Warren, Rounds Urge DoD and Interior to Extend Timeline for Receiving Evidence in Wounded Knee Medals of Honor Review Process
Tribes, descendants of the victims, and other stakeholders “possess a wealth of information that is critical for the panel’s consideration” but may not have sufficient time to contribute to the DoD review.
Washington, D.C. – This week, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) urged Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III and Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland to establish a process for reviewing Wounded Knee Medals of Honor that ensures sufficient time for stakeholders and experts to gather and submit relevant documentation on soldiers who slaughtered Native American noncombatants, including women and children at Wounded Knee Creek.
The 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota was a horrific act of violence against the Lakota people. U.S. Army members slaughtered hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children. A year later, 20 of the perpetrators were awarded medals of honor, the military’s highest honor that has only been given to roughly 3,500 service members throughout U.S. history. The Army’s commander during the American Indian Wars wrote he “never heard of a more brutal, cold-blooded massacre than that at Wounded Knee.”
On July 19, 2024, Secretary Austin directed the Department of Defense (DoD) to convene a panel to review each medal awardee’s individual actions during the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, given that the battle has been declared a massacre of Native American civilians, and to recommend whether to revoke each medal.
“We welcome that DoD will finally revisit the legitimacy of these medals 134 years after the Massacre,” wrote the senators. “We urge DoD and DoI not to impose the Army’s July 26th deadline on external stakeholders. Instead, we ask that you continue accepting documentation and testimonies from the public on a rolling basis with a deadline that provides sufficient time for submission.”
The Secretary of the Army was directed to present historical records related to the Wounded Knee Massacre by July 26, 2024. The public did not learn about the panel until July 24, 2024, which meant that the July 26th deadline, if applied to the public, would have provided them only two days to submit documentation. As a result, stakeholders — including Tribes, descendants of the victims, historical societies, individual historians, and academic institutions — may not have enough time to gather key information necessary for this review.
“This review process is long overdue,” concluded the senators. “We are greatly interested in seeing a review process that is informed by stakeholders’ documentation and testimonies. Thus, we ask that you continue to accept submissions of relevant evidence on a rolling basis until a reasonable deadline.”
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