Episode at Wounded Knee

At least 146 Sioux--men, women and children--died in the Seventh Cavalry's crossfire on that frozen December morning in 1890 at Wounded Knee, S.

Dak. Now the Army says the event was not a "massacre." Instead, it was an "unfortunate episode" in which an Indian fired the first shot as the cavalry tried to disarm Chief Big Foot's band for their return to the Pine Ridge reservation. Besides, 25 soldiers died in the fight and at least 33 were wounded.

The Army version was prepared by retired Brigadier General Conrad D.

Philos, working as a claims lawyer for the Army Judge Advocate General's office. He offered his 23-page report in opposition to a Senate bill that would pay $3,000 to the descendants of each Indian killed or wounded in the battle.

The Army seems correct in its argument that the carnage was not premeditated--too many soldiers, mingling with the Sioux, were in the line of fire.

Historians differ about just what set off the bloodletting: A scuffle over a brave's rifle, or perhaps a medicine man defiantly throwing some dirt in the air? But anyone reading Philos' document may hear a now familiar tone of self-justification and self-excuse: "... excesses occurred ... the actions of inexperienced, untested troops who were carried away in the heat of battle ..." As for the word massacre, Indian Historian Dee Brown (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee) declared that "when you fire on defenseless women and children with Gatling guns, I don't know what other word you'd use."

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