The Mass Grave of South Dakota’s Wounded Knee Just Got Even Stranger

0:00 The empty museum cabinets 1:53 The official account of Wounded Knee 6:07 Objects taken from the dead 15:03 How many people were buried? 18:42 The land returns to the tribes 24:38 Battle or massacre? 26:21 What remains unknown 30:02 What Wounded Knee holds today I trace what happened to objects taken from Wounded Knee, from a Massachusetts museum cabinet back to the descendants and the sacred ground where 146 people were buried. I follow the competing accounts of the 1890 massacre, the uncertainty around the number of dead, and the debate over whether the returned objects should be displayed, buried, or burned. I also examine how the land was reclaimed by the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux tribes. Finally, I look at the federal law protecting the site, the Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers, and the questions that remain unanswered about the trench, the objects, and what the country calls Wounded Knee.