitting Bull, the deaf adopted son of Chief Sitting Bull (killed Dec. 15, 1890) fled with Big Foot’s band to face tragedy at Wounded Knee Creek.

John told me in Plains Indian sign language that he was spun around by two troopers, causing his rifle to go off accidentally, precipitating deadly gunfire on these unarmed Indians. Troops had formed a hollow square around them. Some two dozen military died in the cross-fire and about 300 Indians were killed by fast-firing Hotchkiss guns mounted on surrounding hills as well as rifle fire.

In later years, John became a dear friend of mine and I often spoke to him in Indian sign language. He appeared in several of the 25 films I did as Indian and military technical adviser such as “Tomahawk,” “The Savage,” “Chief Crazy Horse” and “How the West Was Won.”

Well into his 90s when he died in 1955, John was next to the last Indian survivor of the Custer battle (Custer’s Last Stand in June, 1876). The very last to die, also in 1955, was Dewey Beard who adopted me as his son and attended my wedding. Both of these great warriors survived two major events, the Custer battle and on Dec. 29, 1890, the Wounded Knee massacre.

DAVID HUMPHREYS MILLER, Rancho Santa Fe