Wounded Knee III

Wounded Knee III memorializes the Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890 on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, a battle in which more than 150 of the men, women, and children of the Lakota were killed by the 7th Cavalry of the U.S. Army. Arthur Amiotte was born on the Oglala Lakota reservation in Pine Ridge. His great-grandfather Standing Bear lost his wife and baby daughter in the massacre. Through collage, Amiotte tells the story of Wounded Knee: the events that led up to it, the leaders of the Native American resistance, and how it has been subsequently remembered. Note the images of the Ghost Dancers woven through the composition, recalling the Native American Ghost Dance religion that was based in the memory of the Lakota’s glorious past.