Auction of Wounded Knee items raises legal questions

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Tribal leaders are questioning the ethical and legal implications of an auction featuring more than 100 items collected on two Native American reservations, including guns from the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee massacre and a ceremonial pipe that belonged to one of the most respected tribal chiefs.

Bidding for items gathered from the late 1880s through the early 1900s on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations opens June 11 through Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

Three guns to be auctioned were salvaged from the site of the Wounded Knee massacre, where on Dec. 29, 1890, about 300 Native American men, women and children were killed by the 7th Cavalry in the final battle of the American Indian Wars. And at the center of the collection is a ceremonial pipe once owned by the legendary Lakota Chief Red Cloud.

The entire collection belongs to Paul Rathbun, a Colorado resident whose grandfather and great-grandmother gathered the items back when the family owned a general store near Pine Ridge, a sprawling expanse of badlands on southwestern South Dakota and home to the Oglala Sioux. Rathbun said the items have been “sitting in trunks or plastic containers,” and he hopes they will end up in the hands of a group or individual who can properly take care of them.

“I’m just a regular person; I don’t have a vault or really I guess I don’t have the means to care for it the way it should be,” Rathbun said. “And there’s, of course, a bit of an economic factor.”

He added that the collection “has not been a secret over the years” for the tribe, and added that none of the items “were purchased at a disadvantage or taken” from tribal members.