The Wounded Knee Massacre was the slaughter of approximately 150–300 Lakota individuals by United States Army 7th Cavalry troops in the area of Wounded Knee Creek in southwestern South Dakota on December 29, 1890. Although it is often called the Battle of Wounded Knee, investigations and eyewitness accounts clearly established the event as a massacre: the U.S. Army combatants significantly outnumbered the Lakota present, many of whom had already given up their weapons at the Army’s demand. Further, almost half of those killed were women and children. This massacre marked the climax of the U.S. Army’s efforts to repress the Plains peoples, breaking organized resistance to reservation life and assimilation.