"It should be clearly understood that at that time, in 1890, the Indian thought more of his rifle and his knife as implements of the chase than as weapons of war. But with the shortening of the beef ration the ability to take game became of even greater importance and he did not want to give up his rifle..."

Governor Sigurd Anderson :

"Paul Highback who was there and who was very badly wounded says: 'So then of us went up to them and we had only one gun to lay down. This soldiers did not like this very well, but we could not put our guns down because we did not have them with us. Those of us who had guns had left them back at our tents.' The Indians [sic] men, women and children were surrounded by soldiers. Paul Highback goes on to say: 'But as it turned out, there were two men down at the lower end of our group who had their guns under their blankets. One of the soldiers who was walking back and forth in front of us saw the ends of those guns sticking out. He called out to the other soldiers that these men had guns. I could see it all and I can say that neither of those men raised their guns or shot them but as the soldiers started forward to take the guns suddenly all the rest of the soldiers raised their guns and fired right into us.' It was as if a rocket had been set off. The Hotchkiss quick-firing guns fired into the mass of Indians [sic] men, women, children and soldiers."

Governor Sigurd Anderson :

"There was nothing planned about the affair. It was the net result of an understandable misunderstanding by everybody and the violation of a sound order by the white commander. What followed was too horrible to be recounted...There has never been a greater tragedy in American History."

United States Senator from South Dakota Karl Mundt :

"...what followed can hardly be classified as the white man's proudest hour...Big Foot and his band of 340 braves, women, and children surrendered unconditionally to Major Whitside at Porcupine Butte, and on December 28th, 1890, the Indians were escorted to Wounded Knee where Colonel Forsythe assumed command. On December 29th, the decision was made to disarm the Indians before moving them into Pine Ridge. It should be remembered that to the Indian his rifle was his plow and combine; his means of livelihood, and a cherished possession indeed. It was no small wonder, then, that the Indians did not readily comply with this request, requiring the soldiers to search the teepees for firearms. It is not clear what actually was meant by the medicine man who threw a handful of dust in the air. The result was, of course, the carnage which followed, and at the end of but a few minutes, 50 soldiers and 200 Indians - men, women, and children - were lying dead among the burning tepees. The bodies of women and children were found scattered for a distance of two miles from the scene of the encounter where they had been cut down by the calvalry..."

Senator Karl Mundt :

"The horror of the encounter is even more magnified when it is remembered that the wounded and dead of the Army were immediately evacuated to Pine Ridge while it was not until two days later, on January 1, 1891, that an effort was made to gather up the dead and wounded of Big Foot's band. During those two days, a blizzard had raged through the area. It was found that some of the women and children were still alive in spite of being exposed to the severe temperatures, frostbite coupled with their wounds ultimately caused most of them to perish."

General Colby wrote that

"Colonel Forsythe came out from the Agency to the camp on Wounded Knee, with orders from General Brooke to disarm Big Foot's band; and on the morning of December 29th, he assumed command of the two battalions of 500 men and a battery of Hotchkiss guns."

General Colby

"These remnants of the followers of Sitting Bull had relied upon the words of Captain Whiteside [Whitside] in yielding to the military authority, but they were naturally suspicious and uneasy. They had witnessed the tragic fate of their old chief and medicine man. Many of them believed that they were to be put to death, and naturally supposed that their disarming was simply to render them defenseless; others believed they were to be disarmed, then imprisoned and held for years in Florida, North Carolina, or Alabama as their brothers, the warlike Apaches, had been treated years before. The whole proceedings of this morning intensified their feelings, and confirmed them in their belief in regard to the terrible fate which awaited them."

General Colby :

"The surviving Indians now started to escape to the bluffs and the canyons. The Hotchkiss guns were turned upon them, and the battle became really a hunt on the part of the soldiers, the purpose being total extermination. All order and tactics were abandoned, the object being solely to kill Indians, regardless of age or sex. The battle was ended only when not a live Indian was in sight."

A soldier at Pine Ridge who

"did not witness the battle although I was not very far from it - so close in fact during the entire engagement as to be able to hear the Hotchkiss guns and a part of the time could hear the small arms"

wrote this account to a friend:

Soldier 1 :

"...Well finally the gallant 7th boys pulled themselves together, straightened out, got out of one another's way, out of the way of the battery. There was a cry of 'Remember Custer' and at it they went. Men, women and children fell like hickory nuts after heavy frost. Men, women and children were piled up on that little flat in one confused mass. Blood ran like water...Big Foot's band was converted into good Indians."

Twenty year old Hugh McGinnis was in the First Battalion of the Seventh calvalry at Wounded Knee, and was wounded twice. His account reads, in part,:

Soldier McGinnis :

"Through the interpreter, Colonel Forsyth got down to the business at hand. But the Indians were very far from pleased when he requested them to surrender their arms. They argued that they needed their old fowling pieces to kill game in order o survive. This plea failed to move Colonel Forsyth, however, and he insisted that the Sioux go back to their tents and return with their weapons...Forsyth then detailed a number of soldiers to search the tents and confiscate the Indians arsenal. He picked five members of my troop to accompany Captain Varnum and several other chaps from troop B."

Soldier McGinnis :

"The Sioux braves became agitated by the cries of their squaws, who attempted to prevent the soldiers from scattering their belongings..."

Soldier McGinnis :

"...fantastic as it sounds, the surrounding troopers were firing wildly into this seething mass of humanity, subjecting us as well as the Indians to a deadly crossfire while the first volley from the Hotchkiss guns mowed down scores of women and children who had been watching the proceedings."

Soldier McGinnis :

Few escaped the merciless slaughter dealt out that dreadful day by members of the Seventh calvalry. There was no discrimination of age or sex. Children as well as women with babes in their arms were brought down as far as two miles from the Wounded Knee Crossing.

There's an interesting commonality about the preceding testimony regarding what happened at Wounded Knee. The authors are all in agreement that Wounded Knee was a massacre. The other thing they have in common is that they are all white men: the two commanding generals in the field, a South Dakota governor, a United States Senator from South Dakota, the former Indian agent at Pine Ridge and two soldiers.