However, one officer -- General Nelson Miles denounced Colonel Forsyth and relieved him of command. Though an Army Court of Inquiry criticized Forsyth for his tactical dispositions, they otherwise exonerated him of responsibility and Forsyth was reinstated. Even so, Miles continued to criticize Forsyth and promoted the fact that  Wounded Knee was a deliberate massacre.

In addition the many who were killed in the massacre, the Sioux Nation died there too. By that time, its people fully realized the totality of the white conquest. Before, despite more than a decade of restricted reservation life, they had dreamed of liberation and of a return to the life mode of their fathers -- a sentiment strongly manifested in the Ghost Dance religion. But, the nightmare of Wounded Knee forced reality upon them. They and all the other Indians knew that the end had finally come and that conformance to the white men's ways was the price of survival. It was perhaps not purely coincidental that the same year as Wounded Knee, the U.S. Census Bureau noted the passing of the frontier.

In 1903, a monument was erected at the site of the mass grave by surviving relatives to honor the many innocent women and children who were killed in the massacre. Later, Native American activists urged the U.S. government to officially withdraw the the medals, but were unsuccessful. However, in 2001, the National Congress of American Indians passed two resolutions that condemned the Medals of Honor awards and again calling on the U.S. Government to rescind them.

The battlefield was designated as a National Historic Site on December 21, 1965 and though scarred by modern buildings and fragmented by a road system, it remains an impressive reminder of the last major military-Indian clash.

Located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, the site displays a series of markers that interpret the massacre, as well as a private operated museum, which displays battlefield artifacts. Standging atop a low hill on the approximate site of the Hotchkiss battery, is a simple white frame church, behind which is the cemetery, which includes the mass grave of the Indians who died in the battle and the 1903 monument. The site is owned privately by individuals and the Sioux tribe.

The battlefield is located on a secondary road, about 16 miles northeast of the town of Pine Ridge.