Tribal leaders halt the burning of repatriated artifacts from Wounded Knee Massacre

Amelia Schafer ICT and Rapid City Journal staff

More than 150 recently repatriated artifacts from the Wounded Knee Massacre were set to be burned December 29. Instead, tribal leaders from the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and later the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe asked to halt the ceremony.

On December 29, instead of burning the artifacts, descendants of Wounded Knee Massacre survivors gathered to pray, sing and remember the more than 300 Lakota men, women and children killed by the United States military.

The issue stems from disagreements over what to do with items repatriated from the Woods Memorial Library’s Founders Museum Collection in Barre, Massachusetts. While one group of descendants planned to burn artifacts, others requested more time to consider alternatives.

In November 2022, the Woods Memorial Library’s Founders Museum gave items back to a group of descendants of Wounded Knee survivors. The group, Si’Tanka Ta’ Oyate O’mniceye (Descendants of the Si’ Tanka (Big Foot) Nation), is comprised of Mniconju and Hunkpapa Lakota survivor descendants most of whom live in the Oglala area on Pine Ridge.

Following the massacre, several survivors chose to settle in the Oglala area, said the group’s historian Michael He Crow, Mniconju Lakota. He Crow’s own family settled in the Oglala area after the massacre.

The repatriated artifacts had been taken from the mass graves of Wounded Knee Massacre victims killed in 1890. The military had been sent to Pine Ridge to stop a potential “Indian uprising.” Instead, they encountered a band of mostly Mniconju Lakota led by Chief Spotted Elk (nicknamed Big Foot by the military). The military misinterpreted the group’s ghost dance songs as an intent to attack and opened fire on the band.


Wounded Knee Massacre survivor descendants place green prayer flags in honor of the more than 300 victims of the massacre. Courtesy of Seth Brings Plenty

The items returned from the Founders Museum were stolen from the graves of Wounded Knee victims. Most of the items are clothing – moccasins and ghost dance shirts. Some moccasins have blood splatters on them. The rest of the items are several peace pipes, hand drums, a few dolls, two tomahawks, a bow with arrows, and a few beaded lizard and turtle amulets/pouches containing umbilical cords.

Mixed in amongst the artifacts are items from other tribes – Ojibwe-style moccasins, Dakota and Cheyenne beadwork and other items.

The Founders Museum is a private collection of items. As such it is exempt from provisions from the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). The repatriation did not have to follow federal guidelines. Instead, it was “inspired by NAGPRA,” according to the museum’s initial press release. As such, the items were given back to a group of the museum’s choice.

The Founders Museum did not respond to requests for comment about the repatriation process.

Since the artifacts were returned, the group has hosted public meetings once a month, sometimes twice a month, for community members. The meetings were meant to be a way for survivor descendants to voice their opinions, He Crow said.

“The Cheyenne River tribe supported what we planned to do up until October of this year (2023),” He Crow said.

The tribe published a statement on the eve of the Wounded Knee ceremony voicing its opposition to burning the artifacts. In his initial statement, Chairman Ryman LeBeau asked that the ceremony be halted until all descendants had a chance to give input.

The Woods Memorial Library in Barre, Massachusetts repatriated over 150 items to a group of Wounded Knee Massacre descendants. Courtesy photo

"The Wounded Knee artifacts issue is between the tribes and families of the descendants. We respect the decision to be diplomatic in dealing with such historical artifacts," LeBeau said in an email to ICT and the Rapid City Journal. "We are working collectively toward a positive outcome with our relatives. Overall, this is still an ongoing process, and we are still in communication with the Oglala Sioux Tribe and Standing Rock Sioux Tribe on what further steps need to be taken."

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Chairwoman Janet Alkire issued a statement on December 30 in opposition to the burning ceremony.

“Today, I understand that the Barre Museum returned Wounded Knee artifacts to the Oglala Sioux Tribe. For the record, descendants from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe were not included in the determination of disposition for these cultural items. The massacre at Wounded Knee was a direct result of the assassination of our Grandfather Tatanka Iyotaka (Sitting Bull) and the Hunkpapa descendants of the massacre must have their voice heard as well,” Alkire said in the press release.

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe did not respond to requests for comment.

The descendants group had chosen to burn the items as they believed the smoke from the items would carry the artifacts back to the spirits. Some items, like pipes, wouldn’t be burned. The group also feared that if buried, the artifacts would be stolen and taken back to a museum like they were after the massacre.

“The objects are part of the people that died there. Those were real personal things to them. And so it would be like an extension of their bodies and a part of them physically. So, (putting them in a museum) it would just be like displaying a hand or foot that was repatriated. So it's not something that we would have hoped that people believe in doing,” He Crow said. “For example, if it was a hand or a foot you brought back, are you going to display that in a museum and charge people to see?”

The Oglala Sioux Tribe had been involved with the group's plans and President Frank Star Comes Out had attended meetings regularly.

“It feels kind of strange that they (the other tribes) would do this right now,” He Crow said.

“I mean, they had a whole year to talk about it, but they didn’t come to us. … I really don't know what their motivation is. It could be outside influences that are motivating their decisions. The only way we'll know what is going on is to have these meetings and they can inform us, because at the beginning they supported what we're doing.”

In the days leading up to the 133rd Wounded Knee ceremony, the group had become aware of other parties requesting that items not be burned.

“We had a meeting on Wednesday, and I told people just to be aware that if anything happens, then we can make some changes,” He Crow said. “So, we were a little bit prepared, but we didn't expect it to happen that way.”

Now, it’s up to the Oglala Sioux Tribe to plan an intertribal meeting about the future of the artifacts. It’s unclear when that meeting will take plac

This story is co-published by the Rapid City Journal and ICT, a news partnership that covers Indigenous communities in the South Dakota area.

Amelia Schafer is the Indigenous Affairs reporter for ICT and the Rapid City Journal. She is of Wampanoag and Montauk-Brothertown Indian Nation descent. She is based in Rapid City. You can contact her at aschafer@rapidcityjournal.com.