Survivors of The Wounded Knee Massacre

The twelve-year-old son of Red Fish escaped The Wounded Knee Massacre of 1890, seeking refuge with relatives to hide from the Seventh Cavalry. The boy took his relatives name until he was grown, for he had witnessed soldiers riding down and brutally killing fleeing women and children. Upon reaching adulthood he became a Christian minister, taking back his father's name, thereafter known as Rev. James Red Fish. Some seventy years later Darrell New Plenty Stars was born to his daughter. Among the other survivors of that cold December day were several infants, the most memorable known as “Lost Bird”. Shortly after Chief Big Foot and his people were mercilessly slaughtered there beside Wounded Knee Creek, a blizzard rolled in, covering the grotesquely frozen bodies. Three days later the wind and snow subsided and civilian burial parties began collecting the frozen remains for interment in the long trench-grave being prepared on the hilltop overlooking the killing field.