(CNN) — Survivors recalled arriving at the Wounded Knee camp three days after the fighting, finding a blizzard had buried the frozen bodies of Lakota men, women, children and infants in snow. They described horrific scenes : mothers still clutching their babies, others shot down as they fled. These were the people killed by US soldiers in December 1890 on the plains of South Dakota, in what was the final armed conflict of the Indian Wars.

The government largely hailed it as a victorious battle, saying it had stopped what it deemed a growing threat from the Lakota people. Twenty soldiers received Medals of Honor for their actions. At the time, some settlers even supported the killings; one local newspaper wrote that “safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians.”

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