c) Battle of Wounded Knee

The event in 1890 that marked the culmination of the Indian Wars was the Battle of Wounded Knee. This tragic confrontation occurred on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota between the U.S. Army and the Lakota Sioux. The massacre resulted in the deaths of over 150 Native Americans, including women and children. The Wounded Knee Massacre represented the crushing defeat of Native American resistance and the tragic end to the Indian Wars era. It marked a somber turning point in U.S. history, symbolizing the demise of the Native American way of life in the face of American expansion.