When Presidents realized that adding to the public domain was a good thing.
In 1954 the Harney National Forest was added to the Black Hills, so it is no longer a separate administrative unit.
Sculptor Gutzon Borglum arrived in South Dakota at the invitation of historian Doane Robinson to carry out plans to carve an epic statue of four Presidents, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt in the state's Black Hills.
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This isn't the first time this has been done. Earlier it was done as the criteria for receiving the medal changed and many pre World War One medals were downgraded.
Today In Wyoming's History: July 2: 1874 7th Cavalry left Ft. Abraham Lincoln to scout the Black Hills.
The 7th Cavalry, with a number of native scouts, left Ft. Abraham Lincoln bound for the Black Hills in what is recalled as the Black Hills Expedition.
The expedition was economic in part, in that it was to look for gold in the Black Hills, and military in part, in that it was to look for suitable fort locations. Its organization was as follows:
The table of organization for the 7th Cavalry for the Black Hills Expedition of 1874 was as follows.[15]
Field and staff officers:
Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer, 7th Cavalry.
Lt. Colonel Frederick D. Grant, 4th Cavalry and acting aide
Major George A. Forsyth, 9th Cavalry commander
First Lieutenant James Calhoun, 7th Cavalry adjutant
First Lieutenant Algernon E. Smith, quartermaster
Second Lieutenant George D. Wallace, commander of Indian scouts
Cavalry companies
Company A - Captain Myles Moylan and Second Lieutenant Charles Varnum
Company B - First Lieutenant Benjamin H. Hodgson
Company C - Captain Verling Hart and Second Lieutenant Henry M. Harrington
Company E - First Lieutenant Thomas M. McDougall
Company F - Captain George W. Yates
Company G - First Lieutenant Donald McIntosh
Company H - Captain Frederick W. Benteen and First Lieutenant Francis M. Gibson
Company K - Captain Owen Hale and First Lieutenant Edward S. Godfrey
Company L - First Lieutenant Thomas W. Custer
Company M - Captain Thomas French and First Lieutenant Edward Gustave Mathey
Medical staff
Dr. John W. Williams, chief medical officer
Dr. S. J. Allen, Jr. assistant surgeon
Dr. A. C. Bergen, assistant surgeon
Engineering
Captain William Ludlow, chief engineer
W. H. Wood, civilian assistant
Mining detachment
Horatio Nelson Ross
William McKay
Scientist
George Bird Grinnell
Newton Horace Winchell
A. B. Donaldson
Luther North
Photographer
William H. Illingworth
Correspondents
William E. Curtis, Chicago Inter-Ocean
Samuel J. Barrows, New York Tribune
Sygurd Wiśniowski, New Ulm Herald
Nathan H. Knappen, Bismarck Tribune
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In the Apple TV series Masters of the Air, one of the characters is Maj. Gale "Buck" Cleven, who reports himself as being from Casper twice in the first episode.
Who was he, and was he really from Casper?
Clevens was born in Lemmon, South Dakota, on December 27, 1918, just after the end of World War One. His family moved to Casper when he was still a child, although I'm not certain when, as they moved first to Lusk, in 1920. He likely was a 1937 graduate from Natrona County High School, the only high school in Casper at the time (Natrona County had a second one in Midwest). Following graduating from high school, he attended the University of Wyoming while also working on drilling crews as a roughneck.
He did, in fact, move at some point to Casper, where he was employed as a roughneck on drilling crews. He used the money he earned to attend the University of Wyoming and was enrolled by the fall of 1937, presumably right after high school. His name appears in the social pages of The Branding Iron as having had a date attend the men's residence hall October dance. He was a guest of a different young lady at the 1939 Tri Delts Halloween sorority dance. The same year he was apparently in a fraternity, as he's noted as having attended the Phi Delta Theta dance with, yes, another young lady. In February 1939 he went to a fraternity dance with Nova Carter, whom I believe I'm related to by marriage. A year later, February 1940, he took a different gal to the same dance.
He left UW in 1941 to join the Army, intent on being a pilot. The October 21, 1943, edition of the UW Student Newspaper, The Branding Iron, notes him (inaccurately) as being stationed in North Africa and having received the Distinguished Service Cross, which he in fact did receive for piloting his badly stricken plane from Schweinfurt to North Africa, the flight path taken on that raid. This even is depicted in Masters of the Air. The Branding Iron noted that he had attended UW for three years. In June, 1944, the student newspaper reported him a POW. He's noted again for a second decoration in the March 2, 1944, edition, which also notes that he was a Prisoner of War.
As depicted in Masters of the Air, his B-17 was in fact shot down over Germany. He ended up becoming a POW, as reported in the UW paper, at Stalag Luft III for 18 months, after which he escaped and made it to Allied lines. He was put back in the cockpit after the war flying troops back to the United States.
Following the war, he was back at the University of Wyoming. He graduated from UW with a bachelor's in 1946. He apparently reentered the Air Force after that, or was recalled into service, and served in the Korean War, leaving the Air Force around that time.
He was on the Winter Quarter 1954 UW Honor Roll and obtained a Masters Degree, probably in geology, from UW in 1956. Somewhere in here, he obtained a MBA degree from Harvard and an interplanetary physics doctorate from George Washington University.
He married immediately after the war in 1945 to Marjorie Ruth Spencer, who was originally from Lander Wyoming. They had known each other since childhood. She tragically passed away in 1953 while visiting her parents, while due to join Gale at Morton Air Force Base in California. Polio was the cause of her death, and unusually her headstone, in Texas, bears her maiden name. Reportedly, her death threw Cleven into a deep depression. He married again in 1955, to Esther Lee Athey.
His post-war career is hard to follow. He flew again during the Korean War, as noted, which would explain the gap between his bachelors and master’s degrees, and probably his doctorate. He's noted as having served again during the Vietnam War, and also has having held a post at the Pentagon. He was in charge of EDP information at Hughes Aircraft. Given all of that, it's hard to know if an intended career in geology ever materialized, or if his World War Two service ended up essentially dominating the remainder of his career in the form of military service. The interplanetary physics degree would and employment by Hughes would suggest the latter. His highest held rank in the Air Force was Colonel.
Following retirement, he lived in Dickenson, North Dakota, and then later at the Sugarland Retirement Center in Sheridan. He died at age 86 in 2006, and is buried at the Santa Fe National Cemetery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, his marker noting service in three wars.
Twenty eight South Dakotans, many of them teens, and many of them Native Americans, have gone missing since January 1, 2023.
They are, with their dates of disappearance:
Missing since Jan. 17, 2023
• Jake Moore, 13, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department
• Angelo Jones, 15, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
• Kylie Mesteth, 16, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department
Missing since Jan. 16, 2023
• Emma Huska, 16, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department
• Luta Arapahoe, 14, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department
Missing since Jan. 15, 2023
• Ricki Becker, 29, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
Missing since Jan. 14, 2023
• Delbert Bad Milk, 15, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department
• Anthony Bad Milk, 13, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department
• Kateri Two Elk, 37, reported missing by Box Elder Police Department
Missing since Jan. 13, 2023
• Maria Valladares, 17, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
• Janae Mitchell, 15, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
• Brooklyn Ford, 9, reported missing by Clark County Sheriff’s Office
Missing since Jan. 12, 2023
• Ethan Stewart 26, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
• Matthew Harmon, 45, reported missing by Aberdeen Police Department
• Janiya Farmer, 17, reported missing by Sisseton Whapeton Oyate Tribal Police Department
Missing since Jan. 11, 2023
• Felicia Dreaming Bear, 33, reported missing by Rapid City Police Department
• Isabelle White Calf, 16, reported missing by Box Elder Police Department
Missing since Jan. 10, 2023
• Diego Perez, 17, reported missing by Pennington County Sheriff’s Office
Missing since Jan. 8, 2023
• Ezra Decker, 16, reported missing by Kingsbury County Sheriff’s Office
Missing since Jan. 7, 2023
• Honorae Little Bear, 16, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
Missing since Jan. 6, 2023
• Nevin Huapapi, 15, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
• Liyah Adams, 15, reported missing by Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Tribal Police Department
Missing since Jan. 5, 2023
• Ray Pena, 16, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
Missing since Jan. 4, 2023
• Mercedes Johnson, 17, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
Missing since Jan. 3, 2023
• Prairie Crowe, 16, reported missing by Pennington County Sheriff’s Office
Missing since Jan. 1, 2023
• Electra Wright, 17, reported missing by Butte County Sheriff’s Office
• Kelly Tiah, 16, reported missing by Sioux Falls Police Department
• Bobbie Miller, 23, reported missing by Pennington County Sheriff’s Office
Numbers to call for folks with information.
Rapid City Police Department: 605-394-4131
Sioux Falls Police Department: 605-367-7000
Box Elder Police Department: 605-394-4131
Clark County Sheriff’s Office: 605-532-3822
Aberdeen Police Department: 605-626-7000
Sisseton Whapeton Oyate Tribal PD: 605-698-7661
Pennington County Sheriff’s Office: 605-394-4131
Kingsbury County Sheriff’s Office: 605-854-3339
Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Tribal PD: 605-867-5111
Butte County Sheriff’s Office: 605-892-3324
A Chinook wind caused an increase in temperature in Spearfish, South Dakota, in which the temperature went from -4F to 45F in two minutes. It ultimately went up to 54F over two hours, then dropped back below 0 in 30 minutes, all of this in a single morning.
Papua was liberated from the Japanese, becoming the first territory they had captured from which they'd been completely expelled.
Japan's losses on the island were 13,000 in number, compared to 2,000 for Australia and 600 for the United States.
On the same day, the British 8th Army took Tripoli.
According to many sources, today, not yesterday, was the date on which the Germans lost their last airfield at Stalingrad.
French police and German forces began the Marseilles Roundup, the gathering and deportation of the city's Jewish population. The action would result in the deportation of 1,642 people, the displacement of 20,000 and the arrest of 6,000. The Old Port district was destroyed.
Margaret Bourke-White flew in a U.S. bombing mission over Tunis in the B-17 Little Bill. The photographer and reporter was the first woman to do so.
Bourke-White was already a famous photographer by that time, having photographed extensively during the Great Depression and having photographed the Soviet Union prior to World War Two. She died at age 67 in 1971 of Parkinson's Disease.
Franklin Roosevelt dined with Moroccan Sultan Mohammed V, during which he expressed sympathy for post-war Moroccan independence.
Roosevelt was always solidly anti-colonial, a fact that became an increasing problem for the British as the war went on and which would impact the immediate post war world.
On this day in 1941 the USS Reuben James, a destroyer, was sunk by a U-boat while escorting merchant ships. The destroyer was not flying the US ensign at the time and therefore wouldn't have been completely easy for a U-boat to identify as a US ship. At the time it was hit, it was dropping depth chargers on another U-boat, although ironically the U-552 was actually aiming for the merchant ship, which was carrying ammunition, at the time it was hit.
100 sailers were killed in the strike, only 44 survived. The ship sank rapidly.
The event resulted in a notable folk song by Woody Guthrie.
While tragic, the event was another example of the United States really crossing the line on what a neutral could do. The ship wasn't flying the US ensign and it was attempting to sink a U-boat when it was instead sunk itself. Perhaps realizing that this was of a certain type of nature, the American public didn't rush towards war as a result of the sinking, as it likely would have done in 1917.
Guthrie's song was perhaps a natural for him. He was a communist and had been, therefore, an "anti fascist" since the Spanish Civil War days. The US entry into the war would lead him to be concerned about being conscripted into the Army, when the war came, and he actively attempted to receive an assignment through the Army to the USO, and effort which not too surprisingly failed. He then joined the Merchant Marines, which was a role that was actually more dangerous than being a combat infantryman. He served as a Merchant Marine from June 1943 until 1945, when his status as a communist resulted in the government requiring his discharge from that service. In July 1945 he was conscripted into the U.S. Army.
Guthrie's relationship with the Federal Government was an odd one. During the Depression and even after he was commissioned to write songs for the government, and famously wrote a set of songs associated with damming the Columbia River. He was a true musical genius of the folk genre, and while he was openly a communist or communistic,it probably only really shows strongly in one of his songs, the much misunderstood This Land Is Your Land. He died in 1967 at age 55 of Woody Guthrie's Disease. He was the father, of course, of musical legend Arlo Guthrie.
Final drilling took place on the monuments at Mt. Rushmore. This is regarded as the project's completion.
Nazi Germany imposed a heavy "sin tax" on this date in 1941, which it claimed was to reduce consumption of unhealthful products. The tax was on tobacco, hard liquor and champagne.
Health measure or not, by this point in the war the German economy had been overheated for a decade and things were getting worse. The Nazis did legitimately oppose tobacco consumption and were aware of its health dangers in a pioneering manner. Hitler, who had weird dietary views, was a teetotaler but the more likely reason for the tax on hard liquor and champagne was that they needed the money and the production of both resulted in caloric diversions that could have been better invested in other agricultural products. The Nazis did not attempt to take on beer, however.
The photos speak volumes. She's of our age, but not Very plainly dressed and very adult looking.
On this day in 1921, The New York Giants beat the Yankees 13 to 5 in Game 3 of the 1921 World Series.
China responded to a demand from Japan for certain rights in Shantung province with a complete rejection. The demands were based on the Treaty of Versailles transferring German possessions to Japan following World War One, which included port cities in the province. The Chinese were not willing to go along with the treaty on these points, and ultimately their position prevailed.
The same photographer that toured schools in West Virginia took the photos of members of a 4H Club.
On this day in 1971 Congress ratified the 26th Amendment to the United States Constitution which dropped the voting age from 21 to 18.
The Vietnam War, and the increasing involvement of young Americans in protesting it, really caused the change to come about. 18 was the conscription age, which thereby made men that age liable for combat, and there was a widespread feeling that you couldn't really justly ask people to potentially go to their deaths for a country and not let the same people vote in its elections. That logic was pretty solid really, even though as a practical historical fact very few 18 year olds served in Vietnam. That point, while correct, is really irrelevant, however. The larger point, that you could require people to divert from their plans and force them to serve in the military, but they couldn't vote, didn't make a lot of sense and Congress recognized that fact.
Indeed, the voting age was really a carryover from a much older era in which the drafters of the Constitution paternalistically felt that a lot of people couldn't vote as they didn't have the mental maturity before a certain age or, in other instances, because of their gender. Women couldn't vote, originally, at any age. And the feeling in Colonial times that only propertied men could vote was widespread.
Indeed, in English speaking countries the concept that a person became an adult at age 18 was not the norm and is somewhat of an American oddity. Ultimately it came to be the widespread view, but that was in no small part due to World War One. The English, for example, originally viewed 21 years of age as the service age, although it accepted the oddity of allowing parents to enlist their children, without the children agreeing to it, down to about age 13, if I recall correctly. Be that as it may, younger enlistees were not supposed to serve outside of Great Britain, although it occasionally occurred. The Great War changed all that.
The United States really started off with this view, which reflected, to some degree, its origin as an agrarian nation. Contrary to widespread believe, youthful marriage was not an American norm and early in the country's history a man of 18 or 19 was most probably working on his parent's farm, or perhaps apprenticed to a nearby tradesman. He wasn't out on his own, normally, and he wasn't in the Army, which was so small as to be nearly nonexistent, as we covered here the other day. That started to increasingly change with industrialization and when the formal public school system became universal by the 20th Century the distinct concept of a person graduating from high school and into the adult world arrived.
By and large, however, people usually didn't. Most 18 year olds who graduated, which was a minority of men well into the 20th Century, still went into nearby work and they weren't setting up their own households. The real separation of generations, as noted, began with World War One. Following that, the Roaring Twenties briefly started what the 1960s would more fully develop, which was the concept of leaving home to go to university. The Depression put an end to the Jazz Age abruptly, but World War Two massively introduced the idea that at age 18, you were an adult. It not only did that, it massively separated teenagers from their homes and, if they weren't in the service, many were in university on their way to the service. The war also boosted youthful marriage, briefly, as people rushed into adulthood not knowing how long the war would last.
Coming out of the Second World War the trend continued with the GI Bill and the concept of "graduating from high school and going to college" really set in. My own father was the first in his family to do that (my mother's parents, in contrast, were both university graduates from the 1910s, something extraordinarily unusual at the time). He was somewhat compelled to do so, however, by family pressure and circumstances. My grandfather had died and with him my father's probable future employment. My father's Irish American mother, to whom he was close, had already seen him enter "junior college" and when my grandfather died she wouldn't allow my father to retain a job he'd taken with the Post Office and required him to move on, on the basis that "he was too intelligent" to work the job that he'd been comfortable with. He was a genius, so perhaps her view had merit. We'll deal with that another day.
My father, like many men of his generation, went right from university, where he'd obtained a DDS degree, into the service, in his case the Air Force. After his Air Force service, however, he came back home and was living at home when he met and married my mother. That retained pattern of life remained common as well.
But by the 1960s things were really changing. And Congress followed the change. On this day in 1971, the voting age became 18 years of age. Only nine Congressman and two Senators voted against it.
I recall this actually occurring. In 1971 I was a grade school student and it was the talk of the school. The fact that all of us very young people thought it was a great idea, and that even then we associated it with the Vietnam War, shows to what extent that must have been the view of our parents.
It should be noted that right about this time, although I don't recall exactly when, the Wyoming state legislature dropped the drinking age to 19 years of age. The rationale was exactly the same. Wyoming had only one military base, but the thought was that you really couldn't ask people to go off and fight in Vietnam and tell them they were too young to have a beer. It frankly makes some sense. The neighboring state of South Dakota dropped it to 18. I don't know why Wyoming didn't go that low, but the thought of having people in high school young enough to drink probably had something to do with it. As it was, the drop in the age came to mean that there was almost no drinking age as a practical matter.
Of course, over time, things change in various and interesting ways. The Federal Government came about and ultimately punished states that had dropped their drinking ages with the threat of withholding highway funds, so they all boosted them back up to 21. Wyoming did so only very reluctantly and nearly didn't. In the end, however, it came around. Conscription came to an end with the end of the Vietnam War, although men and women can still enlist at age 18. On base, those in the service could drink at the 1-2-3 clubs by my recollection, irrespective of age and state law, although only 3.2 beer. I don't know if that's still true or not.
The big change, however, is that the older pattern of living, with adult children living at home, has returned in a major way as the post World War Two economy finally ground to a halt in the last quarter of the 20th Century. A matter of constant speculation by the press as a "new" development, it's nothing of the kind, but rather a return to prior days.
On the same day, the crew of the Soviets Soyuz 11 spacecraft were all killed in reentry, a horrible tragedy that I can can also recall being talked about at the time. Interestingly, while we feared the Soviets, the heartache over the disaster was so palatable that I can still feel it, in thinking of it. May God rest the souls of the Cosmonauts who perished so tragically on that day.
Also on this day, the United States Supreme Court found the New York Times publishing of the "Pentagon Papers" to be constitutionally protected by rejecting a Federal government effort at imposing an injunction on it as an unconstitutional instance of illegal prior restraint.
Tribes Want Medals Awarded for Wounded Knee Revoked.
While this isn't a Wyoming item per se, the Battle of Wounded Knee has been noted here before, as its a regional one.
It would likely surprise most readers here that twenty Medals of Honor were awarded to soldiers who participated in the actions at Wounded Knee. The odd thing is that I was under the impression that the Army had rescinded these medals long ago, and I'm not completely certain that they haven't. Having said that, I can't find that they were, so my presumption must have been in error.
To put this in context, the medals that were rescinded, if any were, weren't rescinded because Wounded Knee was a massacre. They were rescinded because they didn't meet the post April 1917 criteria for receiving the award.
The Medal of Honor was first authorized in 1861 by the Navy, not the Army, following the retirement of Gen. Winfield Scott, who was adamantly opposed to the awarding of medals to servicemen, which he regarded as a European practice, not an American one. The award was authorized by Congress that year, at the Navy's request. The Army followed in 1862 in the same fashion. The medals actually vary by appearance, to this day, depending upon which service issues them, and they've varied somewhat in design over time.
During the Civil War the award was generally issued for extraordinary heroism, but not necessarily of the same degree for which it is today. Because of this, a fairly large number of Medals of Honor were conferred after the Civil War to servicemen who retroactively sought them, so awards continued for Civil War service for decades following the war. New awards were also issued, of course, for acts of heroism in the remaining decades of the 19th Century, with Army awards usually being related to service in the Indian Wars. Navy awards, in contrast, tended to be issued for heroic acts in lifesaving, a non combat issuance of the award that could not occur today. Indeed, a fairly large number were issued to sailors who went over the sides of ships to save the lives, or attempt to, of drowning individuals, often with tragic results to the sailors.
At any rate, the period following the war and the method by which it was retroactively issued may have acclimated the Army to issuing awards as there are a surprising number of them that were issued for frontier battles. This does not mean that there were not genuine acts of heroism that took place in those battles, it's just surprising how many there were and its clear that the criteria was substantially lower than that which would apply for most of the 20th Century.
Indeed, in the 20th Century the Army began to significantly tighten up requirements to hold the medal. This came into full fruition during World War One during which the Army made it plain that it was only a combat medal, while the Navy continued to issue the medal for peacetime heroism. In 1917 the Army took the position that the medal could only be issued for combat acts of heroism at the risk of life to the recipient, and in 1918 that change became official. Prior to the 1918 change the Army commissioned a review board on past issuance of the medal and struck 911 instances of them having been issued. I'd thought the Wounded Knee medals had been stricken, but my presumption must be in error.
Frontier era Medals of Honor, as well as those issued to Civil War era soldiers after the Civil War, tend to be remarkably lacking in information as to why they were conferred. This has presented a problem for the Army looking back on them in general.
Indeed, the Wounded Knee medals have this character. They don't say much, and what they do say isn't all that useful to really know much about what lead them to be awarded. There is a peculiar aspect to them, however, in that they don't reflect what we generally know about the battle historically.
Wikipedia has summarized the twenty awards and what they were awarded for, and this illustrates this problem. The Wounded Knee Wikipedia page summarizes this as follows
· Sergeant William Austin, cavalry, directed fire at Indians in ravine at Wounded Knee;
· Private Mosheim Feaster, cavalry, extraordinary gallantry at Wounded Knee;
· Private Mathew Hamilton, cavalry, bravery in action at Wounded Knee;
· Private Joshua Hartzog, artillery, rescuing commanding officer who was wounded and carried him out of range of hostile guns at Wounded Knee;
· Private Marvin Hillock, cavalry, distinguished bravery at Wounded Knee;
· Sergeant Bernhard Jetter, cavalry, distinguished bravery at Wounded Knee for "killing an Indian who was in the act of killing a wounded man of B Troop."
· Sergeant George Loyd, cavalry, bravery, especially after having been severely wounded through the lung at Wounded Knee;
· Sergeant Albert McMillain, cavalry, while engaged with Indians concealed in a ravine, he assisted the men on the skirmish line, directed their fire, encouraged them by example, and used every effort to dislodge the enemy at Wounded Knee;
· Private Thomas Sullivan, cavalry, conspicuous bravery in action against Indians concealed in a ravine at Wounded Knee;
· First Sergeant Jacob Trautman, cavalry, killed a hostile Indian at close quarters, and, although entitled to retirement from service, remained to close of the campaign at Wounded Knee;
· Sergeant James Ward, cavalry, continued to fight after being severely wounded at Wounded Knee;
· Corporal William Wilson, cavalry, bravery in Sioux Campaign, 1890;
· Private Hermann Ziegner, cavalry, conspicuous bravery at Wounded Knee;
· Musician John Clancy, artillery, twice voluntarily rescued wounded comrades under fire of the enemy;
· Lieutenant Ernest Garlington, cavalry, distinguished gallantry;
· First Lieutenant John Chowning Gresham, cavalry, voluntarily led a party into a ravine to dislodge Sioux Indians concealed therein. He was wounded during this action.
· Second Lieutenant Harry Hawthorne, artillery, distinguished conduct in battle with hostile Indians;
· Private George Hobday, cavalry, conspicuous and gallant conduct in battle;
· First Sergeant Frederick Toy, cavalry, bravery;
· Corporal Paul Weinert, artillery, taking the place of his commanding officer who had fallen severely wounded, he gallantly served his piece, after each fire advancing it to a better position
For quite a few of these, we're left without a clue as to what the basis of the award was, at least based on this summation. But for some, it would suggest a pitched real battle. A couple of the awards are for rescuing wounded comrades under fire. Others are for combat actions that we can recognize.
Indeed, one historian that I know, and probably only because I know him, has noted the citations in support for "it was a real battle", taking the controversial, albeit private, position that Wounded Knee was a real, pitched, engagement, not simply a slaughter. This isn't the popular view at all, of course, and its frankly not all that well supported by the evidence either. But what of that evidence.
A popular thesis that's sometimes presented is that Wounded Knee was the 7th Cavalry's revenge for the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Perhaps this is so, but if it is so, it's would be somewhat odd in that it would presume an institutional desire for revenge rather than a personal one, for the most part. Wounded Knee was twenty four years after Little Big Horn and most of the men who had served at Little Big Horn were long since out of the service. Indeed, some of the men who received awards would have been two young for service in 1890, and while I haven't looked up all of their biographies, some of them were not likely to have even been born at the time. Maybe revenge was it, but if that's the case, it would demonstrate a 19th Century retention of institutional memories that vastly exceed the 20th and 21st Century ones. Of course, the 7th Cavalry remains famous to this day for Little Big Horn, so perhaps that indeed is it.
Or perhaps what it reflects is that things went badly wrong at Wounded Knee and the massacre became a massively one sided battle featuring a slaughter, something that the Sioux on location would have been well within their rights to engage in. That is, once the things went wrong and the Army overreacted, as it certainly is well established that it did, the Sioux with recourse to arms would have been justified in acting in self defense. That there were some actions in self defense which would have had the character of combat doesn't mean it wasn't combat.
And that raises the sticky moral issues of the Congressional efforts to rescind the medals. Some of these medals are so poorly supported that the Army could likely simply rescind them on their own, as they have many others, and indeed, I thought they had. Some seem quite unlikely to meet the modern criteria for the medal no matter what, and therefore under the practices established in 1917, they could be rescinded even if they were regarded as heroic at the time. Cpl. Weinert's for example, unless there was more to it, would probably just merit a letter of commendation today.
Indeed, save for two examples that reference rescuing wounded comrades, I don't know that any of these would meet the modern criteria. They don't appear to. So once again, most of these would appear to be subject to proper unilateral Army downgrading or rescission all on their own with no Congressional action.
But what of Congressional action, which has been proposed. The Army hasn't rescinded these awards and they certainly stand out as awards that should receive attention. If Congress is to act, the best act likely would be to require the Army to review overall its pre 1917 awards once again. If over 900 were weeded out the first time, at least a few would be today, and I suspect all of these would.
To simply rescind them, however, is problematic, as it will tend to be based neither on the criteria for award today, or the criteria of the award in 1890, but on the gigantic moral problem that is the Battle of Wounded Knee itself. That is, these awards are proposed to be removed as we regard Wounded Knee as a genocidal act over all, which it does indeed appear to be.
The problem with that is that even if it is a genocidal act in chief, individual acts during it may or may not be. So, rushing forwards to rescue a wounded comrade might truly be heroic, even if done in the middle of an act of barbarism. Other acts, such as simply shooting somebody, would seem to be participating in that barbarism, but here too you still have the situation of individual soldiers suddenly committed to action and not, in every instance, knowing what is going on. It's now too late to know in most cases. Were they acting like William Calley or just as a regular confused soldier?
Indeed, if medals can be stricken because we now abhor what they were fighting for (and in regard to Wounded Knee, it was questioned nearly immediately, which may be why the Army felt compelled to issue medals to those participating in it, to suggest it was a battle more than it was), what do we do with other problematic wars?
Eighty six men, for example, received the Medal of Honor for the Philippine Insurrection. In retrospect, that was a pure colonial war we'd not condone in any fashion today, and it was controversial at the time. Theodore Roosevelt very belatedly received the Medal of Honor for leading the 1st U.S. Volunteer Cavalry up Kettle Hill during the Spanish American War, and he no doubt met the modern criterial, but the Spanish American War itself is morally dubious at best.
Of course, none of these awards are associated with an act of genocide, which takes us back to Wounded Knee. As noted above, maybe so many awards were issued there as the Army wanted to to convert a massacre into a battle, and conferring awards for bravery was a way to attempt to do that.
Certainly the number of awards for Wounded Knee is very outsized. It's been noted that as many awards have been issued for heroism at Wounded Knee as have been for some gigantic Civil War battles. Was the Army really more heroic at Wounded Knee than Antietam? That seems unlikely.
Anyway a person looks at it, this is one of those topics that it seems clear would be best served by Army action. The Army has looked at the topic of pre 1917 awards before, and it removed a fair number of them. There's no reason that it can't do so again. It was regarded as harsh the last time it occurred, and some will complain now as well, but the Army simply did it last time. That would honor the medal and acknowledge the history, and it really shouldn't be confined to just Wounded Knee.
