MyNorthwest

News

Opinion

Sports

Tools

Connect

Legacy of Wounded Knee occupation lives on 50 years later

The Wounded Knee Memorial, which marks the site of the massacre of hundreds of Lakota people by U.S. soldiers in 1890, is seen on Feb. 10, 2023, in Wounded Knee, S.D. A ceremony marking the 50 years since the occupation of Wounded Knee by American Indian Movement activists will be held at the site on Feb. 27, 2023, after four days of events leading up to the anniversary. (Kalle Benallie/Indian Country Today via AP)

NDN Collective founder and CEO Nick Tilsen stands in the organization's headquarters in Rapid City, S.D., on Feb. 10, 2023. Tilsen traces the roots of his activism to Wounded Knee.
His parents, JoAnn Tall and Mark Tilsen, met at there, and he praises the women of the movement who sustained the traditional matriarchal system during the occupation. (Kalle Benallie/Indian Country Today via AP)

Oglala Sioux Tribe President Frank Star Comes Out, stands outside the Andrew W. Bogue Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Rapid City, S.D. on Feb. 8, 2023. Some of his family members strongly supported the AIM, including his mother and father. He said it's important to fight for his people, who survived genocide. “That’s why I support AIM, not only on a family level,” he said. “I have a lot of pride in who I am as a Lakota. … Times (have) changed. Now I’m using my leadership to help our people rise, to give them a voice. And I believe that’s important for Indian Country.” (Kalle Benallie/Indian Country Today via AP)

Madonna Thunder Hawk, 83, sits in her home near Rapid City, S.D., on Feb. 9, 2023. She was one of the four women medics during the occupation of Wounded Knee, which started on Feb. 27, 1973 and ended May 8, 1973. “I would crawl out there every night, and we’d just be out there in case anybody got hit,” she recalls. (Kalle Benallie/Indian Country Today via AP)

Legacy of Wounded Knee occupation lives on 50 years later