Surviving Wounded Knee












The history of Wounded Knee, though forgotten by many Americans, is very much alive on the Pine Ridge Reservation, where the lives of the Lakotas are still defined today by what happened on December 29, 1890. On that cold day, the U.S. 7th Calvary slaughtered more than 300 Lakotas, most of them women and children. The Wounded Knee Massacre is known as the event that brought an end to the 19th century “Indian Wars” waged by the U.S. government on the native people of North America.
My first trip to the Wounded Knee Massacre site was on an evening of bitter cold. Dense clouds hung overhead and the dull gray light appeared lifeless. Snow seemed to fly horizontally, while the wind stung like tiny needles poking just beyond the skin’s surface. As day began to fade, the sun appeared through a break in the clouds. The rays of light burned bright, a red haze soaked the scene around me. The wind seemed to fall silent, like a dancer suspended in a moment of flight. The crimson sky pulled my gaze west toward the Black Hills, “Paha Sapa”— the land that was at the heart of the war between the Lakotas and the United States.
The Black Hills are the sacred spiritual center for Lakota traditions. In 1868, the U.S. government signed a treaty with the Lakotas, guaranteeing them rights to territory that included the Black Hills. General Custer discovered gold there in 1874, and soon those hallowed lands were invaded by prospectors eager to strike it rich. The Lakotas fought back and U.S. forces punished them severely—ultimately forcing all Lakotas onto reservations and subjugating the tribes. Over 100 years later the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Lakotas, stating that the terms of the 1868 treaty had been violated and the land taken illegally. The Court awarded the Lakotas a cash settlement, but the tribes refused payment, demanding instead the return of the Black Hills. To date, the legal battle is unresolved.
Just south of the Black Hills, in the poorest region of the United States, sits the Pine Ridge Reservation (home to Wounded Knee and the Oglala Lakota). Two out of three people on the reservation live below the federal poverty line. Lakotas suffer rates dramatically worse than the national averages for life expectancy, disease, addiction, sexual abuse, and suicide. These conditions are the continuing legacy of American’s progress in the West, progress attained without virtue or compassion.
My time on Pine Ridge has cultivated in me a respect for the Oglala Lakota that I cannot express in words. That, I do with my photographs. These are my record of the beauty and hardships I have witnessed there, my feelings about a people whose love for their land and their culture remains remarkably resilient, whose determination to maintain their heritage perseveres more than a century after the bloody events at Wounded Knee.


Throughout his career, Danny Wilcox Frazier has concentrated on covering issues of marginalized communities both in and outside the Unites States. During the past six years, Frazier has photographed people struggling to survive the economic shift that devastated rural communities across his home state of Iowa.
Frazier’s freelance work includes: TIME, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, Life, People, Fortune, Forbes, BusinessWeek, The Washington Post Magazine, and Der Spiegel. Frazier is a contributing photographer for Mother Jones and CR magazines. He has collaborated with CR magazine’s creative director, Yolanda Cuomo, on numerous projects. Frazier has received prizes from Pictures of The Year International, the National Press Photographers Association, Society of Professional Journalists, and Chinese International Press Photo as well as numerous grants and fellowships for foreign and domestic projects. He was named a finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Grant in 2007 and 2008.
Frazier’s foreign assignments have taken him to Afghanistan, India, Cuba, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire, Kosovo, and Mexico. In 2004, Frazier received a master’s degree from the University of Iowa, where he taught photojournalism during his graduate studies.
Surviving Wounded Knee Lesson Plan
The six images that Danny Wilcox Frazier offers in this section communicate the very personal convictions of the photographer. He explains, “My photographs personalize the struggle of the Oglala Lakota on the most legendary and impoverished of the Lakota reser
vations, Pine Ridge. The work connects these people to their sacred land in Paha Sapa (the Black Hills) and the Badlands. My approach does not ignore the hardship endured on the reservation, but also highlights the cultural heritage of the Lakotas. I work to add
my photographs to the growing public voice backing the return of the Black Hills to the Lakotas and tribes of the Great Plains.” As you view this collection, consider the role that a single image can play in an attempt to communicate a very complicated historical narrative. Do you see how or where Danny Wilcox Frazier’s beliefs and values might have translated to his photographs?