Austin Orders Review of Wounded Knee Medals

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III has directed the Defense Department to review the Medals of Honor awarded to approximately 20 soldiers for their actions during the December 1890 engagement at Wounded Knee Creek, South Dakota, to ensure no awardees were recognized for conduct inconsistent with the nation's highest military honor.

DOD's Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness will convene a special review panel to conduct an individualized assessment based on standards in effect during that period.

The scope of the panel's review is limited to examining each Medal of Honor awardee' s individual actions during the engagement at Wounded Knee Creek. However, "The [special review panel] may consider the context of the overall engagement as appropriate, including as necessary to understand each [Wounded Knee Creek Medal of Honor] recipient's individual actions," Austin wrote in a memorandum directing the review, which was released today.

Austin signed the memorandum last week following department consultation with the White House and Department of the Interior.

"It's never too late to do what's right," a senior defense official said in an interview this week. "And that's what is intended by the review that the secretary directed, which is to ensure that we go back and review each of these medals in a rigorous and individualized manner to understand the actions of the individual in the context of the overall engagement."

The official noted that the review is warranted based on a range of factors, including a congressional recommendation to review the awards included in the fiscal year 2022 National Defense Authorization Act.

The panel will provide Austin with a recommendation to either retain or rescind each Medal of Honor awarded for actions related to the Wounded Knee engagement, which resulted in the death and injury of approximately 350 to 375 Native American men, women and children, according to a 1990 Senate resolution.

That resolution, which marked the 100th anniversary of Wounded Knee, referred to the engagement as a massacre and expressed "deep regret on behalf of the United States to the descendants of the victims and survivors and their respective tribal communities."

The panel will include at least five experts, including two from the Department of the Interior. It will provide a written report of findings and recommendations by mid-October. Austin will then provide his recommendations to the president.

The secretary of the Army will provide historical records for the review no later than July 26. The Army will include everything associated with the award recommendations for each soldier, the personnel file for each awardee, copies of any Army reports into the actions at Wounded Knee Creek and any other known historical documents salient to the engagement.

The secretary of the Army will provide support to the panel throughout the review, including document retrieval and answering requests for information about the events at Wounded Knee Creek.

Defense officials noted that the department regularly reviews awards for upgrades. The Executive Branch has also conducted reviews to determine whether previous awards should be rescinded, including one in 1916 that led to 911 Medals of Honor being revoked.

The officials noted that the standards for awarding the Medal of Honor have evolved over time, and the review would be held in accordance with the standards in place at the time, as well as the context surrounding the actions at Wounded Knee.

The panel will also consider other relevant laws and regulations, such as those relating to fundamental protections for noncombatants.

"This is not a retrospective review," one official said. "We're applying the standards at the time. And that's critical because we want to make sure that as these are reviewed and as a recommendation is made to the secretary and then to the president that we have applied the standards appropriately, while ensuring that we look at the context."