JULY 25, 2024:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department will review the Medals of Honor that were given to 20 U.S. soldiers for their actions in the 1890 battle at Wounded Knee to make sure their conduct merits such an honorable award.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the review by a special panel of experts after consultation with the White House and the Department of the Interior. Congress recommended such a review in the 2022 defense bill, reflecting a push by some lawmakers to rescind the awards for those who participated in the massacre on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near Wounded Knee Creek.
An estimated 250 Native Americans, including women and children, were killed in the fight and at least another 100 were wounded.
Medals of Honor were given to 20 soldiers from the 7th Cavalry Regiment, and their awards cite a range of actions including bravery, efforts to rescue fellow troops and actions to “dislodge Sioux Indians” who were concealed in a ravine.
Native American groups, advocates, state lawmakers from South Dakota and a number of Congress members have called for officials to revoke the awards. Congress apologized in 1990 to the descendants of those killed at Wounded Knee but did not revoke the medals.
In a memo signed last week, Austin said the panel will review each award “to ensure no soldier was recognized for conduct that did not merit recognition” and if their conduct demonstrated any disqualifying actions. Those could include rape or murder of a prisoner or attacking a non-combatant or someone who had surrendered.
Austin said Army Secretary Christine Wormuth must provide the historical records and documentation for the awards for each soldier to the panel by Friday. The panel must provide a written report no later than Oct. 15, recommending that each award be either revoked or retained.
The standards for awarding the Medal of Honor have evolved over time, but the review will evaluate the 20 soldiers’ actions based on the rules in place at the time. Austin said the panel of five experts can consider the context of the overall incident to assess each soldier’s actions.
The dispute continues a long history of contentious relations between the tribes in South Dakota and the government dating to the 1800s. The Wounded Knee massacre was the deadliest, as federal troops shot and killed Lakota men, women and children during a campaign to stop a religious practice known as the Ghost Dance.
FEBRUARY 8, 2024:
By Todd Epp, South Dakota Broadcasters Association.
PIERRE, S.D. (SDBA) — A Senate committee reaffirms a 2021 resolution calling for the South Dakota Congressional Delegation and President Joe Biden to investigate the awarding of 20 Medals of Honor to soldiers involved in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.
On a 3 to 2 vote, the Senate Military and Veterans Affairs Committee approved SR701, sponsored by Democratic Senator Shawn Bordeaux from Mission.
Bordeaux said nothing had been done since the previous resolution. He wants to make sure Congress and the President haven’t forgotten about the tragedy and the awarding of the nation’s highest award to soldiers involved in a massacre of at least 300 unarmed men, women, and children.
“I just want them (the Congressional delegation and the President) to know that South Dakota, as a legislature, supports this in the form that we did three years ago,” Bordeaux said. “So, the whole debate about whether I should have changed it, I didn’t want to go down that rabbit hole.”
While supportive of the investigation, Republican Senators Jack Kolbeck and Jim Stalzer from Sioux Falls said the new resolution was unnecessary as the Senate had not rescinded its previous resolution. The 2021 resolution passed 35 to 0.
“To me, I’m a little appalled that something hasn’t been done in pushing this to Congress (yet),” Republican Sen. Larry Zikmund said. “That was the intent.”
The resolution now goes to the full Senate for consideration.
