The Wounded Knee Massacre was the end result of growing problems between the Lakota Sioux and the American government. After the Civil War, tension began to increase and ended on December 29, 1890. When the government took control of most of the Lakota territory and forced them onto reservations, the Indian way of life was destroyed and the large herds of bison were hunted until they were in danger. Life on the reservations was also difficult as many of the promises made by the government remained unfulfilled: “Promises to increase rations, made by U.S. officials in 1889 to obtain signatures to reduce the Sioux treaty lands by half, and to create six separate reservations , turned out to be false. Instead, rations had been hastily cut and people were nearly starving." (Robertson 1). Treaties signed to protect the reserves from outsiders were also ignored by the government. There were also other factors that led to the killing such as the Ghost Dance, the murder of Chief Sitting Bull and the struggle with it evolving into a massacre. Many Indians saw hope in the Ghost Dance religion. The Ghost Dance movement was supposed to "invoke the spirits of the dead and facilitate their resurrection" (Phillips 1). He was created by the son of the Paiute shaman Wovoka who was "known as the messiah by his followers" (Wovoka 1). Wovoka believed that the Ghost Dance would revive their loved ones, make the white people disappear, and the buffalo would roam the Wild West again (The Wounded Knee Massacre 1). Leaders such as Sitting Bull, Kicking Bear, and Short Bull preached the Wovoka religion which helped him gain immense popularity. This belief gave hope to the Indians and the more than 3,000 Indians gathered in the badlands of Pine...... middle of paper ......opposed to eradicate the world of whites and resurrect the dead natives. The dance became more popular when Chief Sitting Bull began practicing it. Tension between the two sides grew when Chief Sitting Bull was killed by the army. After Sitting Bull's death, Chief Big Foot was surrounded by soldiers as his followers were on their way to join the other leaders. On December 29th a shot was fired which began the massacre which lasted only an hour. After an hour the field was covered in blood due to the continuous shooting by the soldiers. A huge cemetery was built to bury the 146 victims. Later people realized that the Indians were innocent and were killed without justifiable reason. However, the bright side is that this was the last confrontation between the government and the Indians and taught people to treat others as equals..