Letter to President Biden by members of Congress asks to rescind Medal of Honor awarded to soldiers at Wounded Knee
Descendants of the Wounded Knee Massacre with US Congressman Kai Kahele (D-Hawaii), Congresswoman Sharice Richards (D-Kansas), Marcella LeBeau, Buffalo Soldiers society & OST President Kevin Killer (Courtesy Photo)
WASHINGTON – As the United States honors National Native American Heritage Month and examines its commitment to Native American communities, United States Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Congressman Kaiali’i Kahele (D-Hawai’i), along with 14 lawmakers, sent a bicameral letter urging President Joseph R. Biden to use his executive authority to immediately rescind the Medals of Honor awarded to the soldiers who perpetrated the Wounded Knee massacre on December 29, 1890, when U.S. soldiers slaughtered hundreds of Lakota men, women, and children–most of them unarmed–on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Twenty soldiers in the regiment received the Medal of Honor for their actions at Wounded Knee.
As the country’s highest military honor, the Medal of Honor is awarded in the name of Congress for gallantry beyond the call of duty. The soldiers’ acts of violence at Wounded Knee were not heroic, but rather tragic and profoundly shameful. It has been over 30 years since Congress acknowledged the horror of the U.S. Army’s atrocity at Wounded Knee. The 101st Congress (1989-1990) adopted a concurrent resolution acknowledging the 100th anniversary of the massacre and “expresse(d) its deep regret on behalf of the United States” for the “terrible tragedy.”
Under Army Regulations, Medals of Honor can be rescinded if additional information is presented showing an individual failed to meet the awards criteria. Medals of Honor are approved and awarded by the President of the United States, and the lawmakers believe that it is within President Biden’s authority to confer with the Secretary of Defense and the secretaries of the military departments to revoke these honors when appropriate.
“It has been over 130 years since the Wounded Knee Massacre, and yet, the actions of the U.S. Army and the bestowment of 20 Medals of Honor upon the perpetrators of the massacre remain a persistent shame on the nation. For the families and descendants of those massacred, the revocation of these 20 Medals of Honor would have a profound and lasting impact—as has the federal government’s ongoing choice to allow these wrongly bestowed honors to stand. It is well past time to remove this stain from our nation’s history, and we call on you to do so,” the lawmakers wrote.
Joining Senators Warren and Merkley and Congressman Kahele are Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Bernard Sanders (I-Vt.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), and Representatives Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Daniel Kildee (D-Mich.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Nikema Williams (D-Ga.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Sharice Davids (D-Kan.), and Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.).
Earlier this year, Senators Warren and Merkley and Congressman Kahele led the reintroduction of the Remove the Stain Act (S. 1073 / H.R. 2226), legislation that would revoke the Medals of Honor from the soldiers who perpetrated the Wounded Knee massacre. The bill has received widespread support from tribal nations, direct descendants of the Wounded Knee Massacre, tribal organizations, and veterans’ associations.
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November 11, 2021