The Wounded Knee section of the mural is rooted in a long history of Indigenous resistance and resilience. Before the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee, the American Indian Movement (AIM) had been actively challenging systemic injustices faced by Native communities across the United States. AIM emerged in the late 1960s in response to widespread grievances, including the mistreatment of Indigenous people by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the erosion of tribal sovereignty, and the forced assimilation policies that stripped Native communities of their cultural practices, languages, traditional foods, and educational autonomy. These injustices were not just historical—they were ongoing, and AIM sought to reclaim Indigenous identity and sovereignty.

This broader struggle for Indigenous rights is visually anchored in the mural by the depiction of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. In early December 1890, U.S. Government officials banned a religious practice known as the Ghost Dance on a South Dakota reservation as part of a larger effort by the government to make Native American religious and spiritual practices illegal. To suppress the Ghost Dance, soldiers from the Seventh U.S. Cavalry Regiment arrested a band of Lakota and imprisoned them. The day after the arrests, the military attempted to recover weapons from the Lakota, a gun discharged and the massacre of hundreds of Lakota began. In the mural, the standing figure on the far right and the figures in the background holding hands practice the Ghost Dance. The victims' bodies of the U.S. Army's bloody crackdown peek through the snow. Chief Big Foot’s (leader of the Sioux) frozen body is shown in the front left. The section transitions to the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee. From left to right, the mural depicts prominent Indigenous leaders Regina Brave, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Dennis Banks, and Russell Means beating the drum.

The Occupation of Wounded Knee began soon after the 1972 election of Dick Wilson, a corrupt tribal chairman who ruled over Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. With federal funds, Wilson established his own armed militia, the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (known as the GOONs), and employed them to protect Bureau of Indian Affairs facilities from the American Indian Movement (AIM). Wilson was responsible for multiple political assassinations, arson attacks, unlawful arrests, and inflicted physical abuse on anyone who opposed him or supported AIM. After refusing to resign, the people of Pine Ridge requested the assistance of AIM and the occupation of Wounded Knee began. Wilson requested the help of the Federal government who sent dozens of agents. Over the span of 71 days of armed occupation, the FBI shot and killed two AIM members, Frank Clearwater and Lawrence “Buddy” Lamont, and wounded dozens more. The occupiers of Wounded Knee were fully aware of the history of land, especially the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre. Knowing the history of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, Native American activists have referred to the 1973 Occupation of Wounded Knee as the Second Wounded Knee Massacre.