South Dakota Catholic leaders speak out against Wounded Knee soldiers keeping their medals
A South Dakota Catholic bishop and local Jesuit priests are criticizing U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth for deciding that American soldiers who participated in the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee, also known as the Wounded Knee Massacre of around 300 Lakota Native Americans, would retain their Medals of Honor.
Scott Bullock, the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rapid City, released a joint statement with several Jesuit leaders in the state reacting to Hegseth's Sept. 25 announcement on X that the American soldiers who took part in the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee would keep their medals.
"The facts of the tragedy at Wounded Knee Creek on December 29, 1890, are clear," the statement reads. "On that day, U.S. Army soldiers massacred nearly 300 Lakota women, children, and unarmed men. This was not a battle. To recognize these acts as honorable is to distort history itself."
In addition to Bullock, the letter's signatories included Rev. L. Ryen Dwyer of the De Smet Jesuit Community in West River, South Dakota, as well as two Jesuit pastors: Rev. Edmund Yainao of the St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Reservation and Rev. Phillip Cooke of St. Isaac Jogues Parish in Rapid City.
Rev. David Mastrangelo and Rev. Peter Klink, the current and former president of the Mahpiya Luta network of schools on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, also signed onto the letter.
Hegseth justified his decision by noting how a review panel convened during the Biden administration "concluded that these brave soldiers should, in fact, rightfully keep their medals." He implied that his predecessor, former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, chose not to follow the panel's recommendation because "he was more interested in being politically correct than historically correct."
"Such careless inaction has allowed for their distinguished recognition to remain in limbo," Hegseth said.
While Hegseth insisted that the Wounded Knee soldiers "deserved those medals," the Catholic leaders refuted his assertion that critics opposing such honors favor "political correctness" over "historical" accuracy.
"We acknowledge the government's intent to honor its troops, yet we reject any narrative that erases the humanity of the victims or glorifies acts of violence," the leaders stated, adding that their response "is not rooted in 'political correctness' but in prayerful correctness, grounded in truth, conscience, and compassion."
They cited a 1891 letter by an American military leader describing Wounded Knee as the "most abominable, criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children."
The Catholic leaders also noted a 2024 resolution overwhelmingly approved by the Republican-controlled South Dakota Senate, which concluded that "Allowing honor to the Seventh Calvary for acts in the Wounded Knee dishonors the Medal of Honor and is an implication of hostility and genocide against the Great Sioux Nation and the persons who were killed by the United States at Wounded Knee."
The South Dakota Senate voted 32-1 to approve the resolution, with all three Democrats and all but one Republican backing it.
The signatories stressed that those who died at Wounded Knee "are sacred" and that "Jesus stands with all who suffer and die at the hands of others."
"Those who committed the violence are also sacred; for this reason, Jesus offers them mercy and healing," they wrote, condemning the acts themselves as "grave evils" that "cannot be honored."
"If we deny our part in history, we deepen the harm. We cannot lie about the past without perpetuating injustice and moral blindness," they concluded. "Even if we are not personally responsible for Wounded Knee, we bear a moral responsibility to remember and speak the truth."
A report compiled by the U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee about pending legislation titled the Wounded Knee Massacre Memorial and Sacred Site Act provides additional details about the Battle of Wounded Knee, noting that it took place as "tensions between non-Indian settlers, federal agents, and the Sioux bands continued" amid efforts to resettle Native Americans on tribal reservations.
"On December 29, 1890, 7th Calvary troops were sent to disarm the Lakota due to non-Indian settler concern over potential armed attack," the report stated. "On the 100th anniversary of the massacre, Congress issued a formal apology, expressing deep regret for the actions of the federal government and acknowledging the historical significance of this event as the last armed conflict of the Indian wars."
