Jesuit leaders condemn decision to uphold Wounded Knee Medals of Honour

The Catholic Herald • October 28, 2025

Jesuit leaders and the Bishop of Rapid City have condemned a decision by the United States Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, to allow soldiers who took part in the 1890 massacre of Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee Creek to retain their Medals of Honour.

In a joint statement issued on 20 October, Bishop Scott E. Bullock of Rapid City and the De Smet Jesuit Community of West River said they “firmly reject” the decision, describing it as a distortion of history and a betrayal of truth.

“To recognise these acts as honourable is to distort history itself,” the statement said. “Our response, therefore, is rooted not in ‘political correctness’ but in prayerful correctness, grounded in truth, conscience, and compassion.”

The response followed Mr Hegseth’s announcement on 26 September that the twenty soldiers involved in the killings at Wounded Knee would retain the Medals of Honour awarded to them more than a century ago. “Their place in our nation’s history is no longer up for debate,” he said, insisting that the soldiers “deserve these medals for their bravery” and warning that to suggest otherwise was to put “political correctness” above “historical” accuracy.

The Catholic leaders’ statement, signed by Bishop Bullock and six Jesuit priests serving the Lakota people across western South Dakota, rejected the Secretary’s account. “The facts of the tragedy at Wounded Knee Creek on December 29, 1890, are clear,” they said. “On that day, U.S. Army soldiers massacred nearly 300 Lakota women, children, and unarmed men. This was not a battle.”

The statement drew on the words of General Nelson A. Miles, who led U.S. military operations in the region and condemned the actions of the 7th Cavalry as “the most abominable, criminal military blunder and a horrible massacre of women and children.”

The Jesuits and the bishop noted that to continue honouring the perpetrators “is an implication of hostility and genocide against the Great Sioux Nation and the persons who were killed by the United States at Wounded Knee.”

The De Smet Jesuit community ministers among the Lakota on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations. Their statement emphasised the Church’s long presence among Indigenous communities and a growing call for reconciliation grounded in truth. “As Catholics and followers of Jesus Christ, we proclaim the infinite dignity of every human life,” they wrote.

“Those who died at Wounded Knee are sacred. Jesus stands with all who suffer and die at the hands of others. Those who committed the violence are also sacred; for this reason, Jesus offers them mercy and healing. Yet the acts themselves were grave evils and cannot be honoured.”

The events at Wounded Knee took place at the end of a turbulent decade of U.S. military campaigns to suppress the Lakota and other Plains peoples. On 29 December 1890, a group of Lakota were encamped near Wounded Knee Creek when troops surrounded them and attempted to confiscate their weapons. A shot was fired, and soldiers opened fire with rifles and Hotchkiss guns, killing hundreds within minutes. The dead were later buried in a mass grave amid sub-zero conditions.

Bishop Bullock and the Jesuits concluded that remembrance and repentance are essential for healing. “Even if we are not personally responsible for Wounded Knee, we bear a moral responsibility to remember and speak the truth,” they wrote. “Only by facing the cross of our shared history can we move toward resurrection—a future of just and lasting peace for all God’s beloved children.”