Melanie Sawyer, age 14, of Twin Falls, Ida., for her question:

WHAT HAPPENED AT WOUNDED KNEE?

Wounded Knee is an unincorporated community in southwest South Dakota. It is located at Wounded Knee Creek on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.

Wounded Knee was the site of two important conflicts between the local Indian population and the U. S. government.

On December 29, 1890, some 200 unarmed Ogiala Sioux men, women and children were massacred by the 7th U. S. Cavalry. The Sioux had been captured after the death of Sitting Bull and brought to this site, and the massacre allegedly began after an Indian, who was being disarmed, shot a U.S. officer.

The Battle of Wounded Knee, as it was called, was the last big fight between the Indians and the white men on the Northern plains.

On February 27, 1973, armed supporters of the American Indian Movement (AIM) seized and held Wounded Knee, demanding a U.S. Senate investigation of Indian problems. Federal law enforcement officers were sent to the site and during gunfire exchanges, two Indians were killed and several persons on both sides were injured. The siege ended 70 days later when the Indians were promised that negotiations were under way to consider their grievances.