North America 1890: Wounded Knee Massacre
![Political map of North America & the Caribbean on 29 Dec 1890 (Closing the Frontier: Wounded Knee Massacre), showing the following events: Panama Crisis; Geronimo’s final surrender; Anglo-Venezuelan rupture; Canada (Ontario Boundary) Act; North & South Dakota become US states; Montana becomes US state; Washington becomes US state; Oklahoma Organic Act; Idaho becomes US state; Wyoming becomes US state; Wounded Knee Massacre.](https://omniatlas-media.s3.amazonaws.com/dist/img/maps/northamerica/northamerica18901229.png)
29 December 1890
29 Dec 1890
Wounded Knee Massacre
By 1890, American Indian resistance in the western United States had been crushed and settlers and railways had closed the frontier. In this environment of despair, the apocalyptic Ghost Dance religion spread quickly among Indian communities from California to Oklahoma, alarming white authorities. When, in December, 500 US Cavalry intercepted a group of 350 Lakota, mostly Ghost Dance practitioners, in South Dakota, tensions quickly led to a one-sided battle at Wounded Knee. This massacre was the last major conflict of the Indian Wars.