FILE - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a ceremony at the Pentagon to commemorate the 24rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Sept. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, from second left, meets with President Donald Trump as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listen in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Sept. 25, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Hegseth says Wounded Knee soldiers will keep their Medals of Honor
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that he has decided that the 20 soldiers who received the Medal of Honor for their actions in 1890 at Wounded Knee will keep their awards in a video posted to social media Thursday evening.
FILE - Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks during a ceremony at the Pentagon to commemorate the 24rd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Sept. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced that he has decided that the 20 soldiers who received the Medal of Honor for their actions in 1890 at Wounded Knee will keep their awards in a video posted to social media Thursday evening.
Hegseth’s predecessor, Lloyd Austin, after a Congressional recommendation in the 2022 defense bill 鈥 itself a reflection of efforts by some lawmakers to rescind the awards for those who participated in the bloody massacre on South Dakota鈥檚 Pine Ridge Indian Reservation near Wounded Knee Creek.
While the events of that day are sometimes described as a battle, historical records show that the U.S. Army, which was in the midst of amid a campaign to repress the tribes in the area, killed an estimated 250 Native Americans, including women and children, of the Lakota Sioux tribe, while attempting to disarm Native American fighters who had already surrendered at their camp.
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鈥淲e鈥檙e making it clear that (the soldiers) deserve those medals,鈥 Hegseth said in the video, before adding that 鈥渢heir place in our nation鈥檚 history is no longer up for debate.鈥
After the fighting, Medals of Honor were given to 20 soldiers from the 7th Cavalry Regiment, and their awards cite a range of actions including bravery, efforts to rescue fellow troops and actions to 鈥渄islodge Sioux Indians鈥 who were concealed in a ravine.
The event also became a celebrated part of the regiment’s history, with their to 鈥渃ommemorate Indian campaigns,鈥 according to the military鈥檚 Institute of Heraldry.
In 1990, Congress apologized to the descendants of those killed at Wounded Knee but did not revoke the medals.
According to Hegseth, the review panel ordered by Austin 鈥渃oncluded that these brave soldiers should, in fact, rightfully keep their medals from actions,鈥 but an official from the defense secretary’s office couldn’t say if the report he was referencing in the video would be made public.
President Donald Trump issued an in March titled 鈥淩estoring Truth and Sanity to American History鈥 that decried efforts to reinterpret American history and, since then, Hegseth has undertaken multiple actions that have subverted the recommendations of a Congressionally-mandated commission that examined the use of Confederate names and references in the military.
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He reverted the names of several Army bases back to their original, Confederate-linked names, though by honoring different figures.
Hegseth also restored that was removed from Arlington National Cemetery. The monument features a classical female figure, crowned with olive leaves, representing the American South, alongside sanitized depictions of slavery.
In September, the US Military Academy at West Point, New York, also confirmed that a painting of Gen. Robert E. Lee dressed in his Confederate uniform was back on display in the school鈥檚 library after being removed in 2022. The portrait shows a Black man leading Lee鈥檚 horse in the background, which had been hanging in the library since the 1950s before it was placed in storage.
