The William F. Cody Archive: Documenting the life and times of Buffalo Bill

 

Indians Enraged at "Movie" Battle Belittling Redskins

(By United Press.)

PINE RIDGE AGENCY, S. D., Feb 7. — The Sioux Indians are today making plans to send a delegation to Washington with a signed protest against allowing the moving pictures of the re-enacted battle of Wounded Knee to be filed in the government archives as an authentic production. The Indians are enraged at the film people, whom they claim distorted the action of the battle to belittle the prowess of the redskins.

Several instances are pointed out wherein the picture is distorted. They claim that General Nelson A. Niles, who took a prominent part in the film, was in reality fifty miles from the scene of the battle and so far as is known was never on the field, until he posed for the movies.

They also claim that Buffalo Bill, who played the part of the hero in the film, was at the agency eighteen miles away, when the real fight occured. The Indians mournfully assert that only one Indian out of the four hundred that engaged in the battle survived.

The Sioux have called a meeting of the grand council of the tribe to protest against the picture going down in history as authentic. They claim they were misled into believing it was only a sham battle, and did not know it was going to be called Wounded Knee. The formal protest will be carried to Washington by three chiefs.

Banner image: Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, Wyoming, U.S.A.; Original Buffalo Bill Museum Collection, P.69.118