The 1973 hit song that was too explosive for America to hear

On December 29, 1890, U.S. troops killed an estimated 150 to 300 Lakota people near Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota. According to Britannica, the massacre followed broken treaties, shrinking reservation lands, forced assimilation and growing military pressure on the Lakota people.

More than 80 years later, Wounded Knee again became the focus of national attention. In February 1973, members of the American Indian Movement occupied the village for 71 days to protest conditions on the Pine Ridge Reservation and demand that the U.S. government honor treaty obligations.

That same year, American rock band Redbone released “We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee,” a song that connected the events of 1890 with the struggles still facing Indigenous communities in the United States.

The band chose a different path

Redbone was founded by brothers Pat and Lolly Vegas, musicians of Native and Mexican American heritage. The band wanted to present Native identity as contemporary rather than as the stereotype often seen in Hollywood Westerns, writes NPR.

The group blended rock, funk, soul and Native influences into a sound unlike most American bands of the era. Impact 89FM notes that the song uses a medicine drum and chant-like vocals, giving the recording a solemn force that matches its subject.

“We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee” was far more pointed than a typical radio single. It addressed the massacre, broken promises made to Native peoples and the actions of the Seventh Cavalry. Released in the same year as the occupation, the record carried clear political weight.

NPR reports that CBS declined to issue the song as a U.S. single because of its political content, while Discogs lists several 1973 Epic releases in European markets.

Became a hit in Europe

Redbone’s official site quotes Pat Vegas saying, “CBS/Epic wouldn’t record it, so I paid for it myself.” He has 500 copies pressed that he took to radio stations in Europe.

The single then gained airplay overseas. Instead of vanishing after the label’s U.S. decision, it found listeners in countries where programmers were willing to put it on the air.

“We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee” reached No. 1 in the Netherlands and remained there for five weeks during 1973.

The song’s chorus broadened the meaning of its title by suggesting that the consequences of the massacre extended beyond those present in South Dakota in 1890. In the closing lines, the wording shifts from “at Wounded Knee” to “by Wounded Knee,” reinforcing the idea that the tragedy left a lasting mark beyond a single place or moment.

More than five decades after its release, the song continues to stand apart within Redbone’s catalogue.

“Come and Get Your Love” remains their best-known U.S. hit, reaching No. 5 on Billboard in 1974. Ironically, it only reached No. 21 in the Netherlands, while “We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee” is remembered as the record that brought the massacre into the European pop charts.

The song was also omitted from the North American version of the band’s 1973 album Wovoka and remained absent from U.S. releases for decades, including the 2003 compilation The Essential Redbone.

It only became widely available in the U.S. through digital editions of the band’s catalog.

Sources: NPR, Britannica, Impact 89FM, Discogs, Redbone official site.

This article is made and published by Kenneth Glad, who may have used AI in the preparation