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Thank you very much for this, Samuel. I think I mentioned last time that I am in a process of ancestral accountability for the role of the guns bearing my family name that were used that day.

I read in the book The Politics of Hallowed Ground, by Mario Gonzalez and Elizabeth Cook-Smith (highly recommended), that earlier in that December a lieutenant from a different Army unit led a rogue action, using one Hotchkiss Mountain Gun, to kill around 75 Lakota people in an area northwest of Pine Ridge. So yes, Wounded Knee was not the first. Not to mention Sand Creek, years before. And if you go further back to Maine, the 1755 Phips Proclamation for bounty hunting of Penobscot people, and the Norridgewock Massacre. So-called Pequot "Wars" in 1637. So many more.

And as you say, the descendants of the victims and survivors, of all of these massacres, are still here. Too few know that, but more are learning, thanks in part to your historical diligence.

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What happened to Elijah Hadley makes me sick and teary eyed. They way they cover up what happened that day for so long and then keep the police officers name private but not keep Elijah's name private (who was a minor!) pisses me off to no end.

I hadn't known that statistic about likelihood of police killing Indigenous people. Thank you for another excellent article, Samuel.

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