On December 29th, 1890,  a band of Lakota people led by        Spotted Elk ( Chief Bigfoot) was encircled by the Seventh        Calvary,  at the place called Cankpe Opi Wakpala,  the creek        called Wounded Knee.  In the early morning hours the men        were assembled in a semi-circle formation in front of the tipis        and disarmed.  The soldiers went among the women and children        and took knives, sewing awls,  and tent pegs.  Some of the soldiers        lifted the dresses of the women and said bad things.  A holy man        fearing for the lives of his people stood up and beseeched the        creator and asked for protection for the lives of the people.        A shot rang out and the soldiers fired en masse into the sitting        Lakota men,  killing most  of them instantly.  The horror was only        beginning.         The women and children ran as the soldiers chased them       down and killed them one by one.  The slaughter was to continue        for over three hours. Some of the dead were found over three miles        from the campsite.          In vol.3, issue 1,  "The Lakota Journal"  listed the names of the  Lakota        victims of the massacre at Wounded Knee.  Four-hundred and five were                     listed as killed. Of this number, 69 were identified as infants or young children,       133 were identified as women, the remaining 203 were identified as       men or had no gender or age identification. Of the total dead, 39 were       identified as elders.        The bodies were left to freeze onto  the prairie.  Over the next three       days survivors and relatives recovered nearly half of the dead.  On        the third day a government  burial detail  arrived to bury the remaining        victims.  The bodies were stripped of valuables and dropped into a        mass grave.        A 40 year old, ironically named Last Man, lay gutshot, frozen        to the ground until he was discovered on the 5th of January, 8 days        after the slaughter of December 29th.  Last Man died  at 8am on        January 6th, 1891.        The United States  government  awarded  23 Medals of Honor to        members of the Seventh Calvary for their service to the nation at this        place, the creek called Wounded Knee. 45).        Chief Bigfoot's body was scalped and the grisly trophy was sent to        the Seventh Cavalry's museum in Massachusetts.  There it remained        over the protests of Chief Bigfoot's family until the summer of 2000.        The last remains of Chief Bigfoot were returned to the place of his        birth, 109 years after his murder.