Indian Country Today - Tribal Leaders Push Back Pete Hegseth Decision on Wounded Knee Medals

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said that soldiers who fought at Wounded Knee in 1890 will keep their medals — a decision that has drawn sharp criticism from Native leaders. Tribal leaders and community advocates call it a misrepresentation of history, emphasizing that the event was a massacre, not a battle, where hundreds of unarmed Lakota were killed.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Under the previous administration, a review panel
was convened to determine whether soldiers awarded the
Medal of Honor for their actionsat the Battle of Wounded Knee
should keep their medals now. Upon deliberation, that panel
concluded that these brave soldiers should in fact,
rightfully keep their medals from actions in 1890.

(00:22):
The report was concluded in October of 2024.
Yet despite this clear recommendation, former Secretary
Lloyd Austin, for whatever reason I think we know he was
more interested in being politically correct than
historically correct, chose not to make a final decision.
Such careless inaction has allowed for their distinguished

(00:45):
recognition to remain in limbo until now.
Under my direction, we're makingit clear without hesitation that
the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890
will keep their medals. And we're making it clear that
they deserve those medals. This decision is now final, and
their place in our nation's history is no longer up for

(01:05):
debate. We salute their memory, we honor
their service, and we will neverforget what they did.
Joining me to comment on this isthe chairman of the Cheyenne
River Sioux Tribe. He called that event that killed
300 of your ancestors, the Battle of Wounded Knee, when we
call it the massacre at Wounded Knee.

(01:27):
And now the Defense Department is called the War Department.
What did these words mean to you?
They're. Not they're not accurate.
These words are are false misrepresentation of what
actually happened that Wounded Knee in 1890.
Our people were massacred, we were gunned down, we were

(01:51):
unarmed and our people suffered if if they made it out, they had
to run so and there were some that did make it out.
However, the majority, vast majority of our people see
Tonka's, Bigfoot's band of Mini Koji Lakota were massacred on
that day by several from the United States.

(02:15):
We're armed, we're killing our people.
They massacred us. This was not a battle.
We were unarmed. So that that's totally
inaccurate what he is saying. Secretary Hegs account of it is
totally false. Lynn Cooney is the CEO of
Thunder Valley, a community development organization based

(02:36):
on the Pine Ridge Reservation, just a few miles from the
Wounded Knee Massacre site. It's just heart wrenching, you
know, to to think of what our people endured and for now them
to really spin that narrative ofit being an actual battle or a

(02:57):
actual act of war and that thesepeople were acting in a heroic
way. There was nothing heroic about
it. And it was not a war or a
battle. It was a massacre.
And that's the facts. So it's definitely disrespectful
to say the least, but disheartening, you know?

(03:19):
And I think as Lakota people andas organizations, we'll continue
to tell the real story. Sean Bordeaux is the director of
the Institute of Tribal Lands atCentegaleschka University.
Last year, as a South Dakota state senator, he introduced a
resolution to investigate the awarding of the 20 Medals of
Honor. It passed and started the

(03:40):
reconsideration process. There was some discussion on
Pine Ridge and Cheyenne River asto what to do and how to go
forth, and I thought that was really good.
So, you know, just seeing that there was that kind of activity
coming from the federal government was promising.
And unfortunately, this new administration kind of has a

(04:00):
different view of things. And just hearing the guy say
battle, I almost fell off my chair.
Everybody historically said Mecker.
So that was something that was kind of stunning.
And, you know, our secretary, hesays a lot of things that
normally don't come from somebody in his position.
So I'm not really surprised. But at the same time, it is a

(04:23):
little painful for our people who've been, you know, violated
throughout time, never getting this appropriately resolved in a
way where people feel like, you know, we've been heard and our
people have been respected. It's it's not over at all.
We're going to tell the truth. We, we have our Congress that

(04:47):
understands this was a massacre.We actually have a bill coming
through the Senate and it was approved by the House already
previously in regarding Wounded Knee and it was to preserve 40
acres of land where the massacrehad taken place.
And in that bill, it is a massacre.

(05:08):
The, the, the title of the bill is, you know, Wounded Knee
Massacre Sacred Sites Act. So this is been recognized by
the Congress several times. And so he's, he's not educated
in the, in this, in this massacre that occurred.

(05:30):
And he did not consult with the tribes.
He did not consult with our tribe and that that is very
disrespectful and is not the wayto work with one sovereign to
another. For ICT.
I'm. Shirley Snavey.