Report on Historical Investigation of Wounded Knee Battlefield Site, Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota

Mattes, Merrill

In April 1952, the National Park Survice was requested by Representative A.Y. Berry of South Dokota, to consider the possibility of giving national recognition to Wounded Knee Battlefield on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota. Limited data on the battlefield was presented on April 22 to the Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings, arid Monuments. The Boar asked that a field investigation and report be made by the Service to secure more comprehensive data. The Region Two office was requested to conduct this investigation by a note appended to Mr. Tolson's letter of May 9 to Senator Karl B. Mundt. Senator Mundt and Senator Francis Case joined Representative Berry in expressing interest in giving the site recognition. Over forty names of South Dakota citizens were supplied by them, with the suggestion that they be contacted by the investigator. No specific acreage of ground was mentioned; and no particular type of designation was advocated by the Congressmen. However, the terms "national battlefield," 'national monument," and "national historic site" all crop up in the preliminary correspondence. To the knowledge of the Region Two Office, the National Park Service has not previously been requested to consider Wounded Knee for recognition, notwithstanding a reference by Senator Case in his letter of July 24, 1952, to Mr. Lloyd, to "what we had hoped for in preparing a national monument some years ago." Neither does it appear to have been investigated in connection with the Historic Sites Survey during its period of activity before World War II.