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ON
And the Christmas sun his splendor bent
From the arch of heaven in like degree
On the warrior's lodge and the soldiers tent.
The slayers of Custer, Big Foot's band,
Had gathered on Wounded Knee and sworn
To grasp in friendship the whiteman's hand,
And lay down their arms that Monday morn;
The Christmas message of "Peace, good will!
Seemed even the savage heart to thrill!
And the soldiers there had with Custer bled--
`Twas the same old Seventh the dare-devil led--
And proudly each thought on his gloriuos dead;
For Custer would be avenged!" 1
Rev. Mr. Cook, a half-breed Sioux, a well educated man, and pastor of the Episcopal Church at Pine Ridge, who was with this party as an interpreter followed American Horse with the following statement:
"Much has been said about the good spirit with which the members of the Seventh Calvary went to that scene of action. It has been said that the desire to avenge Custer's death was entirely absent from their minds.
"In coming towards Chicago in company with Gen. Miles
I talked with one of his scouts who was almost killed because
he was compelled to fly with the Indians, being fired upon by
the men whom he tried to serve and help. He told me that after
he recovered from his flight and succeeded in getting among the
soldiers after they all got in from killing the Indians, an officer
of high rank, he did not know who, came to him and said, `Now
we have avenged Custer's death.' And this scount said to him
`Yes, but you had every chance to fight for your lives that day.
These poor Indian people did not have that opportunity to protect
and fight for themselves. If that is an indication of the spirit
of a number of the men in the company I am sure the Seventh Calvary
cannot be free from the charge of going there without the kindest
of motives simply to bring these poor people back."2
RICKER: "Mr. Keith says that before the battle he was passing some soldiers of the 7th cavalry at the agency and he heard one of them remark that if they could just get to the Indians "they would give them hell." These Indians (Big Foot) I have been told by another were in the Custer massacre, and these soldiers were desirous for an opportunity to square accounts with them."
1. T. A. Bland, "A Brief History of the Late Military Invasion of the Home of the Sioux." Washington, D.C.: The National Indian Defence Association, 1891, p. 19.
2. T. A. Bland, "A Brief History of the Late Military Invasion of the Home of the Sioux." Washington, D.C.: The National Indian Defence Association, 1891, p.16-17.
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Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner is a Research Affilliate at the University of California, where she recieved her Ph.D. in 1978. She is a native of Aberdeen, South Dakota and has spent years researching what went wrong at Wounded Knee.
She is considered one of the world's leading Research Historians on Wounded Knee.