The massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 occurred in response toa. the spread of the Ghost Dance movement.
b. the US Army’s humiliation at Little Bighorn.
c. the uprising known as Red Cloud’s War.
d. the discovery of gold at Pike’s Peak.

The correct answer is A. The massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 occurred in response to the spread of the Ghost Dance movement. The massacre at Wounded Knee was the last major battle of the Indian Wars of the late 19th century. By the end of the 19th century, the Sioux Indians had lost the struggle to defend their territory and way of life against the expansionist United States. Half-starving and desperate, they embraced the Ghost Dance, which promised to restore the Indigenous world as it was before the arrival of the white man, making the invaders disappear. The US authorities believed the Ghost Dance was a war dance and a possible cover for an Indian uprising; consequently, they decided to suppress the movement. On December 29, 1890, the U.S. Army’s Seventh Cavalry surrounded a group of Ghost Dancers near Wounded Knee Creek and ordered them to surrender their weapons. Meanwhile, a fight broke out between a young Indian and a U.S. soldier, a shot was fired, and a brutal massacre followed, in which it is estimated that 300 Sioux were killed, nearly half of them were women and children. The Cavalry lost 25 men.