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How the US stole thousands of Native American children

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How the radio transmitter gave us the BBC

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How the radio transmitter gave us the BBC

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How the radio transmitter gave us the BBC I The Information Age Episode 3

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Anglais lycée : savoir utiliser le style direct pour rapporter des paroles

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A giant': what other countries make of the BBC and how their media compare

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A giant': what other countries make of the BBC and how their media compare

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France

The BBC is widely admired in France and frequently cited by politicians as a model of public service broadcasting. News of its director general's early departure was reported with concern.

Le Monde said Tony Hall's announcement came at an awkward time: the BBC was losing viewers to Netflix and other commercial streaming services, under attack "from all sides" for its Brexit coverage and had heard the prime minister publicly question the continued existence of its licence fee.

"The corporation's central role in British life is being eroded," the paper said. "It is becoming harder to defending a licence fee paid by all. Of course, the BBC remains a giant. Some phenomenal successes still bring the nation together. But Hall's successor must prepare for a serious fight."

France's public TV and radio are being reformed to create what Emmanuel Macron in his 2017 election campaign called "une BBC à la française" - essentially, bundling all the country's public TV and radio stations into one group in search of professional synergies and financial savings.

More than 80% of public broadcasting costs in France are covered by the redevance, or TV licence, which costs €138 a year, with the rest coming from advertising and some direct state funding. Only households with a TV set have to pay the redevance,but this is set to change in 2020 to reflect modern viewing habits, possibly by the introduction of a lower but universal fee. Jon Henley

Italy

Italians generally see the BBC as a model to be imitated, but it is a judgment based on reputation rather than on any real knowledge of British TV programmes. Italy has one of the lowest levels of English-language fluency in Europe and while some BBC programmes are visible on Italian satellite televisions, they are watched by only a small part of the population.

The Italian equivalent of the BBC is the broadcaster Rai, which is owned by the finance ministry. In the years after the second world war, RAI's early programming was influenced by the Reithian values of the BBC and its educational approach. It aired travel programmes for people who could not afford to travel abroad and it proposed the BBC model of an independent public broadcaster for itself.

However, Rai has often been at the centre of controversies over its political independence owing to its proximity to the government. Most recently, in 2018, the coalition government of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and far-right League oversaw the appointment of a Eurosceptic journalist known for anti-gay, anti-immigration, anti-vaccine and pro-Russia views as Rai's president.

Marcello Foa remains in the role despite the fall of the government in August last year, and this week one of Rai's most popular political shows, Porta a Porta, sparked criticism after giving the League leader, Matteo Salvini, a solo slot during the half-time break in a Juventus-Roma Italian Cup football match for him to pitch to voters why they should back his party in key regional elections in Emilia Romagna on Sunday. Lorenzo Tondo

US

Most Americans who know the BBC know it through its shows, consumed via BBC America or according to what Netflix and Amazon buy in. Costume dramas are forever huge, The Great British Bake-Off inspires serious coverage, and devotees of Veep can quote Malcolm Tucker verbatim.

But most will not be aware of rising concern in Britain over the fate of the BBC itself. The notion of a powerful state broadcaster - anguish about Fox News under Donald Trump aside - remains distinctly alien.

There is a BBC equivalent in the US. Not C-Span, a nonprofit that provides barebones politics coverage, but the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio, established under Lyndon Johnson in 1967, together serving the young, the less well-off and liberals, most of them ageing, on the coasts and in college towns between.

Programming - think Sesame Street or Ken Burns on Vietnam - is authoritative, rigorous and vital. PBS and NPR score highly in surveys about public trust. But they do sometimes find themselves under fire and usually it's because of money. PBS and NPR rely on donations as well as federal cash but during the 2012 election, for example, Mitt Romney said he would stop PBS's subsidy. "I like PBS," the Republican said. "I love Big Bird ... but I'm not going to keep on spending money on things to borrow money from China to pay for it."

Romney lost the White House race to Barack Obama, his threat to a beloved PBS character a big yellow albatross around his neck. Such threats - from Trump too - prompt reliable outcry. But funding remains inadequate and in 2015 even Sesame Street decamped, to be made by HBO. Martin Pengelly

Australia

Australians are well aware they adopted the public broadcasting model of the BBC to form the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a much-loved institution that plays a vital role in the political and cultural life of the nation.

ABC viewers still enjoy BBC productions such as Call the Midwife and Doctor Who, but over the years the BBC content from the UK has shifted to the commercial broadcasters due to rising costs and shrinking budgets.

Formed in 1932 with the launch of a single radio service, the ABC is now a multi-platform media operation with television, radio, digital, international and emergency broadcasting functions, that latter of which has received overwhelming praise during the recent bushfire emergency.

The ABC charter is set down by parliament and requires the corporation to provide informative, entertaining and educational services that reflect the breadth of the nation. What that encompasses is frequently disputed, especially by the Murdoch press.

Australians have not one but two publicly funded broadcasters. A multicultural broadcaster, SBS, has only one-tenth of the ABC's budget and has been allowed to receive some revenue from limited advertising since 2005.

The difference between the BBC and the ABC is in the funding model. Since 1989, the ABC has been wholly funded by a three-year budget commitment known as the triennial funding system. This cycle has provided $3.16bn.

However, the ABC has been historically subjected to budget cuts, mainly from conservative governments, and it is trying to manage cuts of $84m over three years imposed by the Coalition.

The ABC serves a population one-third the size of the UK and does it with a budget one-eighth that of the BBC. Amanda Meade

Russia

The longstanding editor-in-chief of Russia Today, Margarita Simonyan, likes to compare her channel to the BBC, suggesting that the BBC's global mission is to project British soft power, while her own channel naturally boosts the Kremlin's line. When RT was censured by Ofcom for impartiality violations, the Russian government announced similar checks on the BBC.

There is a tiny kernel of truth in this comparison: in 2015, a government defence review boosted funding to the BBC's Russian operations as part of an overarching plan "to promote our values and interests". But the "soft power" mission of the BBC is very different to the blunt use of Russia Today and other Russian state outlets, which are obliged to follow the Kremlin line on issues such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine or the poisoning of Sergei Skripal. Whatever problems the BBC may have, any neutral observer who spends time comparing the two outlets will see how disingenuous the comparison is.

The BBC's well-staffed Russian-language service is one of a few remaining large-scale independent news outlets in Russia, which often irritates the authorities. This week, when a BBC Russian reporter asked the speaker of Russia's Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin, a tricky question about whether planned constitutional changes were democratic, Volodin responded with a semi-coherent monologue in which he repeatedly mentioned that the reporter was working for a foreign state. Shaun Walker

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'A giant': what other countries make of the BBC and how their media compare

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The BBC is widely admired in France and frequently cited by politicians as a model of public service broadcasting. News of its director general's early departure was reported with concern.

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Meeting Point Terminale - Album inconnu (26/09/2012 12:36:25)

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A rendre sur feuille noté pour tous Creating a new app  

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A rendre sur feuille noté pour tous Creating a new app  

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Women in the 60s: Taking Back the Spotlight

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The Swinging Sixties de la minute 00:00 à 2:10

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The Swinging Sixties de la minute 00:00 à 2:10

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Swinging Britain in the 60s: A Psychedelic Dream (1967) | British Pathé

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FUN ! CHECK YOUR GRAMMAR their ? there? or they're 

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FUN ! CHECK YOUR GRAMMAR their ? there? or they're 

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What Is the Difference between "There," "Their," and "They're"?

"There," "their," and "they're" are easy to confuse because they sound identical.

"There" is a place. For example:

I live there.

There are lots of shops.
("There" is like "here.")

"Their" is for possession. For example:

I understand their argument. ("Their" is just like "my," "his," "her," and "our.")

"They're" is short for "they are." For example:

Where are the rabbits? They're near the tree.

Infographic for "There," "Their," and "They're"

Here is an infographic explaining the difference between "there," "their," and "they're":

More about "They're," "Their," and "There"

"There," "their," and "they're" are common words, and your readers will expect you to use the right one. A mistake involving one of these is a serious risk to your credibility as a writer.

They're

"They're" is a contraction of "they are."

Example sentences with "they're":

They're not leaving on Saturday now.

I cannot believe they're from Boston.

More than 20 people left they're coats in the cloakroom.
(Test: "More than 20 people left they are coats in the cloakroom." This is nonsense. Therefore, "they're" is wrong.)

Making a there/their/they're mistake can undermine your credibility. How would you react to this office sign? (It should be "their" not "they're.")

My doctor gave me two weeks to live. I hope they're in August. (Comedian Ronnie Shakes)

Things are only impossible until they're not. (Captain Jean-Luc Picard)
(Test: "Things are only impossible until they are not.")

Top Tip

Only use "they're" if you can substitute it with "they are."

Understand the grammar.

"They're" is a contraction. There are two types of contraction:

A shortened version of a word (e.g., "cannot" contracts to "can't")

One word formed from two words (e.g., "they are" contracts to "they're")

Both types of contraction feature apostrophes. In the contraction "they're," the apostrophe replaces the letter "a" and the two words are merged into one.)

Their

"Their" is for possession. It is like "my," "your," "his," "her," "its," and "our." These are called possessive determiners ("possessive adjectives" in traditional grammar).

Top Trick (Use The "Our" Test)

Here is a little trick to test whether "their" is correct:

Use the word "our" instead of "their." If the sentence still makes sense, then "their" is correct. This trick works because "our" and "their" are both possessive determiners used for plurals.

Example sentences with "their":

Can you show the guests to their cabins?

This sounds okay. Therefore, "their" is correct.)
I have seen their footprints before.
(Test: "I have seen our footprints before."
This sounds okay. Therefore, "their" is correct.)
Their all leaving.
(Test: "Our all leaving."
This is nonsense. Therefore, "their" is wrong. It should be "They're.")
Their less likely to cause offence.
(Test: "Our less likely to cause offence."
This is nonsense. Therefore, "their" is wrong. It should be "They're.")
Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes. (Playwright Oscar Wilde)

There

"There" is like "here" because it represents a place. ("There" and "here" are adverbs of place.)

"There" has two uses:

(1) It means a specific place.

She is there.
(2) It means that something exists.

There are two apples.

More example sentences with "there":

The Germans are over there.

There is a good reason I'm not attending the party this year.
(In this example, it means "a good reason exists.")

Ready for All 3?

Here is an example with "they're," "their," and "there."

They're unqualified, and their opinions were worthless while they were there.

A Video Summary

Here is a 5-minute video summarizing this lesson on "there," "their," and "they're."

Ready for the Test?

Technical Help

Grammarly's app will help with:

(1) Avoiding spelling errors
(2) Correcting grammar errors
(3) Finding better words

(This free browser extension works with webmail, social media, and texting apps as well as online forms and Microsoft Office documents, like Word and Teams.)

download the app

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"There," "their," and "they're" are easy to confuse because they sound identical. "There" is a place. For example: I live there. There are lots of shops. ("There" is like "here.") "Their" is for possession. For example: I understand their argument. ("Their" is just like "my," "his," "her," and "our.") "They're" is short for "they are."

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Search...

Using "An" and "A"
There is sometimes confusion about whether to use "an" or "a," particularly with abbreviations. (The words "an" and "a" are known as articles.)

The sound of a word's first letter determines whether to use "an" or "a." If the word starts with avowel sound, you should use "an." If it starts with a consonant sound, you should use "a." For example:

Buy a house in an hour.

An unknown goblin killed a unicorn.
(Although "unknown" and "unicorn" start with the same two letters ("un"), one attracts "an" and the other "a." Remember that it is the sound of the first letter that determines whether to use "an" or "a.")
Here are some examples with abbreviations and acronyms (i.e., abbreviations spoken like words).

An LRS

A TT race

It would be a honor.

Send an US ambassador.

She was involved in a RTA.
(RTA = Road Traffic Accident)
(The abbreviation "RTA" starts with an "a" sound (i.e., "ar-tee-ay.")

Beware of Abbreviations
Abbreviations that start with the consonants F, H, L, M, N, R, S, and X attract "an" because they start with vowel sounds. For example:

An FRS representative will be present after lunch.

A LF transmitter was found in the basement.
(LF = Low Frequency)

Beware the Letter U
Abbreviations that start with the vowel U attract "a" because U starts with the consonant sound "y." For example:

A US ship spotted a U-boat.

An UFO landed in 1967.

Treat Acronyms Like Words Not Abbreviations
An acronym is an abbreviation that is spoken like a word (e.g., BUPA, FOD, FEDEX). Therefore, as the first sound of FEDEX is "f," use "a" and not "an." For example:

Tim worked in the air industry as a FOD inspector for a year.

Jack was a FEDEX courier.

Read more about acronyms.
An Historical or A Historical?
Letters and sounds do not always correlate in English.

When pronouncing the words "historic" and "historical," the accent falls on the second syllable, and many pronounce them as starting with a vowel. For those people, it is appropriate to use "an" before "historic" and "historical." Therefore, you have a choice depending on what sounds better for you.

There is a lot of leniency on this issue. If you're still unsure, opt for "a historical" and "a historic" as these remain preferable - especially in formal writing.

Read about the difference between "historic" and "historical."

Click on an or a:

See Also
What are vowels? What are consonants? What are articles? What are adjectives? What are abbreviations? What are acronyms?

Free Help

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Use 'an' when the first letter of the word, abbreviation or acronym starts with a vowel sound. Use 'a' when it starts with a consonant sound. The word sound is important. Some abbreviations that start with consonants start with vowel sounds (e.g., RTA, NTU) and vice versa.

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Look at these examples to see how adjectives ending in -ed and -ing are used.

I was really bored in that presentation.
That was a reallyboring presentation.

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

Grammar test 1

Grammar test 1: Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

Read the explanation to learn more.

Grammar explanation

Adjectives that end in -ed (e.g. bored, interested) and adjectives that end in -ing (e.g. boring, interesting) are often confused.

-ed adjectives

Adjectives that end in -ed generally describe emotions - they tell us how people feel.

I was so bored in that lesson, I almost fell asleep.
He was surprised to see Helen after all those years.
She was really tired and went to bed early.

-ing adjectives

Adjectives that end in -ing generally describe the thing that causes the emotion - a boring lesson makes you feel bored.

Have you seen that film? It's really frightening.
I could listen to her for hours. She's so interesting.
I can't sleep! That noise is really annoying!

Here are some adjectives that can have both an -ed and an -ing form.

Do this exercise to test your grammar again.

Grammar test 2

Grammar test 2: Adjectives ending in '-ed' and '-ing'

Language level

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Do you know the difference between bored and boring? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

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The Trail of Tears, painting by Robert Lindneux, 1942

Historical Context

It was US President Andrew Jackson's policy to removing Native Americans from their ancestral lands to make way for settlers and speculators that led to the infamous Trail of Tears in the 1830s.

The Cherokees of Georgia initially tried legal means to resist the policy and actually won their case in the US Supreme Court. However President Jackson refused to acknowledge the judgement and 20,000 were eventually marched west at gunpoint. A quarter of their number would perish on the journey.

Painting Info

Artist: Robert Lindneux
Location painted: Georgia, USA

Source: The Granger Collection, New York

Related Events

US Congress approves Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma), clearing the way for the forced relocation of the Eastern Indian tribes via the "Trail of Tears"

US President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, authorizing the Army to force Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole tribes out of Georgia and surrounding states, setting the stage for the Cherokee Trail of Tears

Treaty of New Echota is signed between the US government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction to cede all lands of the Cherokee east of the Mississippi River to the United States

Georgia gold rush forces the Cherokees to move across the Mississippi River

Cherokee Nation unites and ratifies constitution at Tahlequah, Oklahoma

Related Famous People Historical Paintings

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It was US President Andrew Jackson's policy to removing Native Americans from their ancestral lands to make way for settlers and speculators that led to the infamous Trail of Tears in the 1830s. The Cherokees of Georgia initially tried legal means to resist the policy and actually won their case...

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How the Trail of tears got its name video  Smithonian 

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How the Trail of tears got its name video  Smithonian 

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How the Brutal Trail of Tears Got Its Name

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National Museum of the American Indian ( to learn more .... ) 

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National Museum of the American Indian ( to learn more .... ) 

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NMAI is committed to advancing knowledge and understanding of the Native cultures of the Western Hemisphere through partnership with Native people and others. The museum works to support the continuance of culture, traditional values, and transitions in contemporary Native life.

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Contents

1. Sitting Bull's Early Life

2. Sitting Bull Resists U.S. Government

3. Sitting Bull and The Fort Laramie Treaty

4. The Battle of Little Bighorn

5. Sitting Bull Surrenders

6. Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show

7. Sitting Bull's Death and Burial Site

Sitting Bull (c. 1831-1890) was a Teton Dakota Native American chief who united the Sioux tribes of the American Great Plains against the white settlers taking their tribal land. The 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty granted the sacred Black Hills of South Dakota to the Sioux, but when gold was discovered there in 1874, the U.S. government ignored the treaty and began to remove native tribes from their land by force.

The ensuing Great Sioux Wars culminated in the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn, when Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse led united tribes to victory against General George Armstrong Custer. Sitting Bull was shot and killed by Indian police officers on Standing Rock Indian Reservation in 1890, but is remembered for his courage in defending native lands.

Sitting Bull's Early Life

Library of Congress

Sitting Bull was born in 1831 near Grand River, Dakota Territory in what is today South Dakota. He was the son of Returns-Again, a renowned Sioux warrior who named his son "Jumping Badger" at birth. The young boy killed his first buffalo at age 10 and by 14, joined his father and uncle on a raid of a Crow camp. After the raid, his father renamed him Tatanka Yotanka, or Sitting Bull, for his bravery.

Sitting Bull soon joined the Strong Heart warrior society and the Silent Eaters, a group that ensured the welfare of the tribe. He led the expansion of Sioux hunting grounds into westward territories previously inhabited by the Assiniboine, Crow and Shoshone, among others.

Sitting Bull Resists U.S. Government

Sitting Bull first battled the U.S. Army in June of 1863, when they came after the Santee Sioux (not the Dakota) in retaliation for the Minnesota Uprising, sparked when federal agents withheld food from the Sioux living on reservations along the Minnesota River. Over 300 Sioux were arrested in the Minnesota Uprising, but President Abraham Lincoln commuted the sentences of all but 39 of the accused.

Sitting Bull faced the might of the U.S. military again at the Battle of Killdeer Mountain on July 28, 1864, when U.S. forces under General Alfred Sully surrounded an Indian trading village, eventually forcing the Sioux to retreat. These face-offs convinced Sitting Bull to never sign a treaty that would force his people onto a reservation.

Sitting Bull and The Fort Laramie Treaty

His resolve was not shared by all. In 1868, Red Cloud, or Mahpiua Luta (1822-1909), chief of the Oglala Teton Dakota Sioux, signed the Fort Laramie Treaty with 24 other tribal leaders and representatives of the U.S. government including Lieutenant General William Tecumseh Sherman. The treaty created the Great Sioux Reservation and earmarked additional land for the Sioux in parts of South Dakota, Wyoming and Nebraska.

Sitting Bull's anti-treaty stance won him many followers, and around 1869, he was made supreme leader of the autonomous bands of Lakota Sioux-the first person to ever hold such a title. Members of the Arapaho and Cheyenne tribes soon joined him.

The uneasy peace of the Fort Laramie Treaty was short-lived. In 1874, gold was discovered in the Black Hills, a place sacred to the Sioux and within the boundaries of the Great Sioux Reservation. White settlers seeking their fortunes rushed to claim the land as their own. The U.S. government reneged on the treaty, demanding that any Sioux who dared resist move to the redrawn reservation lines by January 31, 1876 or be considered an enemy of the United States. Sitting Bull was expected to move everyone in his village an impossible 240 miles in the bitter cold.

Defiant, Sitting Bull refused to back down. He mustered a force that included the Arapaho, Cheyenne and Sioux and faced off against General George Crook on June 17, 1876, winning victory in the Battle of the Rosebud. From there, his forces moved to the valley of the Little Bighorn River.

The Battle of Little Bighorn

It was in a camp at Little Bighorn River that Sitting Bull, then a revered leader and holy man, or "Wichasa Wakan," participated in a Sun Dance ceremony where he famously danced for 36 hours straight, making 50 sacrificial cuts on each arm before falling into a trance. When he awoke, he revealed that he had a vision of U.S. soldiers falling like grasshoppers from the sky, which he interpreted as an omen that the army would soon be defeated.

On June 25, 600 men under the leadership of General George Custer, a West Point graduate, entered the valley. Sitting Bull ensured the women and children of the tribe were safe while Crazy Horse (c.1840-77) led over 3,000 Native Americans to victory in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, overwhelming Custer's smaller force of 300. Custer and every single one of his men were killed in what came to be known as Custer's Last Stand.

Sitting Bull Surrenders

In the wake of The Battle of Little Bighorn, the incensed U.S. government redoubled their efforts to hunt down the Sioux. At the same time, the encroachment of white settlers on traditionally Indian lands greatly reduced the buffalo population that the Sioux depended on for survival. In May 1877, Sitting Bull led his people to safety in Canada.

With food and resources scarce, Sitting Bull surrendered to the U.S. Army on July 20, 1881 in exchange for amnesty for his people. He was a prisoner of war in South Dakota's Fort Randall for two years before being moved to Standing Rock Reservation.

Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show

Library of Congress

Sitting Bull was occasionally permitted to travel, and it was on one of his trips outside the reservation that he struck up a friendship with sharpshooter Annie Oakley, whom he affectionately nicknamed "Little Sure Shot" after seeing her perform in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1884.

In 1885, Sitting Bull joined Oakley in performing in Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show. Buffalo Bill was by then a celebrity with a storied past straight out of a Western: He'd rode horses for the Pony Express, fought in the American Civil War and served as a scout for the Army.

Sitting Bull rode in the show's opening act, signed autographs and even met President Grover Cleveland, though he could also be mocked and booed onstage. He left the show in October at age 54 and never returned.

Sitting Bull's Death and Burial Site

Standing Rock Reservation soon became the center of controversy when the Ghost Dance Movement started gaining traction. Followers believed that deceased tribe members would rise from the dead along with killed buffalo while all white people would disappear. Worried that the influential Sitting Bull would join the movement and incite rebellion, Indian police advanced on his cabin to arrest him.

On December 15, 1890, Indian police woke the sleeping Sitting Bull in his bed at 6 a.m. When he refused to go quietly, a crowd gathered. A young man shot a member of the Indian police, who retaliated by shooting Sitting Bull in the head and chest. Sitting Bull died instantly from the gunshot wounds. Two weeks after his death, the army massacred 150 Sioux at Wounded Knee, the final fight between federal troops and the Sioux.

Sitting Bull was buried at Fort Yates Military Cemetery in North Dakota by the army. In 1953, family members exhumed what they thought was Sitting Bull's grave and reburied the bones they found near Mobridge, South Dakota, overlooking the Missouri River.

Sources:

Sitting Bull. Biography.com.
New Perspectives on The West: Sitting Bull. PBS.
Sitting Bull. NPS.gov.
Sitting Bull, Buffalo Bill And The Circus of Lies. The Independent.
The Native American Ghost Dance, A Symbol of Defiance. ThoughtCo.
Last Stand to Save Grave of Sitting Bull. The Telegraph.

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Sitting Bull's Early Life Sitting Bull Resists U.S. Government Sitting Bull and The Fort Laramie Treaty The Battle of Little Bighorn Sitting Bull Surrenders Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill Cody's Wild West Show Sitting Bull's Death and Burial Site Sitting Bull (c.

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Table of Contents

1. Battle of the Little Bighorn: Mounting Tensions

2. Battle of the Little Bighorn: Custer's Last Stand

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, fought on June 25, 1876, near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory, pitted federal troops led by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer (1839-76) against a band of Lakota Sioux and Cheyenne warriors. Tensions between the two groups had been rising since the discovery of gold on Native American lands. When a number of tribes missed a federal deadline to move to reservations, the U.S. Army, including Custer and his 7th Cavalry, was dispatched to confront them. Custer was unaware of the number of Indians fighting under the command of Sitting Bull (c.1831-90) at Little Bighorn, and his forces were outnumbered and quickly overwhelmed in what became known as Custer's Last Stand.

Battle of the Little Bighorn: Mounting Tensions

Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse (c.1840-77), leaders of the Sioux on the Great Plains, strongly resisted the mid-19th-century efforts of the U.S. government to confine their people to Indian reservations. In 1875, after gold was discovered in South Dakota's Black Hills, the U.S. Army ignored previous treaty agreements and invaded the region. This betrayal led many Sioux and Cheyenne tribesmen to leave their reservations and join Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse in Montana. By the late spring of 1876, more than 10,000 Native Americans had gathered in a camp along the Little Bighorn River-which they called the Greasy Grass-in defiance of a U.S. War Department order to return to their reservations or risk being attacked.

Did you know? Several members of George Armstrong Custer's family were also killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, including two of his brothers, his brother-in-law and a nephew.

In mid-June, three columns of U.S. soldiers lined up against the camp and prepared to march. A force of 1,200 Native Americans turned back the first column on June 17. Five days later, General Alfred Terry ordered George Custer's 7th Cavalry to scout ahead for enemy troops. On the morning of June 25, Custer, a West Point graduate, drew near the camp and decided to press on ahead rather than wait for reinforcements.

Battle of the Little Bighorn: Custer's Last Stand

At mid-day on June 25, Custer's 600 men entered the Little Bighorn Valley. Among the Native Americans, word quickly spread of the impending attack. The older Sitting Bull rallied the warriors and saw to the safety of the women and children, while Crazy Horse set off with a large force to meet the attackers head on. Despite Custer's desperate attempts to regroup his men, they were quickly overwhelmed. Custer and some 200 men in his battalion were attacked by as many as 3,000 Native Americans; within an hour, Custer and all of his soldiers were dead.

The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer's Last Stand, marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. The demise of Custer and his men outraged many white Americans and confirmed their image of the Indians as wild and bloodthirsty. Meanwhile, the U.S. government increased its efforts to subdue the tribes. Within five years, almost all of the Sioux and Cheyenne would be confined to reservations.

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Battle of the Little Bighorn - Location, Cause & Significance

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The Battle of the Little Bighorn, also called Custer's Last Stand, marked the most decisive Native American victory and the worst U.S. Army defeat in the long Plains Indian War. It was fought on June 25, 1876 near the Little Bighorn River in Montana Territory.

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Wounded Knee, located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, was the site of two conflicts between Native Americans and representatives of the U.S. government, including the U.S. Army and, later, the FBI. An 1890 massacre left some 150 Native Americans dead, in what was the final clash between federal troops and the Sioux tribe. In 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee for 71 days to protest conditions on the reservation.

Ghost Dance and Sitting Bull

Throughout 1890, the U.S. government was worried about the increasing influence at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of the Ghost Dance spiritual movement, which taught that Native Americans had been defeated and confined to reservations because they had angered the gods by abandoning their traditional customs.

Many Sioux believed that if they practiced the Ghost Dance and rejected the ways of the white man, the gods would create the world anew and destroy all non-believers, including non-Indians. On December 15, 1890, reservation police tried to arrest Sitting Bull, the famous Sioux chief, whom they mistakenly believed was a Ghost Dancer, and killed him in the process, increasing the tensions at Pine Ridge in South Dakota.

Did you know? Nearly half of the Sioux killed at the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre were women and children.

Wounded Knee Massacre

On December 29, the U.S. Army's 7th Cavalry surrounded a band of Ghost Dancers under Big Foot, a Lakota Sioux chief, near Wounded Knee Creek and demanded they surrender their weapons. As that was happening, a fight broke out between an Indian and a U.S. soldier and a shot was fired, although it's unclear from which side.

A brutal massacre followed, in which an estimated 150 Indians were killed. (Some historians put this number at twice as high.) Nearly half of them were women and children. The U.S. cavalry lost 25 men.

The conflict at Wounded Knee was originally referred to as a battle-the Army troops involved were later rewarded with Medals of Honor-but in reality it was a tragic and avoidable massacre. Surrounded by heavily armed troops, it's unlikely that Big Foot's band would have intentionally started a fight. Some historians speculate that the soldiers of the 7th Cavalry were deliberately taking revenge for the regiment's defeat at Little Bighorn in 1876.

Whatever the motives, the massacre ended the Ghost Dance movement and was one of the last major confrontations in the Indian Wars, America's deadly series of wars against the Plains Indians and other Native Americans.

American Indian Movement

The American Indian Movement (AIM) was founded in 1968 in an effort to stop police harassment of Indians in the Minneapolis area. Borrowing some tactics from the Vietnam war protests of the era, AIM soon gained national notoriety for its flamboyant demonstrations. However, many mainstream Indian leaders denounced the youth-dominated group as too radical.

In 1972, a faction of AIM members led by Dennis Banks and Leonard Peltier sought to close the divide by making alliances with traditional tribal elders on reservations. They had their greatest success on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, after a group of young white men murdered a Sioux man named Yellow Thunder.

Although Yellow Thunder's attackers received only six-year prison sentences, this was widely seen as a victory by the local Sioux accustomed to unfair treatment by the often racist judicial system. AIM's highly visible publicity campaign on the case was given considerable credit for the verdict, winning the organization a great deal of respect on the reservation.

Wounded Knee Siege

AIM's growing prestige and influence, however, threatened the conservative Sioux tribal chairman, Dick Wilson. When Wilson learned of a planned AIM protest against his administration at Pine Ridge, he retreated to tribal headquarters where he was under the protection of federal marshals and Bureau of Indian Affairs police.

Rather than confront the police in Pine Ridge, some 200 AIM members and their supporters decided to occupy the symbolically significant hamlet of Wounded Knee, site of the 1890 massacre. Wilson, with the backing of the federal government, responded by besieging Wounded Knee.

During the 71 days of the siege, which began on February 27, 1973, federal officers and AIM members exchanged gunfire almost nightly. Hundreds of arrests were made, and two Native Americans were killed and a federal marshal was permanently paralyzed by a bullet wound.

The leaders of AIM finally surrendered on May 8 after a negotiated settlement was reached. In a subsequent trial, the judge ordered their acquittal because of evidence that the FBI had manipulated key witnesses. AIM emerged victorious and succeeded in shining a national spotlight on the problems of modern Native Americans.

Trouble Continues at Pine Ridge

The troubles at Wounded Knee, however, were not over after the siege. A virtual civil war broke out between the opposing Indian factions on the Pine Ridge reservation, and a series of beatings, shootings and murders left more than 100 Indians dead. When two FBI agents were killed in a 1975 gunfight, the agency raided the reservation and arrested AIM leader Leonard Peltier for the crime.

The FBI crackdown coupled with AIM's own excesses ended its influence at Pine Ridge. In 1977, Peltier was convicted of killing the two FBI agents and sentenced to life in prison. To this day, Peltier's supporters continue to maintain his innocence and seek a presidential pardon for him.

And in 2021, members of the U.S. Congress petitioned President Joe Biden to revoke the Medals of Honor soldiers received for their participation in the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre.

HISTORY Vault: Native American History

Sources

Disaster at Wounded Knee. Library of Congress.
What really happened at Wounded Knee, the site of a historic massacre. National Geographic.
Warren, Merkley, Kahele Lead Bicameral Letter Urging Biden to Rescind Medals of Honor Awarded to Soldiers who Perpetrated Wounded Knee Massacre. Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Senate.
Wounded Knee Massacre. Encyclopedia of the Great Plains.

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Wounded Knee: Massacre, Memorial & Battle - HISTORY

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Wounded Knee in South Dakota was the site of an 1890 Indian massacre by U.S. Army troops, and a deadly 1973 occupation by Native American activists.

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Grammar Tuto - Le  passif: les bases en anglais- Nathan