Pentagon orders review of Medals of Honor given for Wounded Knee Massacre
The military awarded 20 men its highest honor in the 1890s for their role in the incident, where hundreds were killed or injured.
Wind flutters around the peace offerings of tobacco ties that line the fence at the Wounded Knee Memorial on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, on Monday, October 20, 2014. (Photo by Nikki Kahn/The Washington Post via Getty Images) The Washington Post
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin formally ordered the military to review 20 Medal of Honor awards given to soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 7th Cavalry for their actions during the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre.
The review, announced on July 24, calls for a special review panel to determine if some of the awards were wrongly given and should be rescinded. They are instructed to go through each soldier’s individual actions, “to ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation’s highest military honor.” It’s a move by the Department of Defense that comes after years of urging by Native American groups and some lawmakers.
The massacre took place at Wounded Knee Creek in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation on Dec. 29, 1890. The 7th Cavalry had located and surrounded a group of Lakota people and was trying to disarm the camp. How the fighting started is unclear; according to multiple accounts a gun was fired either by accident or confusion during the surrender, prompting Army soldiers to open fire at the Lakota. The exact number of casualties is in dispute, but according to the Pentagon, between 350-375 Lakota were killed or wounded by the Army. Accounts written by witnesses and participants in the battle documented women, children and even babies among those killed. Dozens of American soldiers were killed as well, but witnesses described it from being in part from friendly fire.
20 soldiers received the Medal of Honor for actions at the massacre. They were among 31 total recipients of the award for the overall campaign that year. The awards were given out in a period between 1891-1897. The specific citations for each individual award are often slim, with Austin’s memo noting they simply note a soldier’s bravery or fighting while wounded.
The Wounded Knee Massacre became a symbol of the violence and oppression done against Native Americans. In 1990, 100 years after the slaughter, the U.S. Congress issued a formal apology. The medals were not reviewed though. The Pentagon’s order this week comes after a recent push by lawmakers in Congress to get the Medals of Honor reviewed.
Austin’s order calls for the panel to review the specific actions of each soldier and not the wider battle, although it notes that “[t]he [special review panel] may consider the context of the overall engagement as appropriate, including as necessary to understand each [Wounded Knee Creek Medal of Honor] recipient’s individual actions.” Additionally, the panel is asked to determine if the awards given in the 1890s meet the standards for such honors at the time they were given, not the present day.
Per Austin’s memo, the panel must provide a written report to the secretary by Oct. 15. The order calls for a final recommendation to be given on whether or not the soldiers should keep the nation’s highest military honor, or if they should have it rescinded, and with a full argument for or against each decision.
Task and Purpose, Nicholas Slayton
In other news Lt Calley sole person convicted in the My Lai story passed away recently in Florida at age 80.
paddy:
Are you suggesting other higher ups should have been held responsible? Or should Calley had said no and taken the consequences?
My Lai. What did you think at the time?
At the time, I thought Calley was “taking it for the team”! I was unquestioning about the “team”.
With more information and conversations with veterans who served tours in the war my conclusions changed.
Calley, company CO (?), took the fall, for the greater evil that was US in Vietnam.
Not one “trigger puller” was convicted! Nor the battalion which used the company.
paddy:
And the alternatives?
There is such a thing(s) as decision-making, etc. What seems to be morally right at the time. Vietnam set the mood; but, there is still a decision to be made. Am I going to follow or lead in a direction. The heat would have been high if you did not follow what was expected of you. Direct order? How do you reconcile?
Feels quite disingenuous to give directions to evaluate per the then existing standards. Awards granted in the 1890s would seem to establish the standards of the 1890s reliably. If it were not for a substantial shift in standards, nobody would undertake this effort.
Eric:
There was no standard for murdering innocents regardless of what time period?
Yes, because this is something pressing that our Department of Defense should be allocating resources towards. Oh my, how will they ever find the time? Maybe they can utilize their off time when taking a break from figuring out whose ancestors did what to whom and how much they are owed.
Matt:
Yes you are right, the DOD should not correct mistakes.
i don’t know much about wounded knee, but i suspect those who could were giving each other medals. i have never heard wounded knee described as a battle. but neither was sand creek.
i don’t think i am applying standards of today to what happened at wounded knee. but politics is all about fee fees, as joel calls them. for the standards of today, consider Gitmo and John Walker Lindh.
I think we may be less cruel than people were in the past, but no more honest with ourselves.