(wind whistling) (wind whistling continues) (crickets chirping) (gentle guitar music) (singers wailing) ♪ You put me in your boarding school ♪ ♪ Make me learn your white man rules ♪ ♪ Be a fool ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh oh oh ♪ (singers wailing) ♪ You put me in Chicago ♪ ♪ One cold December day ♪ ♪ Relocation, extermination ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh oh oh ♪ (singers wailing) ♪ You make me leave my home, my friends ♪ ♪ Think I'll go back there again ♪ ♪ Wounded Knee ♪ ♪ I want to be free ♪ ♪ Oh oh oh oh oh ♪ (singers wailing) - [Narrator] In 1972, Raymond Yellow Thunder, a member of the Oglala Sioux tribe was kidnapped by two ranchers and taken to a dance at an American Legion Hall in Gordon, Nebraska, where he was stripped naked.

His feet were burned with cigarettes by the ranchers as they forced him to dance naked in front of the crowd.

He was then taken out back and beaten, and he was thrown into the trunk of a car where he froze to death.

An Oglala civil rights leader, Severt Young Bear, on behalf of the Yellow Thunder family, contacted the American Indian Movement for help.

A march was organized and several thousand outraged Indians marched on Gordon, Nebraska to protest the murders.

- Then as Gordon, as it came about, we marched in, about probably 2000 people, 1500.

This whole kind of a spirit, seemed like it came alive to where Indian people, they said, we're not gonna take this no more.

(somber music) (people shouting) - [Narrator] In early 1973, another member of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Wesley Bad Heart Bull, was killed in the small border town of Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, by white assailants.

(people shouting) In response to this second, apparently racially motivated, murder within months, members of the American Indian Movement protested at the nearby courthouse in Custer, South Dakota.

This ended in a violent confrontation between law enforcement and AIM members that resulted in a number of arrests.

(somber music) (people shouting) Federal and state law enforcement officials mobilized for further confrontations with the American Indian Movement.

Meanwhile, inside the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, unrest was also increasing, as traditional Indians became increasingly frustrated at the corruption and brutal tactics of Dick Wilson, president of the Oglala Sioux Tribe, and his enforcers, the so-called GOON squad.

- Well, there's been a lot of accusations made here lately, and one in particular that upsets me is the fact that I am using a GOON squad, so to speak.

They are respectable and honest citizens of Pine Ridge.

- And we're all sharp shooters.

Come to GOON squad, come in.

- Go and get 'em.

(laughs) - They were greedy.

They only looked after themselves, their families and their friends, and to the heck with all the traditional people, the Indian people that lived out in the districts.

- [Narrator] Following the Custer incident, traditional leaders asked the American Indian Movement to come to Pine Ridge and help them in their struggle against Dick Wilson.

- And we called a meeting at Calico, and all the headmen and chiefs, and Dick Wilson said, "If you want me out the office, I'll step down right now."

(laughs) And he did.

Then he get back in again.

(somber music) What can we do?

That was really a Gestapo type of administration.

So we full bloods, our hands are tied, and we cannot depend on anybody to come to our defense.

So Chief Fools Crow and (indistinct) come up with idea about American Indian Movement.

(tank rumbling) - [Narrator] Fearing trouble, US marshals and military advisors were sent into Pine Ridge to support the Wilson Administration and prevent the anticipated takeover of tribal headquarters.

They joined forces with Wilson's GOON squad.

On February 27th, 1973, AIM and the traditional leaders chose another location for their protest, the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre in the center of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

This is the story of the Warriors of Wounded Knee, 1973.

(gentle music) - [Narrator] There's a place where we won't be alone if we go, and that place is Wounded Knee.

They say the spirits of our ancestors are there, and if we're gonna go make a stand, we should make it with them.

- Wounded Knee, it was the place to be, it was... 'Cause if we would've took over something, let's say, in over, the Lower Brule took over their community center or something, they would've just got in there and got us out, or something, but Wounded Knee, it was a symbol of what happened in 1890 and the reservation was open for it, you know?

I think the people were open for it.

That was the perfect spot because the history and the people.

Pine Ridge was ripe for this.

- The atmosphere in Pine Ridge was really, it was really bad.

It was a lot of tension.

A lot of men walking around with fatigues and assault rifles.

There were machine gun nests on top of the BIA building at each of the corners.

APCs were parked or sitting on the back of low boy trailers.

(tank rumbling) (somber music) - By the time we got to Wound Knee, we were in, it was the caravan, I mean, the caravan just kept getting longer and longer.

And I remember when we turned north at the junction there out of Pine Ridge going north to Wounded Knee.

(gentle music) We were going real slow, and I remember looking back, it was getting dark and just lines of car lights all turning following us.

But by the time we were coming down that long hill into Wounded Knee, we could hear gunfire.

And then we runners were coming up, running up saying, "Hit the ditch, there's gun fire."

- And what they wanted to do was to, I guess basically just run us out of town, using whatever means necessary.

They were the first ones to fire the weapons.

I know, because I was up on the hill by the church and we heard the gunfire and we seen this BIA cop and he fired again.

He could see the muzzle flashes, and he was firing towards the trading post there.

And so we had to go down and basically defend the people.

- And when I saw that the federal marshals of the FBI converged and put up roadblocks and then surrounded the place, I realized it was a very serious and deadly situation.

And I had to look into myself.

And I'm sure a lot of the young men, women and people there had to really take a look at their commitment.

How deep is your commitment?

Are we willing to stand and possibly die there for this cause?

- On the way back, this was out by the Wolf Creek turnoff, Highway 18 and Wolf Creek turnoff.

When we came over that little hill, there was all these lights, flashing lights, red lights, and I didn't know what it was.

I thought maybe it was an accident scene or something, so I slowed down.

I slowed down and then I noticed all these guys in blue uniforms.

They were more like jumpsuits and they had rifles and they waved to us to pull through.

So we did, and right when we pulled right in the middle of them, then this man stepped out front of the car, so I stopped.

And then with the bullhorn, I was told to turn off the vehicle, the engine.

So I did, and then by then the door on my side, you know, was opened and I was yanked out of the car.

And my mother sat beside me on the passenger side.

And then we gave two elderly women a ride back from Porcupine back into Pine Ridge, and they were in the back and they were asked to step out, but they refused.

They refused to get out of the car.

But I had my younger brother's parka on, and of course I had long hair.

So I think maybe they mistook me for a guy and just yanked me around there and kind of roughed me up.

- It kinda, it's almost taken me back a year or two to Vietnam, because when you're around people that you put your life on the line every day, and just like Vietnam, the daytime was kinda like the resting time, and you stay awake all night because if there's any action, it usually happens at night, including people coming in that were bringing supplies that we'd send patrols out to escort 'em in the best we could.

- And we put up a bunker over on the eastern side of the community, we called it Little Bighorn Bunker.

And there I was able to develop some real good friendship and relations with, you know, people like John Carlson from Minneapolis, Percy Casper from Canada.

Bill Means, John (indistinct), and some of the Menominee Warriors Society.

We were all in that bunker.

Even Lorelei DeCora, who was a medic, spent some time in that bunker with us.

And so we developed some rapport and we became real comrades in the struggle.

And, you know, Wounded Knee was such a beautiful experience for me because it matured me as a Indian person, you know, developed my spirituality 'cause I had opportunities to use the sweat lodge every morning and use the prayers and learn about the pipe, and the songs and just what the Oglalas have with the sweat lodge ceremonies, and I learned a lot about all of that.

- [Bill] Banks was organizing the new people, orientate 'em, having marching out there and everything.

(gunshots blasting) And have 'em, before they even went in the bunkers, they had a good orientation and some weapons training, and so we started organizing all this as it escalated.

And that's what was kind of, I guess again, it was inspiring, in a way, to see how many people were actually willing to put their life on the line, because we're not talking and carrying signs anymore.

We're going up against APCs, all these law enforcement agencies.

And so I think for me, at some points, yeah, when you're sitting in a bunker and stuff, you think, "I wonder if I'm going to prison for the rest of my life."

You know, "What's going on here?"

But I kept remembering all the way from BIA, from Raven Yellow Thunder that we had that pipe and we had that sweat there and Crow Dog and the chiefs that would come in and have a ceremony and stuff, so I kind of felt, well, if we keep that way, we're gonna be all right.

And but the escalation also caused us to escalate in our organizing, and we knew that it was serious business and we couldn't mess around.

We had to be sincere.

Not only in protest, but in combat.

- I always like to remember just the good times, 'cause there was times when we almost got killed, there was, we could see bullets flying over us from wall to wall, even if we're laying down.

It was scary.

And these marshals and FBIs, they didn't use small guns.

They used heavy-powered rifles on us.

I mean, it was kind of scary, you know?

Then I thought of what they'd done to my ancestors and Chief Bigfoot.

You know, my father's mother is a descendant, one of the survivors.

So, and her mother got killed there.

That would be my great-grandma.

She got killed there in the ravine.

So I understand, and maybe I think that's why the spirits came out and helped us.

- There was so much fire power that were coming in into Wounded Knee, on those firefights.

And there was a sweat lodge right in the middle, below the church.

We were in there one time when the firefight broke out and Crow Dog just told us, everybody wanted to run out.

We thought, oh man, we're gonna get shot where we're sitting in the sweat lodge.

And he says, "No."

He told us, "You gotta have faith in your prayers.

You gotta have faith in this sweat lodge."

And now he's gonna sing a song where there's no bullets gonna penetrate.

And he says, you have to believe.

So we went through that uneasy, anxious.

We finished the four rounds.

We got out of there and we took a look back.

15 minutes later, 30 minutes later, I started to realize, we all started to realize, God that was, there was protection there, but it showed us, we have to believe and have faith in our prayers and that's gonna sustain us.

No bullets penetrated that teepee.

No bullets penetrated that sweat lodge.

But he told us that you have to believe in it.

You have to believe in it, and you have to use it.

And we did.

- Oh, there was times when we could hear singing in between our lines and their lines.

You know, it kind of strange now, you know, how it might have been tape recorders, but how I believe in it was the spirits that were helping us along, you know.

So as long as we had the help from (foreign language), well, we felt pretty strong, you know?

And at the same time an APC would be running around back and forth on the field and the boys would take a trash can lid and, you know, very it carefully, walk it out there and bury it.

Then we wouldn't have that APC traffic out there anymore.

You know, they would thought it was landmines, and at the same time when, first time the government heard that AK-47 sound off, it has a distinct sound with a...

They pull back, you know, and, boy, all the warriors, they got down and started cutting pieces of wood that resembled AK-47.

So we were all walking around with, you know?

And sometimes, you know, I mean they pulled in the 50-cals, even though they said they didn't, you know?

We were fighting their military.

- When you hear them bullets singing around your head, you know, about three feet up when they cracking up above your head and, you know, they're pretty low then.

Yeah, you know you were in the boar.

- I think one firefight there was only Percy, Casper and myself, we were in the bunker, and there was a sniper up there, probably about 500 yards.

He was a ways, but he must have had a beat on us 'cause I stuck my head up and then he almost hit me.

It was so close shot into the back, into that wall, 'cause we were in the bunker, we dug in.

So I dug out that bullet.

So I kept that.

And then, so I put my hat on this, on my rifle and I was going like that.

And, and Percy was sitting over there.

He was, I know he was scared, you know, 'cause he was looking at it, he wouldn't move.

Then I said, "Come on Percy, let's get it on with him, man."

Let's just say "Hoka-hay" right now.

And I, that's when I took this yarn and I started tying up my bun.

I said, "I'm gonna tie up my bun.

That means we're gonna go to war here."

And he started, wow.

He, at first he was like, "Come on Percy, you know, let's get along with these guys."

And finally I just started laughing, It got hilarious there, yeah, afterwards, because we were learning.

We were experiencing and being in that tense moment like that where you're actually receiving intense gunfire, and this guy is trying to kill you.

(gentle music) - [Beau] It was a community.

We were building the nation.

You know, it was our own independent (foreign language) nation.

And there was birth, death, you know, there was marriages, the fact that a good friend of mine, Anna Mae, she was married in Wounded Knee.

You know, somehow it was an ongoing struggle, but at the same time, life still carried on.

- Hunger.

The first time in my life, I knew what hunger was.

And that was several weeks into the occupation when the Feds really closed everything down and stuff.

You know, food was really short.

- It's, now, they scoping out, the feds were eying us, and in between all the shootings, somebody's cattle kind of got loose, you know?

Yeah, there was quite a bit of 'em, you know, so yeah, so we called in another squad to make a diversionary tactic while we rounded up the cows.

And so we kinda had our own little roundup.

Pretty soon, you know, we had a nice pen of cows, you know, and... - So (indistinct) Indian guy come running out of there, and without following orders or anything.

He just opened up and shot that big bull.

All those 20 cows scattered out all over, ran all over.

Some of those, one of those cows got so scared, he ran under that horse that Rosa Means was sitting on.

- So they went out and they brought back the biggest bull that you ever saw.

So people chewed on a piece of meat for three or four hours at a time on one piece, you know, (laughs) couldn't get it soft enough to swallow.

So they drew a big old picture of a bull standing on its... (laughs) And a cow standing on its teat, and they had a workshop that day on the difference between a cow and a bull.

(laughs) - You know, there's another part that a lot of people take for granted.

You think, well the women's gonna go in and start cooking, which some did, there's no question.

But a lot of the women were as angry as the men.

So the thing that amazed me that there was probably as many women in the bunkers as there were men, many cases.

And I remember like Lorelei, and Madonna and them trying to run the hospital, because we did have some injuries and wounded.

And I remember Lorelei, my ex sister-in-law, there was fire, I think it might have been when Web and them were wounded.

And she crawled out.

She had a pack with her to care for 'em when she got there and she was crawling, and the feds opened up, man.

So we're hollering on the radio that it's a woman and she's trying to help the wounded.

You know, stop your fire, check the fire.

(gunshots blasting) - [Wounded Knee Security] One or two people in Little Bighorn Bunker have been hit.

It's impossible to get a medic out because the fire was so heavy.

- [Command Post] The Wounded Knee apparently has a wounded party.

Stated to us that they were gonna send medics in, and the man that went to that bunker was carrying a rifle.

We will not recognize a medic carrying a rifle.

- [Wounded Knee Security] The message from Wounded Knee.

There is supposedly a Red Cross worker by the bunker that's been pinned down for the last hour.

They don't know if she's been hit or not, and they'd like to get her out of there.

Over.

- [Command Post] I'd tell them that they've got 10 minutes from now.

One person with a white flag and no weapons.

If they have weapons, we will open fire.

- [Wounded Knee Security] She is a medic.

She is unarmed.

She only has medical supplies with her.

Please relieve sniper Fire that is aimed upon her.

- [Command Post] Be advised, you have 10 minutes with one person with a white flag to move that person out of that area.

If there's any weapons or any fire, we'll fire upon them.

Over.

- [Wounded Knee Security] Okay Roger.

We're getting a white flag ready now.

There'll be one person going down there, we'll run down and check it out.

There'll be no weapons taken down there, and I'm trying to tell all our people around here not to open fire, but some of the people are out in fields and I can't guarantee that, you know, that somebody on the other side of the perimeter might not get pinned down, open the fire over there, but there won't be any fire from this direction.

- [Command Post] Well, be advised that if they have any fire, we're gonna open up the fire.

- [Wounded Knee Security] Roger.

I'm throwing out people here.

Little Bighorn, Little Bighorn, and (indistinct) and Hawk Eye, Little California, hold your fire.

Do not open your fire.

We have 10 minutes with one man and the white flag.

If anyone opens fire, this man's dead.

- Here she, they just kept shooting.

So she was just laying down and then finally it stopped.

There was no movement, man.

Everybody was scared, man.

She see it.

So we kind of crawl out there, and here she was asleep.

She went to sleep when all that heavy fire, 'cause it had been up for, you know, a number of days and nothing else she could do, I guess.

But it was kind of an amazing thing to see a woman who you'd wanna say should be in the kitchen or whatever, but she's under fire and she goes to sleep.

And so everybody teased her about that she could sleep through Wounded Knee, you know?

And also in the negotiations, we had people like Agnes and Gladys, Lou Bean and Ellen Moves Camp and some of the other older women, would take part in negotiations.

So the women were at every level of the whole operation.

- So on our way back in, we got busted.

So they hauled us off to Rapid.

So we were in there about three days and then the magistrate turned us loose.

My folks came and got me and asked me what I wanted to do.

I said, well, I said, "We need ammo."

And while I was in jail, some other people that got busted, they gave me a, they gave us a list of what kind of shells to get.

So then my folks bailed me outta jail, and then they gave me money and I went down the street in Rapid and I saw some Indian guys, you know, street people.

So I just went over to them and I just told 'em where I was going and what I needed.

So they said, "Well meet us," you know, "down the street in the alley," where they all, you know, kind of congregate.

So I did.

And I had my folks park a couple blocks down, and I waited there about half an hour.

I mean, well, we went and drove around for about half an hour.

Then I went and got off there and they came back and put all those shells in my backpack.

And I had to walk down the street trying to look nonchalant, you know, here I had this (laughs) bag full of shells, threw 'em in my folks' trunk and they brought me to Porcupine.

Lorelei and I, we, you know, hooked up again.

So then we walked in that night back into Wounded Knee.

- I do know of some real good stories of extreme bravery and heroism.

One of 'em was a very dear friend of mine, one of the elders.

His name was Oscar Bearrunner.

- I remember seeing him one early morning.

I was guard duty on our bunker, and I seen this guy and I put the binoculars and that creek was below, and I seen it way over there.

There was old Uncle Oscar.

He had rifles, and he was walking in the creek, leading people into Wounded Knee.

And he was like, I don't know, like I said, maybe his middle 60s, and that's when I knew that, you know, they wasn't gonna defeat us there, man.

Not in that time, in that place, with those soldiers.

- Somebody broke through the roadblock, you know, and the feds were in pursuit.

So we went to go protect them, you know.

And during that time, boy, they opened up on us and ended up into a leap frog and deal coming back down off that hill, you know, for a firefight.

- Well, we were down at the teepee, the one right below the cemetery, and we had a sweat lodge in front of the teepee.

And that day, Leonard was running the sweat lodge, Leonard Crow Dog, and we had all went into the sweat, (drums thumping) and he put some (foreign language), a red, it's a red coloring that we use for things that are sacred to us when we have to use it, and he puts some on our face after the sweat lodge.

And it wasn't very long after they came out of the sweat lodge, it was like about three minutes that word came down that the crew from Porcupine were gonna come in through the Porcupine Road, and that they were just gonna run through the roadblock.

And we got out and started moving along this side of the tree line, when all of a sudden something happened.

Shots were fired and the whole world just...

It was just like I was back in Vietnam.

(thumping music) I looked over to where Bob and Percy were laying, and I could see the weeds just kind of falling over, like an invisible lawnmower going between us.

And I looked back, back up the hill and I started to shoot.

(intense music) Well, I got hit, and the bullet came through my hand.

I was laying behind a little prairie dog mound, and the bullet came through my hand, I was shooting.

It came through my hand and hit the stock of my gun right where it came out, and I deflected it just enough where instead of my face, it went through my head.

And I thank the spirits that were with us.

To this day, I thank them.

And just a couple of seconds after I got hit, a very good friend of mine, I've known him since childhood, Milo Goings got hit, and it was just maybe two seconds apart, the both of us got hit.

- The Marshals opened up on us, up our perimeter.

(people chattering) (objects clattering) They opened up on us, so we returned the fire, and we got shot.

Or a lot of the people here feel the same way.

The majority, about 90%, of them feel the same way.

We are here for a cause like for Wounded Knee and the people nationwide.

This is just an example.

It's only the beginning of a lot of the things that could happen.

In Pine Ridge, there's people going around, grown men, the tribal president going around telling people they wouldn't live too much longer.

They're burning houses down, and all this, is just rut, you know.

Come here, this here is an example of the way we feel, and we are willing to sacrifice our lives for our children so they will not have to grow up in the society we grew up in today.

- And we came back, Wallace Black Elk and Leonard Crow Dog dug the bullet outta Milo.

And mine of course passed through, and they asked us if we wanted to go to the hospital, but we declined.

Just, we used our herbs and medicines to heal ourselves down there.

(somber music) - And what happened, he was in a basement of the church that's no longer there.

And when they opened up from the perimeter, the feds, some bullets came through as here as we figured through the basement windows and ricocheted, but one came through his head, blew part of his head off while he was sitting in there, sitting in the basement.

So at first we kind of had our kitchen and headquarters kind of there and then as the Gildersleeve and that family moved out, and everything switched down to down below.

But when I got there, the women were screaming, of course.

And they had his head and a pool of blood that covered half this room.

So I knew that he was dead.

- They were calling, calling for medics, and I think that's when that doc was pinned down, so there was just Lorelei and I, and so we got grabbed some stuff and we said we'll go.

And we got out there and it was, you know, firing going all kinds of ways.

And so we said, all right, then we had a stretcher, and so we were looking around, and people were running, you know, and trying to get cover and get to where they were supposed to be.

And Larry Anderson came by, he said, "Come on, I'll take it."

So he grabbed the stretcher and he took off and then we just went behind him, and we just made our way up the hill.

But by the time we got up there, they had called a cease fire to get him, get him outta there.

- [Bill] Unbelievable.

You know, well somebody lost their life, you know?

It's serious, you know, it was a serious... You know, we were in a demonstration, but now we're in this, bullets are flying.

(gentle music continues) - I met Buddy a few times, and he's sort of a quiet guy.

Quiet person, kind of laid back, and I didn't expect to see him there, 'cause he's always in Pine Ridge and.

- And they come over and they said that Buddy had got hit, so we all went that way, and I didn't get right up close to where Buddy was laying, but he had got hit in the back and there was a big, big hole in his chest.

- Sniper took him out at 1,000 yards, you know, I mean a government sniper.

And they called the truce, you know?

So it was a truce, you know?

So everybody popped out of their hole like normal, you know, but I think they singled Buddy out and took him down.

- Well, it ended after Buddy got killed, you know?

And they had a meeting and they decided to end it right there.

So in about three days it was all over.

(gentle music) - The end was kind of difficult.

Lot of the leadership, again, was outside either in court, or like I did before, trying to raise money.

So like, I'm not sure if Dennis was there, he wasn't there.

Russ, Clyde and him was long gone.

So there was basically Carter Camp, Crow Dog, and of course all the mostly Oglalas that were still inside, 'cause they lived there.

They didn't have nowhere to go, you know?

So Fools Crow came, and he gave a talk.

This was before everybody left the night before.

Well, first let me back up a little further.

We went up to the hilltop up there with Kent Frizzell and some of the federal negotiators, and they said, "Well, it's getting to be drawn out.

We've had casualties.

You guys buried Buddy Lamont."

And so we didn't agree to anything at that point.

We just said we're gonna talk to the chiefs.

And so they let 'em all come in again, Ramon Roubideaux, a lot of the lawyers, counselor, and then the chiefs came in and Fools Crow gave this talk that he said, "You have won, because people know about our treaty, because people know that the Indians are still here.

And so what we came here for was to let America, the world, know that we're still alive."

So he said, "We just buried this young man," he said, "I don't wanna bury no more people."

He said, "So it's time."

He said, "You guys, you're from other places.

You go back home and work for your people.

We appreciate you coming."

But the truce was made, and so they took us out, and Crow Dog and myself, Carter Camp and one other person, I can't remember, we were the last ones to leave Wounded Knee.

And as we were going up the hill, we kind of had a big laugh because the feds, after they seen the last cars leave and that, they had surrounded in a, you know, a perimeter.

They were laying down like soldiers, but you could see somebody go like that, and it was kinda like a movie.

And they'd all run little ways and then they'd drop down, you know?

- Yeah, they arrested us.

They brought us in and they put us in jail in Pine Ridge.

And next morning, feds were there, and they got us all out and loaded us up, and they took us to Rapid.

Said, "You guys ain't safe in Pine Ridge.

You might be dead before the day is over."

- Definitely, that was the wisdom of our people, because we would've served no purpose.

We were already had 500 people charged with various federal crimes.

We were in the federal courts up to our ears.

And to maintain that position at Wounded Knee probably would've brought about another massacre, and I think that was probably in the back of the minds of some of the leadership as well, is we don't want to see women and children.

Because by that time, at the end of Wounded Knee, majority of people were women and children.

And so they didn't wanna see any kind of atrocity.

They knew because of Buddy Lamont, that they were capable of doing it.

And a lot of the warriors disagreed, but the best came out I think.

And it was a timely and wise solution.

(gentle music) - We're gonna go to Wounded Knee, there's some people that were killed there.

We're gonna go there, we're gonna be their students.

- Wounded Knee happened because it had to bring a end to the process of corruption.

It had to end corruption, it had to end at racism, it had to end all the evil things that were happening to us.

We wanted to bring an end to it.

We wanted to change that, and so people sacrificed their freedom.

People sacrificed their jobs and their families (group chanting and drumming) and their personal livelihoods to make a concerted change for our community, concerted change for our families.

So that, or that more importantly our kids could, will understand and be proud of who they are.

You know, will be able to say, "I'm proud to be Lakota."

Will be able to say "I'm culturally distinct and culturally different, you know, and I have a right to be as such."

These are the things that we were shooting for.

- Oh, there's no question that Wounded Knee has changed my life forever, in terms of working for Indian people.

(group chanting) The idea that grassroots people could stand up against the most powerful military force in the world and do it with dignity and pride, I think, you know, it still stands out 'cause of all the things that came out of Wounded Knee, I think the revival of our culture, our identity, our pride was probably the most important thing.

- Having, you know, grown up, having, you know, experienced, you know, the 60s, you know, as a child and there was (person chanting) a lot of our language was, (saw buzzing) we were, you know, losing our language, loss of lands, oh, culture, (wind whistling) native pride.

You know, all those were, you know, quickly fading.

And when Wounded Knee happened, it just stopped everything.

And it made a turnaround, and it just seemed to have, it just woke, it seems, it just woke up people across this nation.

(gentle music) - We did that.

We fought the United States government.

That's how I talked to my kids at that time.

At Wounded Knee, you said one of these days you'll know, you'll learn all about it, but that's what we did.

Do you see these people, right?

They took on the government, the calvary, and then we did the same thing.

And you're gonna do that one day when you grow up.

Oh, they want to do it, they always used to say, "I want to be Geronimo," you know, based on that picture.

So I think it was liberation, liberation of our soul, our spirit, to be proud and dignified.

I think that's very empowering if you feel good about yourself.

- Well, the kids started growing up like regular kids, you know, they weren't afraid of nobody and they talk, talk up and everything.

- Wounded Knee is a sacred place for our, the Lakotas, because they all died for us.

That's how we're doing this walk.

We appreciate everybody that's walking.

(group chanting and drumming) - [Billy] Let their hair grow, change the schools around a little bit too, you know?

- You know, even the GOON squads that were ashamed of being, or aligning themselves, or walking in the light of Indigenous-ism, you know, it changed, you know, they changed, you know, they come around.

You know, they realized that it was wrong to disrespect yourself.

It was wrong to beat up your fellow, your brother or your sister, you know?

And they come around.

Now they're proud to be who they are.

(group chanting and drumming) - I'm so glad that I was part of history, modern day history, modern day Indian history.

I was a part of it.

Not just being my, 'cause (indistinct) run in my family, you know, a part of that go down in history along with me, and hopefully that'll influence in the generations to come.

You know, that it wasn't just an incident.

You know, the Red Power Movement changed our history for us.

So sometimes you gotta do it.

You gotta get out there and just put it on the line and I did it.

I was part of history.

- And so you always go back to that Wounded Knee experience because it prepared us for struggles such as in Guatemala, in South America, even in the environment because that's where we learned about our relationship with Mother Earth, was through the ceremonies and through the teachings of the chiefs and elders at Wounded Knee.

- Wounded Knee, if another Wounded Knee ever happened again, I would do it again.

I would change just a few things, about me personally, but I would do it again.

(gentle music) Because the reasons why we did that are so powerful.

The truth is always powerful.

Gandhi, how did Gandhi say that?

"Even if you are a minority of one, the truth is still the truth."

That's why I was at Wounded Knee, because that stood for the truth.

I didn't realize exactly how deep that truth went or how broad, but it was all the truth.

And so I would do it again.

I would get shot again, die if necessary.

But when you live like that, it's an honorable way to live.

I'm very proud of the people who stood with us in Wounded Knee, and I'm very honored and privileged to have stood with them.

(gentle music continues) - Wound Knee has, it's like a tattoo on your heart, you know?

It just becomes that nobody could ever take away the stand that we made.

- I'd like to, first of all, pay tribute to those warriors who fell here 30 years ago.

I want to thank the spirit of the Oglala people who were coming together over 30 years ago (gentle music) and calling attention to not only the issues that were here, but the issues that faced us all across this country.

♪ Out in the desert ♪ ♪ Where the wind never stops ♪ ♪ A few simple people try to grow a few crops ♪ ♪ Trying to maintain a life and a home ♪ ♪ On land that was theirs ♪ ♪ Before the Romans thought of Rome ♪ ♪ A few dozen survivors, ragged but proud ♪ ♪ With a few woolly sheep under gathering cloud ♪ ♪ It's never been easy or free from strife ♪ ♪ But the pulse of the land ♪ ♪ Is the pulse of their life ♪ ♪ You thought it was over ♪ ♪ But it's just like before ♪ ♪ Will there never be an end to the Indian wars ♪ ♪ You thought it was over ♪ ♪ But it's just like before ♪ ♪ Will there never be an end to the Indian wars ♪ ♪ It's not breech-loading rifles ♪ ♪ And wholesale slaughter ♪ ♪ It's kickbacks and thugs and diverted water ♪ ♪ Treaties get signed ♪ ♪ And the papers change hands ♪ ♪ But they might as well draft ♪ ♪ These agreements in sand ♪ ♪ Noble Savage on the cinema screen ♪ ♪ An Indian's good when he cannot be seen ♪ ♪ And the so-called white ♪ ♪ So-called race ♪ ♪ Digs for itself a pit of disgrace ♪ ♪ You thought it was over ♪ ♪ But it's just like before ♪ ♪ Will there never be an end to the Indian wars ♪ ♪ You thought it was over ♪ ♪ But it's just like before ♪ ♪ Will there never be an end to the Indian wars ♪