The Wounded Knee Occupation offered very little information to those living in the village during the 71-day incident. However, these excerpts were taken by reporter Kevin McKiernan, who was inside the Indian museum on the reservation during the time of the April 26th fire fight that resulted in shooting of Buddy Lamont.
Excerpts include:
Radio equipment monitored Red Arrow / Heavy fire prompts those contained inside the reservation to request a medic / Radio discussions to negotiate the removal of the wounded / Medical staff is given 10 minutes and required to carry only a white flag while retrieving the injured / One death is confirmed; that of Buddy Lamont.
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Transcripts
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KEVIN MCKIERNAN: Innumerable news reports have been written and aired about that occupation. However, it is little known that over one half of the occupation had no first hand media coverage from the inside of the sieged village. Today in Wounded Knee, traditional Indian religious ceremonies are marking that first anniversary. They are being held at the grave site of Buddy Lamont, an Oglala Indian who was slain by the government in the village last year.
The following is an actual tape from inside the village during the firefight which took his life. I was the only reporter in the sealed village at that time. These are excerpts of some of my moments inside the Wounded Knee Museum, a log cabin converted by the Indians to a security headquarters building. There, radio equipment monitored Red Arrow, the government frequency. Additional citizen band equipment was used to maintain contact with Indian bunkers within the village perimeter. One year later, the sound of Wounded Knee from the inside.
SPEAKER: One or two people in Little Bighorn bunker have been hit. It's impossible to get a medic out because the firing is so heavy. Government forces monitoring Wounded Knee Radio are aware that the people are hit.
SPEAKER: The bunker in front of RB4, one of their people has been hit. Be advised there are a couple of medics heading in that direction. [INAUDIBLE]. The Wounded Knee apparently has a wounded party in a bunker in front of RB4. Stated to us that they were going to send medics in, and the man that went to that bunker was carrying a rifle. We will not recognize a medic carrying a rifle.
SPEAKER: Bighorn, this is Clearwater. Can you tell me if the medic has made it down there to you yet? Little Bighorn, Little Bighorn, this is Clearwater.
SPEAKER: This is Little Bighorn. The medic hasn't come down here yet.
SPEAKER: OK. We understand she was under some gunfire coming down here, so hold on. She will be there shortly.
SPEAKER: Message from Wounded Knee. There's supposedly a Red Cross worker by the bunker, or their bunker by RB4 on Porcupine Road that's been pinned down for the last hour. They don't know if she's been hit or not and they'd like to get her out of there, over.
SPEAKER: All right. Tell them that they've got 10 minutes from now. One person with a white flag and no weapons. If they have weapons, we can open fire.
SPEAKER: She is a medic. She is unarmed. She only has medical supplies with her. Please relieve sniper fire that is aimed upon her.
SPEAKER: Be advised, you have 10 minutes with one person with the white flag to move that person out of that area. If there's any weapons or any fire, we will fire upon them, over.
SPEAKER: OK, roger. We're getting a white flag ready now, and there'll be one person going down there. We'll run down and check it out. There'll be no weapons taken down there, and I'm trying to tell all our people around here not to open fire, but some of the people are out in the fields, and I can't guarantee that somebody on the other side of the perimeter might not get pinned down, open fire over there, but there won't be any fire from this direction down here in that area.
SPEAKER: Well, be advised, if there's any fire, they're going to open up fire. While one man, unarmed, to move that party out, over.
SPEAKER: You mean if somebody opens fire over on RB6 that we're out of contact with, that they'll shoot this guy walking in the road?
SPEAKER: Tell me, is any firing coming from that area? Any firing coming from that area, there'll be open fire. I'm not going to tell our men to hold fire. You've got 10 minutes starting now. One man, unarmed, with a white flag to move that party out, over.
SPEAKER: Roger, I'm telling our people here. Little Bighorn, Little Bighorn and Spinata and Hawkeye and Little California, hold your fire. Last Stand also, hold your fire. We've got our man under a white flag that's going to go down and try and see if the medic has been hit. He's been down here on the road for a long time.
Do not open your fire. We have 10 minutes with one man under white flag. If anyone opens fire, this man's dead. So hold your fire.
SPEAKER: Hawkeye, sounds fair. Over.
SPEAKER: Ceasefire. Acknowledge, over.
SPEAKER: It looks like [INAUDIBLE] to me.
SPEAKER: Shit.
SPEAKER: There's three or four of them now.
SPEAKER: It is now approximately 10 to 2:00 in the afternoon. Two people are still injured out at the Little Bighorn bunker. Radio communications are broken with them. We just heard that about one hour after firing started this morning, one man was shot and killed out at Last Stand, which is the Manderson Road bunker. He was going into the house to get something, and he was shot while he was doing that. He was-- he died immediately.
KEVIN MCKIERNAN: The man was Buddy Lamont, a 31-year-old Oglala Sioux, at one time an employee of the Bureau of Indian Affairs in Pine Ridge. Today, hundreds are expected at his gravesite in Wounded Knee. For National Public Radio, this is Kevin McKiernan.
