General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsNever Forget Wounded Knee. Remove the Medals!
Petition at: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/12-20-1890/
RC
(25,592 posts)By murdering the original inhabitants and otherwise treating them like animals.
Demoiselle
(6,787 posts)The killing was horrible enough, but MEDALS?!!
How awful. Thank you. I'm going to have to do some serious studying, I think.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Sort of like how Little Bighorn was a "massacre"
Brigid
(17,621 posts)All I can say to that is
K.O. Stradivarius
(115 posts)the standards and criteria for receiving it were much lower.
Example: "While the Medal of Honor is now the highest military decoration attainable by a member of the United States armed forces, during the Civil War, it was the only one. Thus, it was often awarded for reasons that would not now satisfy the stringent modern criteria. For example, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton promised a Medal of Honor to every man in the 27th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment who extended his enlistment. 311 accepted, but because there was no official list of their names, the War Department issued 864 - one for each man in the unit. In 1916, a board consisting of five retired generals reviewed Army awards and recommended that these 864, as well as others, be revoked".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_American_Civil_War_Medal_of_Honor_recipients
3463 recipients from it's inception to present.
The Civil War (1522), and Indian War Campaigns (424) combined account for more than half (1,946).
Whereas in WW-I (119) and WW-II (467), saw a marked decrease despite the extent of the conflicts.
http://www.cmohs.org/medal-statistics.php
Demoiselle
(6,787 posts)ismnotwasm
(41,982 posts)Thank you for reminding us--we need to remember
OmahaBlueDog
(10,000 posts)OmahaBlueDog
(10,000 posts)123 years ago, this happened
The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment arrived, led by Colonel James W. Forsyth and surrounded the encampment supported by four Hotchkiss guns.[5]
On the morning of December 29, the troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota. One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it.[6] A scuffle over Black Coyote's rifle escalated and a shot was fired which resulted in the 7th Cavalry's opening fire indiscriminately from all sides, killing men, women, and children, as well as some of their own fellow soldiers. Those few Lakota warriors who still had weapons began shooting back at the attacking soldiers, who quickly suppressed the Lakota fire. The surviving Lakota fled, but U.S. cavalrymen pursued and killed many who were unarmed.
By the time it was over, at least 150 men, women, and children of the Lakota had been killed and 51 wounded (4 men, 47 women and children, some of whom died later); some estimates placed the number of dead at 300.[3] Twenty-five soldiers also died, and 39 were wounded (6 of the wounded would later die).[7] At least twenty soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor.[8] In 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions condemning the awards and called on the U.S. government to rescind them.[9] The site of the massacre has been designated a National Historic Landmark.[4]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wounded_Knee_Massacre
For this, twenty "Medals of Honor" were awarded.