Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has decided that soldiers who received the Medal of Honor for helping gun down hundreds of Lakota Indians at the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre will be allowed to keep the military’s highest decoration.

His predecessor Lloyd Austin had ordered a review last year in response to a 2022 congressional recommendation that the medals—which were awarded to 20 soldiers from the 7th Cavalry Regiment—be revisited.

“We’re making it clear without hesitation that the soldiers who fought in the Battle of Wounded Knee in 1890 will keep their medals, and we’re making it clear they deserve those medals,” Hegseth said in a video posted to the social media platform X.

Although originally described as a “battle,” historical records show the U.S. Army killed between 150 and 300

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