On December 29, 1890, U.S. Army troops of the 7th Cavalry opened fire on a group of Lakota Sioux near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The soldiers were attempting to disarm the Lakota camp when a shot went off, triggering chaotic and deadly gunfire. More than 150 Lakota men, women, and children were killed, and many others were wounded. U.S. casualties were far lower, and most historians view the event as a massacre rather than a battle. The incident marked the violent end of the so-called Indian Wars on the Great Plains. It has since become a powerful symbol of the suffering and injustice experienced by Native Americans under U.S. expansion.
