Talk:Battle of Killdeer Mountain

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The original text of this article is at Killdeer Mountain at the National Park Service and is in the public domain. DialUp 05:03, 19 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I think this text merits some consideration of the perspective and language used here.

The first thing is that the US Army sought "to end the war with the Sioux". While it might be argued that the utter crushing of the Minnesota Uprising of the Santees had actually ended that "war" for all practical purposes, the wording "War with the Sioux" aparently deliberately blurs the line ebtween the Santees who had launched the ultimately failed uprising and all he other Sioux tribes who lived further west outside white-controlled reservations. In fact there was no war with these Sioux - until the US army attacked them.

"The Sioux, who had been operating north of Fort Rice, moved across the Missouri River and took a strong position on the Little Missouri River, about 200 miles from the fort."

This wording makes about as much sense as saying "The whites who had been operating in Minnesota took a strong position in New Ulm in late August 1862". In other words, this wording deliberate onfusciates the difference between a community of people pursuing their daily pursuits in a given region of residence at the one hand and a unit of combatants being on a military operation. The only connection to anything military these Sioux had was that they had welcomed Santee refugees from Minnesota - who formed a small minority of the overall group of indians here.