Commentary: Please erase these 20 Medals of Honor from the records

[unhappycamper]

Commentary: Please erase these 20 Medals of Honor from the records
By Tim Giago (Nanwica Kciji) | Native Sun News
Posted on Tuesday, January 19, 2010

The U.S. Army has a flag with battle streamers that it breaks out for important parades and celebrations. One streamer is inscribed, "Pine Ridge 1890 — 1891." The battle streamer refers to the campaign that occurred on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota from November 1890 to January 1891.

The Pine Ridge battle steamer boasts the highest number of Medals of Honor ever issued by the Army for any engagement. Twenty Medals of Honor were issued for this single action, more than for D-Day, Battle of the Bulge or for Iwo Jima.

Because so many Medals of Honor were issued for this so-called battle the Lakota have always referred to as a "massacre," it would take a veritable act of Congress or action by the president to remove this streamer from the flags of the U.S. Army.

The question asked by all American Indians is, "How can Medals of Honor, this nation's highest military award, be handed out to 20 troopers for taking part in the most wanton slaughter of innocents in the history of America?"

More than 200 women and children along with more than 90, mostly unarmed, Lakota warriors were shot to death. Some historians and nearly all Lakota say that the number of people slaughtered on that day of infamy, Dec. 29, 1890, was closer to 350.


Rest of article at: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/350/story/82582.html

[Vidar]

1. K&R.

[ima_sinnic]

2. K&R

[Rebubula]

3. Thanks for posting

Very sad story...these medals need to be rescinded.