“Remembering Wounded Knee” by Bonnie Halsey-Dutton

36 x 24” Oil on Clayboard

Created for Augustana College’s Center for Western Studies conference and art show.  The exhibition and dialogue are entitled “Interpretations of Wounded Knee 1973 and 1890”. 

http://www.augie.edu/cws/gallery.html

This juried art exhibition includes artist renderings in regards to the issues around one or both conflicts at Wounded Knee, on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.

The massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 was the first of two significant events in American history.   In 1973, the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) took a stand, and also is known as the Wounded Knee Uprising.  Each event happened at the same basic location at different time periods, but over very similar issues.

The image I explored happened on December 29, 1890.    A Lakota tribe, comprised of young and old members and with women and children, was led by Chief Bigfoot . (His Lakota name was Si Tanka, “Spotted Elk”).  The tribe, comprised of approximately 350 members, was camped on the banks of Wounded Knee Creek.  Trouble had been in the air for months, as Native Americans ventured off of the designated reservation land in search of food and their old way of life.  The Ghost Dance in which the tribes were anchoring their last shred of hope concerned the U. S. Government, and was outlawed.  The desire to practice the Ghost Dance was another piece of the story.  What happened at Wounded Knee resulted from an escalation of desperation and fear.  The resulting massacre was an  unforgettable horror, killing over 300 Natives and 25 Calvary.  

My painting explores this tragedy and I hope to cause reflection upon the past.  We would like to think we learn from the past; yet today, fear and overreaction continue to dictate human relations.  Both events at Wounded Knee will always be a black mark upon the United State and worthy of recollection.   If anyone reading this would like to know more about the conference, being held  at Augustana College in Sioux Falls on April 27 – 28, 2012, please check out the following link:  http://www.augie.edu/cws/dakotaconference.html