Chum what'd I tell you about the sorts
not to take your life not to play with
them they're not toys I know I'm a
sensei master ninja how can I help you I
have a 1873 Winchester oh sweet it was
from the Battle of Wounded Knee and I
got the documents to prove it really
yeah I mean it's pretty significant in
history
what's the Battle of Wounded Knee the
Battle of Wounded Knee Darr the massacre
of Wounded Knee because that space
cleaver was it was the winter of 1890 in
South Dakota the Lakota Indians were
camped out next to a river the 7th
Calvary was going to disarm them they
went into the camp one of the Indians
did not want to give up his gun
somewhere a shot rang out the 7th
cavalry started shooting like crazy
basically that is they started just
massacring everybody this was the last I
think major conflict with American
Indians the Wounded Knee Massacre was a
huge screw-up by the US Army most of the
Native Americans that were killed were
not even armed including women and
children and it's important in history
because this was basically the end of
the Indian Wars which had been going on
since Columbus landed here how much you
looking to get out of it I wouldn't take
less than 60,000 I just want everybody
to look at it I just want to make sure
this was actually from the Battle of
Wounded Knee you have paperwork here I
just want to make sure everything drives
correctly all right yep Winchester's
were popular with Native Americans for
the same reasons they were popular with
whites because they were extremely
reliable extremely powerful and it was
just a really great gun and most of
these guns they were just traded for
correct well there was even a time when
the United States military actively
sought to arm Native Americans and they
would obviously do so with tribes that
were on good terms with the government
and also some of them were obviously
taken in battle so the Native Americans
had guns for a long time
and the Wounded Knee Massacre was really
kind of the last great event of the 19th
century's Indian Wars a really terrible
moment in the history of the America
West the massacre at Wounded Knee
unfortunately was a time when attitudes
toward Native Americans were still quite
negative but this was a moment when
things started to shift somewhat more
sympathetically toward Native Americans
if we can tie it directly to the Wounded
Knee Massacre the 7th Calvary the
significance of the gun increases
dramatically it's much more than your
standard 73 carbine well let's take a
look and see what we got here so what we
have here is the unsurvivable ordinance
stores basically it's a 19th century
Excel worksheet I mean it's a sheet
that's telling what they have the serial
numbers the condition and what they were
going to do with it Colonel James
Forsythe he was the commander of the 7th
Calvary so that makes sense
January 3 1891 now what's interesting
about that particular day after the
battle took place on December 29 the
weather was terrible as a result of the
snowstorm it wasn't until several days
later that the 7th cavalry was able to
go back to the battle site and actively
pick up and collect any weapons that had
been discarded a few of the other names
down here whitside he was a major he was
the commander of the 1st squadron so
most of what we're seeing here matches
up I mean this is the names we should
see these are the dates that we should
see so on here it's listing this gun can
you show me that yeah the 631 I think
that's this 631 let's take a look here
ok and then the serial number it's you
know it says 5 0 4 2 3 we've got a
Winchester 73 carbine 5 0 4 2 3
all right so you have some really good
paperwork here so now the one thing we
don't have in any of this is Wounded
Knee those two words are missing from
everything we have on here but given all
of the information that we have the two
individuals the dates on it I think we
can make the assumption that this gun
was taken in the aftermath of the
Wounded Knee Massacre okay that's what I
want to hear
aren't you gonna put a price on it well
I work at a museum I'm not an appraiser
so I'm not gonna put a financial value
on here I was kind of hoping that you'd
probably say it was worth a couple
hundred thousand and then I could say
well give me 60% I'm sure you were all
right I'm convinced it's from the masker
Wounded Knee let's talk about your price
you want way too much you just don't get
that kind of money for a gun unless
there is something very very special and
it's associated with an individual I'd
give you like 14,000 bucks for it oh
yeah I mean if you put this on auction
you will get right around that number
really
I got 12,000 into it you have 12,000
under the gun so what's the lowest
number you go
I go 50 obviously we're not gonna do any
business check around like I said I
really am being completely sincere with
you know I I believe you alright have a
nice day thank you very much this guy is
off his rocker if he thinks I will pay
50 grand for that gun plain and simple
hopefully he sucks around town gets a
lot of prices and comes crawling right
back to me
you