THE END: Badlands revisited and Wounded Knee

A cool day was predicted so we decided to drive back to the Badlands and venture down to Wounded Knee. A good thing we got an early start as we ran into the usual traffic jam in the Park.

Pretty intimidating when they are strolling by just inches from your window - makes you hope they're not having a bad day.

Bison in the distance ARE larger than they appear

A nice drive through farm land

We arrive at the White River Visitor's Center which is located in the Southern Section of the Badlands and in Sioux/Lakota Reservation Land

We want to go check out Sheep Mountain Table for the spectacular views of the Badlands. Don't wander off the main roads though! Nothing personal if you tried to call me and got voicemail.

Its a dirt road in that quickly becomes 2 wheel drive - high clearance vehicles only - okay so we only had 1 out of 2, that didn't stop Gary.

The views are pretty spectacular

We lose our Heat shield off the bottom of the Vehicle and decide to stop here as the road takes quite a dip

Good thing as the road ended about 500 feet down.

From here we headed down to Wounded Knee. Stopped at the Oglala Lakota College to check out their museum. We stopped for gas and there was this young dog wandering around I patted her on the head and she started to follow me She was quite thin and had a limp. We left and went to the College and all the way I couldn't get this dog out of my mind. After lunch I made several calls to try and find a shelter but was told just to call 911 and report it as a non-emergency. After much cajoling - okay maybe it was pouting, Gary took me back but she was no longer there :( We went back a second time on the way back from Wounded Knee but she was still nowhere in sight. Hopefully she found her way home or another Good Samaritan picked her up.

After learning the history of Wounded Knee at the College we went down to the burial site. The U.S. Army called it a Battle, it was a Massacre. An Indian Agent at Pine Ridge wired his superiors in Washington, "Indians are dancing in the snow and are wild and crazy....We need protection and we need it now

The leaders should be arrested and confined at some military post until the matter is quieted, and this should be done now." The order went out to arrest Chief Sitting Bull at the Standing Rock Reservation. Sitting Bull was killed in the attempt on December 15. Chief Big Foot was next on the list. When he heard of Sitting Bull's death, Big Foot led his people south to seek protection at the Pine Ridge Reservation. The Indians were performing a Ghost Dance and wearing Ghost Shirts which they believed would protect them from the army's bullets. In a desperate attempt to return to the days of their glory, many sought salvation in a new mysticism preached by a Paiute shaman whom they believed to be the Messiah. Big Foot had surrendered peacefully and the Indians had laid down their arms. At some point a shot was fired. The army opened fire on the Sioux with canons and hotchkiss guns. When it was over approximately 300 Sioux were dead and 25 Soldiers most who were killed by "friendly fire". A blizzard blew in and it was 3 days before the dead were gathered and placed in a mass grave.

A very sobering place. Man's Inhumanity to Man never ceases to amaze me. According to one of the Indians we were speaking with, the Crow Tribe came through afterwards and finding babies alive would toss them up in the air and shoot them with arrows, so it was not just the white man who carried out atrocities that day. We headed back to the Badlands and continued home.