Wounded Knee: When the Government Promised Safety Through Disarmament, and Delivered a Massacre

Zion Patriot,

On December 29, 1890, the U.S. government showed the deadly cost of disarmament when it demanded guns be surrendered “for your own safety.” At Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, federal troops surrounded a camp of Lakota Sioux and ordered them to surrender their firearms. Most complied. They trusted — or at least hoped — that giving up their weapons would spare their people from violence.

Instead, it guaranteed their slaughter.

The Deadly Promise of Protection

The 7th Cavalry arrived at Wounded Knee under the guise of “protection.” Officially, they claimed disarmament was needed to prevent unrest. But to the Lakota, the message was simple: give up your guns, it’s for your own safety. That’s the same line governments always use when they move to confiscate weapons.

The U.S. government believed the Ghost Dance movement could ignite an uprising, so the 7th Cavalry moved in to confiscate weapons and insisted it was “for their protection.” In truth, it wasn’t about the Lakota’s safety at all. It was about eliminating the possibility of resistance. That logic—safety for those in power at the expense of those they rule—is the same logic that drives gun control today. The massacre at Wounded Knee was born out of fear—not fear for the Lakota Sioux, but fear of them.

Once the Lakota turned over their rifles, they were effectively defenseless. But the soldiers weren’t finished. Unsatisfied with what had been surrendered, they went through the teepees and even searched the people themselves, determined to find every last weapon.

Tensions rose. Many witnesses later said the spark came when soldiers tried to wrestle a rifle from a deaf Lakota man named Black Coyote, who didn’t understand the order to give it up. In the struggle, a gun discharged — whether his or another’s in the chaos, no one can say for certain.

But that single shot led the 7th Cavalry to return fire, not just with rifles but with four Hotchkiss guns positioned on the ridges above the camp. The heavy shells tore through the teepees and cut down men, women, and children indiscriminately. Some Lakota tried to flee across the frozen creek bed; others tried to shield their families. Few escaped.

When it was over, nearly 300 Sioux lay dead in the snow — the majority of them women and children. Entire families were wiped out in moments. The very weapons the Lakota had been told to surrender “for their safety” had instead been their last line of defense.

This wasn’t a battle. It was an execution — made possible only after the people had been disarmed.

Why Wounded Knee Still Matters

The government would like us to forget Wounded Knee or file it away as just another tragic “incident” from a bygone era. But it remains one of the clearest warnings in American history.

When a government strips people of their ability to defend themselves, tragedy follows. At Wounded Knee, the moment the Sioux gave up their guns, they gave up their only leverage against tyranny. And the government proved, once again, that it cannot be trusted to wield unchecked power.

A Warning We Ignore at Our Own Risk

The lesson is simple: disarmament is not about safety, it’s about control. The Lakota Sioux were not “protected” when their rifles were seized. They were slaughtered.

Whenever leaders call for stricter control or confiscation today, they wrap it in the same language: safety, protection, prevention. But history whispers the truth — those promises are hollow. Wounded Knee stands as a bloody reminder that once the government has all the guns, it has all the power.

And Wounded Knee was not an isolated betrayal. From broken treaties to forced marches, from the deliberate slaughter of buffalo to the confinement of tribes on barren reservations, the government systematically stripped Native peoples of their freedom under the same guise of “protection.” Disarmament was just one tool in a broader policy of control.

And power, in the hands of government, has never ended well for the people.

Gun Control Politics