OJ SEMANS
FILE - O.J. Semans, Sicangu Lakota, right, Miniconjou Lakota elder Marcella LeBeau, whose ancestor died at Wounded Knee, look on during a news conference June 25, 2019, in Washington. Then-members of Congress Paul Cook, left, and Deb Haaland are seen in the background.
Oliver “O.J.” Semans has spent years lobbying U.S. administrations to “take back honor wrongly bestowed.” The Sicangu Lakota voting rights advocate from the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota lost many ancestors in that violence and said, “If Biden’s going to do anything, the best day would be December 29th” as that is the anniversary of the massacre.
They live in South Antelope on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
Our mailing address is:
Four Directions, Inc.
PO Box 731
Chamberlain, SD 57325
2019 LTR Four Directions Letter to Trump Feb. 2019.pdf - Google Drive
Four Directions Inc | PO Box 194 | Mission, South Dakota 57555 | 605-301-0812 | fourdirectionsvote.com
February 4, 2019
The President
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
The Vice President
The White House
Office of the Vice President
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Patrick M. Shanahan
Acting Secretary of Defense
1000 Defense Pentagon
Washington, DC 20301-1000
General Joseph F. Dunford Jr.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
9999 Joint Staff Pentagon
Washington, DC 20318-9999
Dear Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Chairman:
Last month, the President of the United States mentioned the Wounded Knee Massacre in a comment
directed at a political opponent. This letter is not to explain the wrong done in invoking this horror. My
United States Senators have already deemed the statement “inappropriate.”
Instead, I write to call on you to right a much graver wrong. I formally request the removal of the
Medals of Honor awarded to 20 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regiment for their participation in the
“Wounded Knee Massacre.”
Though this demand has been made previously, on behalf of the tens of millions of patriotic Americans
who know what is right and just, I simply ask you use your authority to now, finally, correct this
injustice.
The “Battle at Wounded Knee” on December 29, 1890 was no battle. It was a massacre.
United States soldiers murdered innocent women and children. Many of my ancestors were among the
Lakota people murdered that chilling winter day. Those innocent Lakota people had committed no
crime. They were making no war. Rather, they were seeking hope and refuge on the frozen Plains of the
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation while the United States continued to violate the Treaties of 1851 and
1868.
Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Chairman
February 4, 2019
Page 2 of 2
The 7th Cavalry, which was obligated by treaty to protect my ancestors, instead hunted my ancestors,
surrounded them and gunned hundreds of them down. This included terrified women and children who
fled – defenseless – through the snow, forever stained by their blood.
As told by Hugh McGinnis, “All this happened 74 years ago at Wounded Knee Creek, where soldiers of
the 7th Cavalry massacred in cold blood Indian men, women and children. I am now 94, the last
surviving member of Troop K, 7th Cavalry. The 74 years have never completely erased the ghastly
horror of that scene and I still awake at night from nightmarish dreams of that massacre. The news that I
am the only surviving member of the 7th Cavalry at that massacre brings back many memories to me.”
For this atrocity, 20 soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regiment received the highest honor awarded to
members of the United States Armed Forces for exceptional “gallantry” in battle. The murderers of
Wounded Knee committed no gallantry. They committed an atrocity that stains the honor of the United
States Armed Services to this day.
In this time of duly heightened sensitivity to violence against women and children, in a political era
where national leaders appear to be willing to bring front and center discussion of the history and current
issues of America’s indigenous people, the Lakota people and all our Native American Indian brothers
and sisters, the time is right to return to Wounded Knee. The time is right to hear the cries of my
ancestors from that frozen and bloodied landscape.
No earthly power can bring my ancestors back to life. But the United States can stop honoring the men
who butchered those defenseless Lakota women and children in cold blood.
Mr. President, Mr. Vice President, Mr. Secretary and Mr. Chairman, remove the medals from the 20
soldiers of the 7th Cavalry Regiment. Take back honor wrongly bestowed. Restore honor to the Medal
of Honor itself, to the brave soldiers who have earned that Medal in real wars, against real enemies.
Restore some measure of justice to my people who suffered and died at the hands of those dishonorable
murderers.
Remove the 20 Medals of Honor issued to the perpetrators of the Wounded Knee Massacre and lead our
great nation into a real conversation about doing right for the Americans who have been here since time
immemorial.
Our Nation’s honor demands it.