Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has directed a five-person panel to review the 20 Medals of Honor that the Army awarded to soldiers for their actions at the Battle of Wounded Knee in South Dakota on Dec. 29, 1890.
A senior defense official who spoke exclusively with Military.com on Monday said that the goal is “to ensure no soldier was recognized for conduct that did not merit recognition under the standards applicable at that time,” such as attacking noncombatants and those who have surrendered, or the murder or rape of a prisoner.
The events of Wounded Knee took place along a creek that lends its name to the massacre on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the southwest corner of South Dakota. While the events of that day are sometimes described as a battle, in fact the U.S. Army — amid a campaign to repress the tribes in the area — killed hundreds of unarmed members of the Lakota Sioux tribe, including many women and children, while attempting to disarm Native American fighters who had already surrendered at their camp.
The review is hardly the first to consider revoking the military’s highest award for gallantry from troops who were given the award in the past. However, the review of the awards for Wounded Knee itself is the result of several years of lobbying and pressure from Congress, the South Dakota legislature, and native tribal leaders.
“It’s never too late to do what’s right, and the right thing is to go back and review those medals in the context of the engagement at the time and in consideration of the standards at the time and ensure that none of those medals were awarded for conduct that did not merit recognition,” the senior defense official said.
While there is dispute over the exact details of what prompted the violence in December 1890, it’s broadly agreed that shots started flying after two soldiers tried to take away a warrior’s rifle. A scuffle ensued, and the gun went off.
When the dust settled, more than 300 Lakota — the vast majority of whom were women and children — were dead. The actions of the Army soldiers that day are often described as a “massacre” that became one of the deadliest acts of violence against Native Americans by U.S. troops.
More recently, some scholars have argued it could be considered the deadliest mass shooting in American history. Regardless of the terminology, the event and the site continue to be the focus of protest and anger into the modern day.
After the action, government leaders decided to award the nation’s highest military commendation to some of the soldiers. Most of the awards went to members of the Seventh Cavalry regiment.
Some of the citations included in the memo provided to Military.com praise the soldiers for “extraordinary gallantry” or “conspicuous bravery in action against Indians concealed in a ravine.” The unit’s coat of arms to this day still features the head of a Native American chief to “commemorate Indian campaigns,” according to the military’s Institute of Heraldry.
Defense officials who spoke with Military.com for this story said that part of the review will involve the Army providing the review panel with historic evidence and records to help it evaluate the underlying actions and context of the awards.
“We expect the special review panel will look at previous investigations and reports; records of interviews of witnesses and other relevant historical documents; original award files; official military personnel records; records of interviews of witnesses at the event; and other relevant historical documents that the panel deems appropriate,” an official said.
That official also added that the Defense Department is working with the U.S. Department of the Interior “to make sure that we look at all the appropriate sources.”
The Department of the Interior is host to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
“We believe that they’re in a unique position to inform and advise on this matter, as well as to provide some of those additional historical records that we believe are relevant,” the official said.
Revisiting History
This is far from the first time the military has reviewed Medal of Honor awards. The most notable historical parallel is a 1916 panel that spent months reviewing more than 2,500 medals awarded during the Civil War and ultimately rescinded 911 awards.
The review was necessary because, according to the Medal of Honor Society website, “The Medal of Honor of the early 20th century was different from the Medal of Honor of the Civil War,” when it was awarded far more liberally and not always in moments of valor.
Among those who had their medals rescinded were President Abraham Lincoln’s funeral guards and the members of 27th Maine Infantry Regiment that defended Washington, D.C., against a Confederate advance in 1863.
Many members of that unit agreed to voluntarily extend their enlistments after the Army offered a Medal of Honor to those who stayed in the Capitol. The board argued “that the basis for the awards were suspect and rescinded all 864 awards,” the society wrote on its website.
“The department does have a history of reviewing Medals of Honor and other such awards,” a defense official said, though they noted that robust consideration and rescinding awards are less common.
More recently, the Biden administration has taken up the task of reviewing historical acts and upgrading lower awards to the Medal of Honor in the cases of a handful of Vietnam War veterans and Union soldiers who carried off a daring raid during the Civil War. Some efforts have focused specifically on Black or Native American troops.
However, the Biden administration and Austin have also sought to address historical wrongs and injustices that service members have experienced over the years.
Those efforts have ranged from the militarywide review of the names for around 750 bases, ships, and memorials that commemorated the Confederacy or its members to pardoning troops convicted of sodomy from a time when the military actively prosecuted gay service members.
Just last week, the Navy exonerated 256 Black sailors who were unjustly punished in 1944 following a massive port explosion that killed hundreds of other Black service members. The sailors raised concerns over safety and, after the explosion, were forced to return to the dangerous conditions. When some protested, they were convicted of mutiny.
The memo provided to Military.com gives the board reviewing these 20 Medal of Honor awards until Oct. 15 to provide a recommendation to retain or rescind each award. From there, the senior defense official said that the report will go to Austin, who will provide a recommendation to the White House.
President Joe Biden has the final decision on awarding or rescinding a Medal of Honor.
Related: Why the United States Revoked Hundreds of Medals of Honor