After Wounded Knee

On a cold winter's morning more than a century ago, the U.S. Seventh Cavalry attacked and killed more than 260 Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. In the aftermath, the broken, twisted bodies of the Lakota people were soon covered by a blanket of snow, as a blizzard swept through the countryside. A few days later, veteran army surgeon John Vance Lauderdale arrived for duty at the nearby Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Shocked by what he encountered, he wrote numerous letters to his closest family members detailing the events, aftermath, and daily life on the Reservation under military occupation. He also treated the wounded, both Cavalry soldiers and Lakota civilians. What distinguishes After Wounded Knee from the large body of literature already available on the massacre is Lauderdale's frank appraisals of military life and a personal observation of the tragedy, untainted by self-serving reminiscence or embellished newspaper and political reports. His sense of frustration and outrage toward the military command, especially concerning the tactics used against the Lakota, is vividly apparent in this intimate view of Lauderdale's life. His correspondence provides new insight into a familiar subject and was written at the height of the cultural struggle between the U.S. and Lakota people. Jerry Green's careful editing of this substantial collection, part of the John Vance Lauderdale Papers in the Western Americana Collection in Yale University's Beinecke Library, clarifies Lauderdale's experiences at the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

"Correspondence of Major and surgeon John Vance Lauderdale while serving with the army occupying the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, 1890-1891."

Illustrations: John Vance Lauderdale, ca. 1888 -- Frances Helen Lauderdale, 1885 -- Troop I of the Seventh [ 7th ] U. S. Cavalry at Pine Ridge, 1890 / Clarence G. Morledge -- A wagon full of Lakota women and children fired upon by the Hotchkiss guns of Captain Capron's artillery -- Wounded Lakota prisoners inside the Episcopal church at Pine Ridge -- A group of Seventh Cavalry officers at Pine Ridge, 1891 -- Rushville, Nebraska, 1890: the railhead for troops and supplies moving to Pine Ridge -- One of the stagecoaches that served as public conveyances between Rushville, Nebraska, and the agency at Pine Ridge / Clarence G. Morledge -- Captain Allyn Capron, First [ 1st ] U. S. Artillery -- Some of Capron's artillery at Pine Ridge, 1891 -- Interior of the Episcopal church that served as a hospital for the wounded Lakota prisoners at Pine Ridge / Clarence G. Morledge -- Captain and assistant surgeon Robert J. Gibson -- Red Cloud's house / Clarence G. Morledge -- First Infantry camp, Pine Ridge, South Dakota; Episcopal church on far right -- The Indian boarding school at Pine Ridge / Clarence G. Morledge -- Enlisted men's cooking area, Pine Ridge, South Dakota, 1891 / Clarence G. Morle…