Black Coyote's rifle went off at that point, and the U.S. Simultaneously, an old man was performing a ritual called the Ghost Dance. One version of events claims that during the process of disarming the Lakota, a deaf tribesman named Black Coyote was reluctant to give up his rifle, claiming he had paid a lot for it. Cavalry troops went into the camp to disarm the Lakota. The regiment was supported by a battery of four Hotchkiss mountain guns. Forsyth, arrived and surrounded the encampment. The remainder of the 7th Cavalry Regiment, led by Colonel James W. Whitside intercepted Spotted Elk's band of Miniconjou Lakota and 38 Hunkpapa Lakota near Porcupine Butte and escorted them 5 miles (8.0 km) westward to Wounded Knee Creek, where they made camp. 7th Cavalry Regiment commanded by Major Samuel M. The previous day, a detachment of the U.S. state of South Dakota, following a botched attempt to disarm the Lakota camp. It occurred on December 29, 1890, near Wounded Knee Creek (Lakota: Čhaŋkpé Ópi Wakpála) on the Lakota Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in the U.S. The Wounded Knee Massacre (also called the Battle of Wounded Knee) was a domestic massacre of several hundred Lakota Indians, mostly women and children, by soldiers of the United States Army.