It really is a tragedy. More important than a weiner

[MyrnaLoy]

I'm watching Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee right now and while Hollywood wants to tell some sort of truth they fail to cover a very important aspect of the story. With just a 2 minute mention of the Ghost Dance this show misses the opportunity to tell a little known, but very important part of the massacre.

Before the shooting, Mormons set up what is known as "endowment centers" around the reservation. These centers gave out the garments used to "protect" those who wore them. One woman, wounded in a nearby church said to the doctor who asked to remove her garment,"take it! They said it would protect me and it did nothing." Who were "they"? Who else wears a "protective" garment? Recently I saw one of the original garments. It was painted white with a large red cross, it may as well have been a target.

How did the Ghost Dance and the Mormons meet? The Indian "prophet" Wovoka, also known as Jack Wilson had a vision. Notice the words used, "prophet" "vision"? Jack Wilson, an Indian had been taken in by Mormons and trained in their ways. One of which is the theory that the "Indians will become white if we live among them."

I've written extensively on this and have studied what is considered to be the primary source on the Ghost Dance and Wounded knee. It is a little known report from James Mooney, the American Ethnographer, who was sent to study the dance and the massacre. He was one of the first government investigators on the scene after the shooting. It is long, it is dry, it is a government report. More importantly it is the truth. After almost 120 years why do we continue to cover-up this Mormon involvement?

It is time the truth is known. Amazon has Mooney's report for sale, it's called, The Ghost Dance Religion and Wounded Knee. In it there are 100's of references to the Endowment Centers, the Mormons, and the prophet Wovoka. Mooney also indicates that the Mormons actually instigated the entire Wounded Knee uprising.

I'll leave you with one line from Mormon doctrine of the period. "Go out and live with them {Indians}, when you do they will become white!"

Isn't it time to expose this nonsense? If you are a member of the Mormon faith you should want all these truths known. I urge you to study this story and the actual facts, as a historian I search for those truths.

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. "the Mormons actually instigated the entire Wounded Knee uprising" seems to be your one point

The rest just seems to be that the Mormons had missionaries. That is not news, to put it mildly.

Can you expand on what you mean by the Mormons instigating the uprising? I wasn't aware it actually was an 'uprising'.

[MyrnaLoy]

2. actually

there was quite a bit of "white" push back and rabble rousing. The communities around the reservation contained a large Mormon population. These "missionaries" you speak of gave endowment garments to the Indians promising them that, "the soldiers bullets will not harm you." Without the promise from these missionaries would the Indians have let themselves be slaughtered?

I suggest Mooney's book.