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184 on Wounded Knee Creek, about sixteen miles from Pine Ridge agency, where they were encamped, awaiting the return of scouts they had sent out to locate the camp of the ghost dancers. Big Foot himself was lying in his tepee, sick with pneumonia. Colonel Forsyth was in command of the soldiers, and he had with him four hundred and seventy men against one hundred and six warriors present in Big Foot's band. The night was passed comfortably, and the next morning the Indians were to be taken in to Pine Ridge agency.

Before starting it was deemed wise to disarm them, though they were miserably armed with old rifles of very little value. When this action was undertaken, the Indians became very much excited. Yellow Bird, a medicine man, harangued the Indians and urged them to resist, telling them that the soldiers had become weak and powerless and that the bullets would not injure Indians dressed as they were in the ghost shirts. As Yellow Bird spoke in the Sioux language the officers did not at once realize the dangerous drift of his talk.

One of the searchers began to examine the blankets of the Indians to see if they had arms concealed under them, whereupon Black Fox drew a rifle from under his blanket and fired at the soldiers, who instantly replied with a volley directly into the crowd of warriors, so close that their guns were almost touching. Nearly half of the warriors were killed with this first volley. The survivors sprang to their feet, throwing their blankets from their shoulders as they rose, and for a few minutes there was a terrible hand-to-hand struggle, in which every man fought to kill.