Vigil at Wounded Knee: An unidentified Lakota Sioux man on horseback scans the countryside as another has his rifle ready for action after blockades were set up on the roads leading to Wounded Knee, South Dakota.

The Wounded Knee Incident began on February 27, 1973, when 200 Oglala Lakota in the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized the town of Wounded Knee, South Dakota. The seizure was a protest against the corrupt and autocratic leadership of the reservation. The 71-day occupation captivated the nation and galvanized Indian youth.

Associated Press ID #850540496820

On recto: typewritten title and date.
On verso: typewritten title and date stamp.

Wire photographs were originally transmitted over phonelines, then later, by satellite. They were first used in the early 1920s. Associated Press became a leader with this. After pigment touch-ups, etc., the print is put into a drum (like a drum scanner). The image gets converted into audio tones that are transmitted. The tones are received and beamed onto photo-sensitive paper. Wire photographs are copies without originals---they are hybrid, transmitted objects. (Britt Salvesen, Curator and Department Head, Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, March 30-31, 2022)

This object has the following keywords:

• American Indian Movement
• Civil Rights Movements
• Horseback riding
• Horses
• Injustice
• Lakota Sioux
• Native American sovereignty
• Oglala
• Pine Ridge Reservation
• Racial Discrimination
• Rifles
• Roadblocks
• Wounded Knee
• Wounded Knee Indian Occupation

• Image Dimensions: 7 3/16 x 9 5/8 in. (18.26 x 24.45 cm) Measured by Cornejo-Reynoso, Aitzin
• Sheet Dimensions: 8 1/8 x 10 in. (20.64 x 25.4 cm) Measured by Cornejo-Reynoso, Aitzin