Leaving Badlands National Park, we were driving south towards Nebraska. Close to the state line of SD and NE, there is a historic site for Wounded Knee Massacre. Instead of nicely-built visitor center in most of National Park Services, there were two Indian people standing under a small pavillion made of few pieces of wood. They showed us pictures and newspapers regarding the massacre.
It was the last massacre in American Indian wars, taking place on Dec. 29th, 1890. About 350 half starved tribe people traveled along nowadays Badlands National park area and gathered at Pine Ridge Reservations for Ghost Dance, a religious ceremony. From some reason still unclear, the U.S. troops opened fire and killed more than half of the tribe people, half of which is women and children. The leader, Wounded Knee was injured and captured. The Dept. of Interior had an short article written on a very simple board on the side of the road with a title as"Battle of Wounded Knee". After the protest of tribe people, they finally changed the "Battle" to "Massacre".
The Indian people working there talked to us for a quite long time, describing the sufferings of the tribe people both in history and the currency. The Lakota Tribe, along with another tribe in Minnesota, are only two reservations having Kingdom system. That is to say, they are two seperate countries from the U.S. although they have the U.S. passports. People living in the reservation are very poor. Kids don't get enough education and have a very high suicide rate. I asked them if they keep connections with other Indian reservations. They said No. It seems there are some problems with their own systems - for example, the previous King was voted out for several times but refused to step down. The U.S. government finally made him leave the position. When we left to take a look at the massacre monument, they said " Thanks for listening".
Leaving Lakota reservation, we noticed there was another similar board on the side of the road. It describes how Crazy Horse, another famous leader of an Indian Tribe, was murdered by the U.S. troop. Interestingly, on the way to mountain Rushmore, we had noticed there is an unfinished monument of Crazy Horse. They were and are being bulit by tribe people with limited money and sources.
That night we stayed in Scottsbluff, NE. It is one of biggest cities in Nebraska, but still quite small. Although there is not one National Park in Nebraska, it is famous for several important historical trails: Oregon trail, California trail, Lewis and Clark trail, Mormon pioneer trail and Pony express trail. Scotts Bluff National Monument is right in the middle of Oregon trail. There are still a lot of geographical marks everywhere. We took a hike up in the bluff before heading back to Denver. It was sunny, warm and it is amazing that thousands of people had passed this 2000 mile trail without a car in order to seek a better life.
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