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General News    H2'ed 2/4/19

First Americans Request Removal of Medals Awarded to Wounded Knee Calvalry

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Meryl Ann Butler
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Partially wrapped bodies 3 days after the Wounded Knee Massacre in which approx 300 were killed, about half were women and children.
Partially wrapped bodies 3 days after the Wounded Knee Massacre in which approx 300 were killed, about half were women and children.
(Image by (From Wikimedia) Trager & Kuhn, Chadron, Nebr., Author: Trager & Kuhn, Chadron, Nebr.)
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Barbara and Oliver J. Semans Sr., Co-Executive Directors of Four Directions, Inc. announced that "Four Directions is calling on the United States government to remove the Medals of Honor from the 20 men who were part of the 7th Calvary that murdered our people at what's been called, "The Battle at Wounded Knee." As you know, this was no battle. Fortunately, modern history has recognized what it was and now calls it, "The Wounded Knee Massacre."

February 4, 2019

The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500

The Vice President
The White House
Office of the Vice President
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500

Patrick M. Shanahan
Acting Secretary of Defense 1000 Defense Pentagon Washington, DC 20301-1000

General Joseph F. Dunford Jr. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 9999 Joint Staff Pentagon Washington, DC 20318-9999

Dear Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Chairman:

Last month, the President of the United States mentioned the Wounded Knee Massacre in a comment directed at a political opponent. This letter is not to explain the wrong done in invoking this horror. My United States Senators have already deemed the statement "inappropriate."

Instead, I write to call on you to right a much graver wrong. I formally request the removal of the Medals of Honor awarded to 20 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regiment for their participation in the"Wounded Knee Massacre."

Though this demand has been made previously, on behalf of the tens of millions of patriotic Americans who know what is right and just, I simply ask you use your authority to now, finally, correct this injustice.

The "Battle at Wounded Knee" on December 29, 1890 was no battle. It was a massacre.

United States soldiers murdered innocent women and children. Many of my ancestors were among the Lakota people murdered that chilling winter day. Those innocent Lakota people had committed no crime. They were making no war. Rather, they were seeking hope and refuge on the frozen Plains of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation while the United States continued to violate the Treaties of 1851 and 1868.

The 7th Cavalry, which was obligated by treaty to protect my ancestors, instead hunted my ancestors, surrounded them and gunned hundreds of them down. This included terrified women and children who fled - defenseless - through the snow, forever stained by their blood.

As told by Hugh McGinnis, "All this happened 74 years ago at Wounded Knee Creek, where soldiers of the 7th Cavalry massacred in cold blood Indian men, women and children. I am now 94, the last surviving member of Troop K, 7th Cavalry. The 74 years have never completely erased the ghastly horror of that scene and I still awake at night from nightmarish dreams of that massacre. The news that I am the only surviving member of the 7th Cavalry at that massacre brings back many memories to me."

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Meryl Ann Butler is an artist, author, educator and OpedNews Managing Editor who has been actively engaged in utilizing the arts as stepping-stones toward joy-filled wellbeing since she was a hippie. She began writing for OpEdNews in Feb, 2004. She became a Senior Editor in August 2012 and Managing Editor in January, (more...)
 

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