Congress formally rescinds medals for Wounded Knee Massacre
H.R. 3609 — Remove the Stain Act · Filed by Jill Tokuda (D-HI) · 12 cosponsors · Introduced May 23, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill rescinds 20 Medals of Honor awarded to U.S. 7th Cavalry soldiers for their participation in the Wounded Knee Massacre on December 29, 1890, in which approximately 350–375 unarmed Lakota men, women, and children were killed. The bill removes the names of these soldiers from the official Medal of Honor Roll but does not require them to return the physical medals or forfeit any military benefits. The rescission is a formal congressional acknowledgment that the massacre was not an act deserving of the nation's highest military honor.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to rescind medals awarded for an act (the Wounded Knee Massacre) that Congress now recognizes as a massacre of unarmed civilians, not an act of military valor. This is a formal correction of the historical record and an acknowledgment of injustice.
What the text implies
- Rescission does not strip recipients of military pensions, healthcare, or other federal benefits—the bill explicitly preserves those, limiting the practical consequence to symbolic removal from the Medal of Honor Roll.
- The bill does not require return of the physical medals, meaning recipients or their heirs retain possession while the award is officially nullified—a compromise between accountability and avoiding forced restitution.
- Rescission may set a precedent for future congressional review of other military awards issued for controversial or historically disputed actions, though the bill itself applies only to Wounded Knee.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill corrects a historical injustice by removing official recognition from soldiers who participated in the massacre of unarmed civilians, restoring the integrity of the nation's highest military honor and acknowledging harm to Native Americans. No citizen loses rights, benefits, or protections; the bill is purely a rescission of an award deemed undeserved.
Named in the bill
U.S. 7th Cavalry, Lakota Sioux Nation, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Great Sioux Nation, National Congress of American Indians, Major General Nelson A. Miles, Chief Spotted Elk (Miniconjou band), Medal of Honor Roll, Department of Defense, Secretary of the Army, Secretary of the Navy, Secretary of the Air Force — and 1 more
Where it stands
12 cosponsors: 12 Democrats.
- May 23, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 23, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Armed Services · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Armed Services”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,780 characters) on Sep 7, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,398 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-23.
“Congress formally rescinds medals for Wounded Knee Massacre” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr3609 Report an error
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