General L. W. Colby holding Little Lost Bird, found tied to her dead mother’s back in the snow covered Wounded Knee field four days after the army killed nearly 300 Lakota there. Nineteen medals of honor were awarded for the massacre.

I was in the burial party That went back to Wounded Knee

With rock hammers and ice picks To chip the dead ones free

After the massacre and the blizzard They’d been frozen to the ground

Mother’s and children and warriors We found them all around

They were frozen in their agony Or shock and terror as they fled

The army’s giant howitzers That sang their song of death

We found Chief Big Foot His scarf around his face

The ice was frozen blood From his neck down to his waist

The bloody footprints along the creek Did the ghost dance for the dead?

And I hoped that it was true What all the legends said

That there’ll be a new spring coming And our families will come home

And game will fill the prairies And the crops will always grow

We wrapped the bodies in red blankets And placed them on our sled

And left their stacked up rifles And the few things that they had

“Crazy Horse is buried here” Someone said as we were due to start

“Just his heart” I told him “It’s only just his heart

Charlie Parr, “1890”

(Courtesy of Gwyllm Llwydd)