In a recent video shared on X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that the Medals of Honor awarded to soldiers involved in the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre will not be revoked. 

On Dec. 29, 1890, U.S. troops killed an estimated 300 Lakota Sioux members, including women and children, near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. The Lakota had gathered to participate in a ceremony aimed at resisting the government’s actions to remove them from their ancestral homelands. 

In the aftermath of the massacre, 19 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration.

In recent years, Democratic lawmakers have introduced legislation to rescind those medals, following pressure from Lakota leaders and native American advocacy groups who argue the honors were unjustly awarded for participation in what they describe as a mass killing, not a “battle.” 

“The soldiers who fought in the battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 will keep their medals, and we’re making it clear they deserved those medals,” said Hegseth in the video. 

His comments align with broader efforts from the Trump administration to reframe elements of U.S. history, as said in an executive order titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.” 

“Rather than fostering unity and a deeper understanding of our shared past, the widespread effort to rewrite history deepens societal divides and fosters a sense of national shame, disregarding the progress America has made and the ideals that continue to inspire millions around the globe,” said President Donald Trump in the order. 

Oglala Sioux President Frank Star condemned Hegeseth’s remarks, calling the post “despicable, untruthful, and insulting.”

“To call Wounded Knee a ‘battle’ dishonors the truth, desecrates the memory of our relatives,” said Star.