Day 51 Wounded Knee

 

Day 51 Wounded Knee

    I am very grateful to Fr. Harold Eagle Bull who gave me a place to stay at Church of the Messiah Episcopal Church in Wounded Knee.   This Church is the only one still standing after the uprising in 1973.  When I arrived he told me that I should not open the door during the night even if someone knocks.  Many of the inhabitants are addicted to crystal meth and had seen me arrive with my bright yellow cart and would view me as a funding source.  This led to a restless night.

    In the morning, Fr. Harold came over the chat with me as I dismantled my bike and removed copious amounts of mud from its inner recesses.  He informed me that the lovely hall in which I slept had been recently renovated in the hopes that people from around the country might come and see this place.

    The history of Wounded Knee is a painful subject to ponder.  I am grateful to Fr. Eagle Bull for bringing me to the mass grave of the victims of the 1890 massacre. Unless you have a local person bring you there, it is exceedingly difficult to find it.  It is surrounded by a chain link fence to protect it from vandals.  The remaining Lakota in the community maintain that the massacre was motivated primarily by the humiliation which Custer had experienced at Little Big Horn. 

     There is a plaque commemorating the names of all that could be remembered in the hopes that they will not be forgotten.  These names are can still be found on the mail boxes in the surrounding houses, though few people ever come here visit.  It is a painful experience to stand in that place. Fr. Harold told me that the current governor wants so eliminate references to Wounded Knee in the school history curriculum because it makes white people feel uncomfortable.

     As I getting ready to leave he blessed me in the Lakota language and anointed my feet for my journey.  I left that place changed.