---
title: "Wounded Knee Incident | Native American Studies"
description: "Wounded Knee Incident is the 1890 massacre of Lakota people by U.S. troops, a turning point in Native American Studies and Red Power history."
canonical: "https://fiveable.me/hs-native-american-studies/key-terms/wounded-knee-incident"
type: "key-term"
subject: "Native American Studies"
unit: "Unit 11"
---

# Wounded Knee Incident | Native American Studies

## Definition

The Wounded Knee Incident was the 1890 attack on Lakota people by U.S. troops near Wounded Knee Creek, killing hundreds. In Native American Studies, it marks a major symbol of colonization, resistance, and Native survival.

## What It Is

The Wounded Knee Incident is the December 1890 massacre of Lakota people by the U.S. Army near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. In Native American Studies, it is not just a tragic event to memorize. It is a turning point that shows how military force, federal policy, and fear of Native religious practice came together at the end of the 19th century.

The confrontation began when U.S. troops tried to disarm a Lakota group. Tensions were already high because of the Ghost Dance movement, which many white officials and settlers wrongly saw as a threat or uprising. What followed was a violent outbreak that killed an estimated 300 Lakota men, women, and children. That number matters because it shows this was not a fair battle between equal sides. It was an overwhelming use of force against an Indigenous community that was already under pressure from land loss and reservation control.

In the course, Wounded Knee helps you see the connection between policy and lived experience. The reservation system had restricted Native life, broken up land, and limited movement and autonomy. By 1890, many Native communities were dealing with hunger, surveillance, and coercive federal control. Wounded Knee happened inside that bigger structure, so it is best read as part of colonial domination, not as an isolated tragedy.

It also became a symbol. For many Native people and later activists, Wounded Knee represented the violence of U.S. expansion and the cost of resisting it. That is one reason it returns in later Native activism, especially in Red Power history. When people discuss Wounded Knee in class, they are usually tracing both the original 1890 event and the way its memory was taken up again in modern protest.

A common mistake is to treat Wounded Knee as the neat ending of Native resistance. Native American Studies pushes against that idea. The event marked a brutal endpoint to one phase of armed conflict, but Native resistance continued through legal action, cultural survival, organizing, and political movements. The name Wounded Knee is tied to loss, but also to memory, survival, and Native criticism of U.S. power.

## Why It Matters

Wounded Knee matters because it helps explain how Native American Studies reads history through sovereignty, settler colonialism, and resistance. If you only see it as a massacre, you miss the larger pattern it reveals: the U.S. government using military and policy power to control Indigenous land and life.

The term also connects to how Native communities remember trauma across generations. In this subject, events are not studied only as dates. They are studied as evidence of changing federal policy, public fear, Native religious practice, and the long impact of dispossession. Wounded Knee is one of the clearest places to see those threads meet.

It also sets up later Native activism. The original incident became a reference point for the Red Power movement, especially for groups that used protest, occupation, and public attention to challenge federal treatment of Native nations. When you see Wounded Knee mentioned in a later protest, the name is doing historical work. It signals that old violence is still part of the political present.

For essays and discussion, this term gives you a concrete example to analyze instead of making broad claims about colonization. You can point to the Ghost Dance panic, the disarmament attempt, the mass deaths, and the aftermath as evidence for a larger argument about U.S. policy toward Native peoples.

## Connections

### Ghost Dance

The Ghost Dance is the religious movement that was happening around the time of Wounded Knee. Many U.S. officials misunderstood it as a military threat, which fed fear and helped set the stage for the violence. In Native American Studies, the connection shows how Native spirituality was often treated as danger instead of religion.

### [American Indian Movement (AIM)](/hs-native-american-studies/key-terms/american-indian-movement-aim)

AIM later used Wounded Knee as a symbol of Native resistance. When activists occupied Wounded Knee in 1973, they were drawing attention to ongoing federal injustice, not recreating the 1890 event exactly. The connection helps you see how a historical massacre became part of modern protest language and Native political memory.

### Reservation System

Wounded Knee makes more sense when you know the reservation system. By 1890, Lakota communities were living under heavy federal control, with limited land, movement, and autonomy. The massacre happened inside that system, so it reflects the pressure Native nations faced after being confined to reservations.

### [pan-indianism](/hs-native-american-studies/key-terms/pan-indianism)

Pan-indianism is the idea of building unity across different Native nations. Wounded Knee became a shared symbol that could be remembered beyond one tribe because it represented a wider history of colonization and resistance. Later Native movements used that shared memory to build solidarity across communities.

## On the AP Exam

A quiz question might ask you to identify Wounded Knee from a short description, place it on a timeline, or connect it to the Ghost Dance and the reservation system. In an essay, you could use it as evidence for U.S. settler colonialism or Native resistance.

If you get a prompt about Red Power, Wounded Knee is often the historical anchor that shows why later activism had real urgency. In short-answer work, name the event, the year 1890, the Lakota context, and the fact that it became a symbol of Native oppression and survival. For discussion posts, you might compare the original massacre with the 1973 AIM occupation and explain how the same site carried different meanings in two different eras.

## Wounded Knee Incident vs Wounded Knee occupation of 1973

The 1890 Wounded Knee Incident was the massacre of Lakota people by U.S. troops. The 1973 Wounded Knee occupation was a protest led by AIM at the same site, aimed at challenging federal policy and drawing attention to Native rights. They are connected, but they are not the same event.

## Key Takeaways

- The Wounded Knee Incident refers to the 1890 massacre of Lakota people by the U.S. Army near Wounded Knee Creek.
- In Native American Studies, the event is studied as part of colonization, reservation control, and the suppression of Native life.
- The Ghost Dance movement is part of the background, since fear and misunderstanding of the dance helped escalate tensions.
- Wounded Knee later became a powerful symbol for Red Power activism and Native resistance in the 20th century.
- You should treat it as both a historical event and a memory that shaped later Native political organizing.

## FAQs

### What is the Wounded Knee Incident in Native American Studies?

It is the 1890 massacre of Lakota people by U.S. troops near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. In Native American Studies, it is used to show how federal power, military force, and colonial policy affected Native nations.

### Was Wounded Knee a battle?

Not really. It is usually described as a massacre because U.S. troops attempted to disarm Lakota people and the violence killed many more Native people, including women and children. Calling it a battle can hide the power imbalance.

### How is Wounded Knee connected to the Ghost Dance?

The Ghost Dance was part of the tense background before the massacre. Many white officials misread the movement as a violent threat, which increased fear and helped justify the military response. That misunderstanding is a big part of how the event is interpreted.

### Why does Wounded Knee come up in Red Power history?

Because it became a symbol of long Native suffering under U.S. policy and a reminder that resistance did not end in 1890. Later activists, especially AIM, used the name Wounded Knee to draw attention to ongoing demands for sovereignty and justice.

## Related Study Guides

- [11.1 Red Power movement and key organizations](/hs-native-american-studies/unit-11/red-power-movement-key-organizations/study-guide/NN71wiRXmWQU06ZM)

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