The last significant clash of arms in the American Indian Wars
took place on December 29, 1890, on the banks of Wounded
Knee Creek in South Dakota. Of the 350 Teton Sioux Indians
there, two-thirds were women and children. When the smoke
cleared, 84 men and 62 women and children lay dead, their
bodies scattered along a stretch of more than a mile where
they had been trying to flee. Of some 500 soldiers and scouts,
about 30 were dead-some probably, from their own crossfire.
Wounded Knee has excited contradictory accounts and heated
emotions. To answer whether it was a battle or massacre, Rex
Alan Smith goes further into the historical records than anyone
has gone before. His work is unbiased and accounts for one of
the best books on Indian history to be published in this century.