Wounded Knee Massacre: Zintkala Nuni, Little Lost Bird

Wounded Knee Massacre: Zintkala Nuni, Little Lost Bird

The return of Casey's scouts. Soldiers plow through the ice and snow following the massacre at Wounded Knee, South Dakota in 1890. Photo part of the National Archives and Records Administration/Public Domain.

Oh Zintkala Nuni, precious Little Lost Bird, since I first read your story I have cried so many tears for you, a miracle, a gift to your people who all stopped to admire you when you were born, feeling grateful to have someone so lovely among them. Your true name is lost forever, but your memory lives on in the hearts of those who still fight for justice for the victims of the Wounded Knee Massacre and your ancestors. 
 

Zintkala Nuni, the Little Lost Bird of Wounded Knee.

Your family was massacred and you seemed to survive, but no one can survive an experience such as yours and after years of suffering the worst pain imaginable--the knowledge of what was done to your family and the horrific story of how you survived--you finally joined them. 

It is my hope that you have also, finally found peace.
  

 US Attorney General Eric Holder laying a wreath at the site of the Wounded Knee Memorial. Photo taken September 26, 2009/Public Domain. 
 

I have spent the past year struggling with the painful loss of members of my family and a writers block that I began to think I would not break! This post is an attempt to jump start my writing, as well as to complete my participation in last years A to Z Bloggers Challenge. Here I will discuss one of the few survivors of the Wounded Knee Massacre: Zintkala Nuni, or Little Lost Bird, how she suffered through the loss of her mother, her extended family, most of her tribe, and what little self-respect she had left after she was found in a ditch following the massacre at Wounded Knee.

I wish I could offer you a happy ending with the story of this child who miraculously survived the Wounded Knee Massacre, but out of respect for this child and her family I can only share the cold and bitter truth, a story of terror and unimaginable horror that will break your heart, as it should.

 The bodies of four Lakota Sioux, victims of the Wounded Knee Massacre. Photo taken three weeks after the massacre circa January 17, 1891. Photo is public domain.