Frederick E. Toy is a name honored at a memorial in Main Street's Epitaph Park for local boys who won the Medal of Honor. Toy won his as a sergeant in the Seventh Cavalry during the Indian Wars.
That's all the information engraved on the stone monument. But a trip across the street to the library reveals a darker side to the man, as well as our nation's history.
Sgt. Toy's medal resulted from his participation in the massacre of as many as 300 men, women and children at Wounded Knee, perhaps the worst massacre ever perpetrated by the U.S. Army. Currently, a nationwide movement is under way to rescind all of the 20 Medals of Honor that were handed out for that vicious slaughter.
Toy was a 26-year veteran of the Seventh Cavalry when, along with 500 other soldiers and Indian scouts, he was sent to the Lakota Sioux camp at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota.
And trouble was in the air. Just a few weeks earlier, the Nebraska State Journal had published a story stating, "The Seventh Cavalry was itching for a fight. These are the same Indians who mercilessly shot down Custer and 300 of the Seventh Cavalry, and it is safe to say the Sioux will receive no quarter should an opportunity occur to wreak out vengeance for the blood taken at the Battle of the Little Big Horn."
The night before the fateful morning of Dec. 29, 1890, the 470 soldiers and 30 Indian scouts partied with a barrel of whiskey over their glee at capturing Chief Big Foot and his band.
The soldiers, lead by Col. James Forsyth, formed an armed square around the camp. A council of Indians formed in front of the tent of the dying Chief Big Foot. They were immediately ordered by Forsyth to surrender all their weapons, and they complied.
But Forsyth feared that some of the Lakota men were hiding weapons and ordered a physical search of the men, as well as their tents. During the search, the troopers became agitated, lifting the skirts of the women to look for weapons and laughing, still half drunk from the night before.
The Indians became scared and confused, and within a matter of minutes all hell broke loose. Historians still can't say whether an Indian or a soldier fired first. But with that shot, every soldier surrounding the camp began discharging his weapon at a rapid pace, barely bothering to aim.
The small arms fire was supplemented by the chatter of four Hotchkiss repeating cannon dug in on the hilltops overlooking the Sioux camp. The big guns were capable of firing 50 two-pound explosive shells per minute and had a devastating effect on the largely unarmed Indians.
Women picked up their babies and tried to flee, only to be gunned down by mounted troops. The men tried to defend themselves and their families with no luck. The firepower facing them was too great. At some point, Sgt. Toy spotted two Indians fleeing from the camp and shot them both in a ravine.
Sgt. Toy originally was cited "for bravery displayed while shooting hostile Indians,"but this wording was changed on the final citation after the original was rejected by the War Department.
Capt. Winfield S. Edgerly, Sgt. Toy's commanding officer at Wounded Knee, altered the recommendation to state that Toy did "deliberately aim at and hit two Indians who had run into a ravine." Edgerly deliberately avoided mentioning the age or sex of the Indians.
When it was all over, more than 300 Indians lay dead or dying, mostly women and children. Most of the 31 troopers killed died as the result of friendly fire, a result of the odd square they had formed facing each other, combined with the fact that most of the soldiers were from the east, new to the frontier and with little experience.
There were also some bizarre incidents reported in which a few soldiers apparently displayed some sense of morality. According to one Lakota survivor, after a soldier shouted "Remember Custer"and shot an elderly woman and then a child, one of his fellow troopers turned and shot him.
General Nelson Miles, commander of the Seventh Cavalry, reviewed accounts of the so-called "battle." "I have never heard of a more brutal, cold-blooded massacre than that at Wounded Knee," he said.
Nevertheless, Medals of Honor were handed out like candy afterwards. In fact, Wounded Knee resulted in the most Medals of Honor ever awarded for one battle in the history of the U.S. Army.
And one was handed to Sgt. Frederick E. Toy on May 26, 1891. He was cited for bravery, and now stands memorialized in his home town forever. Little in Niagara Falls is what it seems.
In 1916, Congress, acting on reports such as Miles' on Wounded Knee, decided to review all the medals awarded in the history of the U.S. Army. By 1917, the review panel acknowledged that the medals had been given out too freely in the past, and the guidelines for awarding the Medal of Honor were greatly tightened.
In 1990, a hundred years after the massacre, the U.S. Congress finally acknowledged the grave mistake made at Wounded Knee with this apology: "It is proper and timely for the Congress of the United States to express its deep regret to the Sioux people [for the massacre]."
Now, Tilly Black Bear, a Lakota from the Rosebud Reservation, has begun advocating to rescind the 20 Medals of Honor given out for the action that bloody morning. There is also an on-line petition at www.dickshovel.com/RescindMedals.html that Americans can sign to ask Congress to rescind the Wounded Knee Medals.
But for now, if you happen to pass by the monument in Epitaph Park on Main Street, look for the one name listed under the Indian Wars. It's Sgt. Fred E. Toy, hometown boy and Medal of Honor winner.