The
Wounded Knee Massacre was a massacre of
Lakota people by soldiers of the
United States Army that took place near
Wounded Knee Creek,
South Dakota, on December 29, 1890. In what was supposed to be a peaceful transport operation, troops of the
7th Cavalry engaged in battle with a contingent of
Miniconjou and
Hunkpapa Lakota, resulting in the deaths of more than 250 Lakota men, women and children, and 25 troopers. This photograph, taken three weeks after the massacre, shows Lakota corpses wrapped in blankets; the frozen bodies were subsequently collected and buried in a
mass grave on a nearby hill.
Photograph credit: Trager & Kuhn; restored by Lise Broer