Lawmakers Push To Take Medals From Fallen American Soldiers

Representatives propose to revoke Medals of Honor given to American soldiers who took part in the infamous 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, which claimed the lives of 250 Native Americans, chiefly women and children.

As an addition to the fiscal 2023 military policy law, legislation was passed last week to take back the medals, which are the country’s highest decoration for bravery. Similar attempts have been made in the past, but during compromises between the House and Senate versions of the law, they were finally abandoned.

Twenty members of the 7th U.S. Calvary Regiment received Medals of Honor for their participation in the Dec. 29, 1890 massacre on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, close to Wounded Knee Creek.

In violation of the 1868 Treaty of Laramie, which stipulated that the tribe would live in the Black Hills in what was then the Dakota Territory, the U.S. government sought to acquire the Great Sioux Reservation.

In addition to the hundreds of Native Americans that perished at Wounded Knee, more than 30 troops also perished there.

Congress issued an apology for the killing on the 100th anniversary of Wounded Knee in 1990, but did not withdraw the medals. Sen. John McCain, a former head of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and a member of the GOP, stated in 1996 that the slaughter did not justify stripping the medals from recipients.