Buffalo Bill Cody and General Nelson A. Miles Surveying Wounded Knee with Captains Frank Baldwin and Marion P. Maus, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota

GRABILL PORTRAIT AND VIEW CO. (JOHN C. GRABILL, fl. 1875-1891)

Buffalo Bill Cody and General Nelson A. Miles Surveying Wounded Knee with Captains Frank Baldwin and Marion P. Maus, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota

January 1891

The Ghost Dance movement began in Nevada in 1889, promising American Indians the coming of a messiah who would vanquish the whites and aid in restoring the natives' way of life. The Ghost Dance quickly spread east to the Sioux reservations in North and South Dakota, where agents condemned it as "demoralizing, indecent and disgusting" and banned the ceremony on all Sioux reservations in December 1890. Disregard for the ban prompted General Nelson A. Miles (1839-1925) to order the arrest of Ghost Dance practitioners. On December 15, 1890, Chief Sitting Bull (1834?-1890), one of the leaders of the movement, was killed in a confrontation with Indian police sent by the agent at Standing Rock Reservation. Two weeks later, on the morning of December 29 at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, at least 150 Sioux men, women, and children of Big Foot's band were massacred in a hail of cannon and rifle fire as officers of the Seventh Cavalry attempted to disarm them. Deadwood photographer Grabill arrived to photograph the aftermath and took the photograph here of Miles and William "Buffalo Bill" Cody (1846-1917). Cody, an entertainer famous for his traveling Wild West Show, and was an unlikely presence at Wounded Knee. He had been summoned by Miles to negotiate with Sitting Bull, who had performed in Cody's shows, but was then forbidden to meet with the chief.

Princeton Collections of Western Americana, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections.