The Battle of Wounded Knee T-Shirt

As a child, I met a Sioux Chief named Chief Iron Hail Dewey Beard, who was earning his living allowing his photograph to be taken for a small fee. Because my grandfather was a huge American History buff, we had the privilege of being invited into his teepee, where we sat for over an hour, listening to his stories of Wounded Knee and the Battle of the Little Big Horn. The chief was in his nineties, per a news article that appeared in the Omaha World Herald later that year. He had lost his first wife and daughter in the massacre of Wounded Knee. On 29 Dec. 1890, 365 troops of the US uth Cavalry Regiment surrounded an encampment of Miniconjou (Lakota) and Hunkpapa Sioux near Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota. According to the Chief, many of the men of the tribe were out on a hunting trip to find food. Those men who were not fit to join the hunt remained in the camp with the women and children. He related that the soldiers suddenly opened fire and began indiscriminately shooting the men, women and children, most of whom were unarmed. It is believed that almost 150 people died as a result. This action was one of the primary causes for the later Battle of the Little Big Horn. The Chief indicated that the Sioux vowed that Custer would be wiped off the map and no trace of him ever found on this earth again. At the close of the battle, it is said that his horse was the only thing remaining when the battle was over and done.