Buddy Lamont is the second person from the right in this photo taken during the siege of the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in 1973. 
Top photo: Taken a few days after the 1890 massacre at Wounded Knee, this is the scene of the mass burial trench of the Indian victims. Bottom photo: The burial scene today. Buddy's grave (inset photo) is just to the left of the 1890 memorial marker in the middle center of photo.
One of the Indian bunkers during the siege of Wounded Knee in 1973. In the left background can be seen the memorial marker for the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre. The church in the background was burned to the ground by unknown persons shortly after the siege ended. Some say it was destroyed to spare tourists the sight of bullet holes in the building's siding.While reading about South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation and its historic village of Wounded Knee, where about 300 Indians (many of them women, children, and elderly) were massacred by US. cavalrymen in December 1890, I came across a reference to the fate of a modern-day warrior.
Buddy Lamont, a 31-year-old Oglala Lakota (Sioux tribe) Indian and a Vietnam veteran, joined other Native Americans in the takeover of the village of Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1973. The corruption of the local tribal government combined with the extreme poverty on the reservation had boiled over into a confrontation that turned ugly and forced the FBI and U.S. marshals to lay siege to the town as the Indians dug in to hold their position. Buddy was not a member of the American Indian Movement (AIM), but when his people called in AIM members for help, Buddy was ready for whatever came. Many, including Buddy, were armed because the local leader and his GOONs (Guardians of the Oglala Nation) at times used extreme violence.
Buddy, an easygoing, popular, well-repected member of his tribe, was shot through the heart by an FBI sharpshooter from long range when he vacated a bunker that had been tear gassed. The firefight was so intense that medics could not get to Buddy for two hours; he probably died almost instantly.
A week later a truce was called to bury Buddy. Mourners gathered around the coffin, Buddy lying in his military uniform from Vietnam, and wearing his Indian beadwork, moccasins, and holding a pipe. In the casket were placed food, chewing gum, cigarettes, and even a package of shaving cream and razor blades for Buddy's journey to the spirit world.
At the funeral Buddy's mother recalled bringing him food during the siege: "I need you at home," she told him. "Well, Mom, you may need me, but I'm here for a good cause. Watch now, we're going to win. And you're going to be happy. All the people will be happy." It was the last time she saw him alive.
The coffin was draped with an American flag and a Wounded Knee flag, four colors red yellow, black and white for the four races and for the directions of the earth. On it was written "Wounded Knee, 1890-1973." Buddy was given a 100-gun salute at the burial site. His final resting place was just a few feet from the mass grave of the 1890 massacre victims.
Years later a close friend of the Lamont family, while addressing Native American veterans of the U.S. military on Veteran's Day, said Buddy was "the perfect example of a Lakota warrior. Many visit his grave, tourist and Indian, but few know his story. We do, my veteran brothers, and one day that story may be told. But for now Buddy lies in his grave as a symbol of what each of you risked and what your families and tribes risk to survive in America."
15 comments:
I would like to thank you for posting Buddy's story.
My mother-in-law is Buddy's sister. Darlene Lamont Rogers. She has told us many stories of Wounded Knee. Unfortunately she lived in Oklahoma at the time of Wound Knee and was not there at the time.
To know that Buddy has not been forgotten but lives on in American Indian History and what He stood for is just amazing.
Anonymous, PLEASE contact me at trice@isgs.uiuc.edu
My students found your website very helpful after they watched the PBS series "We Shall Remain" Thank you for the information on Buddy's life!
Sincerely,
Kim Waltz
class: Race, Ethnic and Diversity Studies
college: Northcentral Technical College, Wausau, Wisconsin
just finished watching the pbs documentary We Shall Remain...so then of course i had to look up Buddy! thank you for posting his story. i hope to one day trace my roots to the Chiracahua Apache!
Sincerely,
Rhonda Gallaway
I was standing a Buddy Lamont’s grave last fall and a couple of middle-aged tourists approached with curiosity. I said “Buddy Lamont’s grave”, but is was clear that that didn’t mean anything to them, so I added “Buddy Lamont was the last person killed during the 1973 siege of Wounded Knee“. They seemed interested, but still puzzled , so for the next several minutes I prattled on about Pine Ridge, Dick Wilson and the Goons, AIM, the Occupation and the whole story. They listened attentively, then they thanked me and asked me how come I knew all that, was I a college professor? I guessed I should have been flattered, maybe I was a little, but mostly I was saddened. Do you need to be a professor to know about the strongest desperate statement by the American Indians asking to be allowed to be themselves? Shouldn’t this be studied in schools, just as the 1960’s civil rights struggle against segregation?
The native's in botth Canada and the US suffered great deal in the hands of the govt because the govt refused to be defeated nothings changed since then, we have been dragged through everything the govt could think of yet were still here
My grandmother is Darlene Rogers, I'm surprised one of my relatives beat me to commenting on this site.
Ashley, that is probably because it was my IDIOT ex-husband who knows NOTHING!
He died on my birthday. I shall remember him every year on that day.
It's a good thing hearing about this man and many others that died for what was right. I'm glad to hear Buddy's story. This would be great news for my children. This is his GREAT uncle their Great grandmother's brother.
I just read "Crow Dog" by Leonard Crow Dog and Richard Erdoes. The story of Buddy is something I think about a lot. After fighting in Vietnam, for our country...only to be shot and killed by our government, really sickens me. I'm not native, but the culture and spiritual awareness is something I wish I could be a part of. Blessings your you and your people.
My Grandpa, Charles Leroy Baker, fought alongside Buddy in Vietnam. When the uprising happened at Pine Ridge, my mother was just a baby and my Grandpa wasn't able to be with his friend. There was a 30 year remembrance ceremony and my Grandpa was invited to come by Buddy's family. Grandpa told me that he sat and smoked with Buddy's family and friends for four days and for the first time ever, he really got to know the man that fought with him in the jungles of Vietnam. Before Grandpa left, Buddy's father (who, Grandpa says went by the name "One Horned Buffalo") gave Grandpa a necklace to always remember Buddy. Grandpa told me this story right after I finished hiking the Appalachian Trail. On the trail I took on my spirit name that Grandpa gave me when I was 5; "Walks Tall". After hiking the trail, I flew to Nebraska just to tell Grandpa that when I return to California, I'm going to legally change my name to Walks Tall. After telling Grandpa all about my journey, he told me about Vietnam, and Pine Ridge and about his friend Buddy and then he gave me the necklace. I wore Buddy's necklace on my wedding day. I never knew the man, but I know he is with me every single day.
47 years later and I still wont let people forget the knee or buddy lamont,
Got back from South Dakota not long again and while there visited Wounded Knee. Embarrassingly I was not aware of the second Wounded Knee. I learned about when I got home while reading Lakota Woman by Mary Crow Dog
Buddy Lamont was my Uncle. He was loved by his whole family and friends. He has been missed all these years. We love you Uncle Buddy!
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