Seeing the Massacre at Wounded Knee & my wood burning of Sitting Bull

When I say I saw the massacre that happened at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota I mean just that. During a recent trip across the US I found myself passing through the State of South Dakota on I90 tired and in need of a nap. I decided to pull into the next gas station to close my eyes for a few before continuing on my travels. Not long after I parked I was awaken by the thunder of a storm that had rolled in...ripped from a treacherous dream. I had been dreaming that I was laying on my side on the ground, looking up at Cavalry man on horseback towering above me. There was screaming all around me and I was frozen in fear where I lay. For a few minutes I sat there quietly, running over the image in my mind and it occurred to me I had once "tried"drawing this scene, but even more than that I once had done a wood burning of Sitting Bull and right after completing I was told by a medium that Sitting Bull was in my presence...she didn't know about my art work.

So, I collected myself and grabbed my phone to pulled up my GPS...this is what I saw: The green was my planned route, the blue dot where I had napped and the red balloon where I was now heading? "Goosebumps coated me" I couldn't deny my curiosity so I detoured my 16" Uhaul full of everything I owned towards a place I was being suddenly called to.

I arrived at the site around 6am, there wasn't a soul in sight but I parked my U-Haul and hopped out not sure what to expect.
Infront of me a 2-sided sign...

To the left of me a road sign pointing to the open field behind the sign...

There were some strange structures near the field with no markings, and behind me an unattended run down museum next to a small cemetery on top a hill. The sorrow I felt at seeing this place so unkept made the damage done here feel as though it was never mended.

There was a little trail head to the left of the museum that headed up to the cemetery that topped a small hill beside a church. Shying away from the field I decided to head there first.

Inside a little fenced area decorated with strands of colorful cloth stood a beautiful monument.

After paying my respects to this colorful little cemetery and all that rested there old and new, it was time for me to walk through the field. As I walked into the field I was overrun with emotion...distress and panic. I took just a few steps in when I had to sit. The tall grass moving around me in waves to the wind and I realized the field felt small... I was a child here, there was no question, I have never felt so sure or believed more in past lives.

Here are some of the testimonies of witnesses:

American Horse (1840–1908); chief, Oglala Lakota:
"There was a woman with an infant in her arms who was killed as she almost touched the flag of truce ... A mother was shot down with her infant; the child not knowing that its mother was dead was still nursing ... The women as they were fleeing with their babies were killed together, shot right through ... and after most all of them had been killed a cry was made that all those who were not killed or wounded should come forth and they would be safe. Little boys ... came out of their places of refuge, and as soon as they came in sight a number of soldiers surrounded them and butchered them there."

Edward S. Godfrey; captain; commanded Co. D of the 7th Cavalry:
"I know the men did not aim deliberately and they were greatly excited. I don't believe they saw their sights. They fired rapidly but it seemed to me only a few seconds till there was not a living thing before us; warriors, squaws, children, ponies, and dogs ... went down before that unaimed fire."

Hugh McGinnis; First Battalion, Co. K, 7th Cavalry:
"General Nelson A. Miles who visited the scene of carnage, following a three-day blizzard, estimated that around 300 snow shrouded forms were strewn over the countryside. He also discovered to his horror that helpless children and women with babies in their arms had been chased as far as two miles from the original scene of encounter and cut down without mercy by the troopers. ... Judging by the slaughter on the battlefield it was suggested that the soldiers simply went berserk. For who could explain such a merciless disregard for life?"

Since this experience I have decided to try to finish the drawing I once started, which I now understand was of what happened in this place. Stay tuned.