Aftermath of the massacre of Lakota Sioux Indians by the US 7th cavalry at Wounded Knee creek, South Dakota, on 29 December 1890
One hundred and twenty-two years ago, the Pine Ridge Reservation witnessed the end of an epoch: the end of a people fighting for their way of life. Many see it, in Wikipedia's words, as "the last battle of the American Indian wars".
Except it wasn't a battle; it was a massacre. And it was the end of life as Indians knew it. No more were the days of riding and hunting freely. Treaties had been broken, time and again, by the United States government; millions of buffalo had been killed for their hides and for sport; land was being taken left and right.
The US government recognized the Black Hills as belonging to the Sioux tribe by the Treaty of Laramie in 1868, but this treaty, too, was violated thanks to prospectors who kept coming to search for gold. By 1874, there was a full-fledged gold rush near Deadwood, South Dakota.
The fight for the land that was sacred to the Lakota - and which was coveted for its gold by the white incomers - came to a boiling point on 25 June 1876, when General George Armstrong Custer took his 7th cavalry regiment into an ambush led by Lakota leader Crazy Horse and their allies, the Cheyenne and Northern Arapahoe. The battle at Little Bighorn, often referred to as "Custer's Last Stand", did not sit well with the government as the whole regiment perished and the flags of the cavalry and the United States were captured.
Comment: For reference, AUMF is the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists, passed on 14th September 2001.
The Posse Comitatus Act is an 1878 United States federal law limiting the powers of Federal government in using federal military personnel to enforce the State laws. In short, military personnel are not supposed to carrying out domestic police work.
The NDAA is the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is a United States federal law specifying the budget and expenditures of the United States Department of Defense, reviewed annually since it was first passed in 2007. The NDAA for Fiscal Year 2013 is currently being 'debated' in congress, but as Chris Hedges points out, its most worrisome additions are probably already being used against American citizens...