Battles and Massacres of the Indian Wars in the American West

Battles & Massacres of the Indian Wars - Page 5

Utah

Gunnison Massacre (1853) - At this site a band of Ute Indians massacred Captain John W. Gunnison's Pacific Railroad Survey party, one of several sponsored by the War Department's Corps of Topographical Engineers. Unaware that the Walker War had broken out between the Ute Indians of central Utah and the Mormons, Gunnison and seven men set out on October 21, 1853, from their camp at Cedar Springs, just west of Fillmore, Utah, to explore the Sevier Lake country, in the area of Indian hostilities. Four days later a band of Ute massacred the party. Searchers found the bodies and buried them at the site. The massacre halted surveying activities in Utah until the following year, when Ute hostilities ended. Lieutenant Edward G. Beckwith resumed the survey and completed it to the Pacific. A monument marks the massacre site, which is in Millard County, on an unimproved road, about nine miles southwest of Deseret.

Coo-che-to-pa Pass

Coo-che-to-pa Pass from the Gunnison-Beckwith Exploration Report, 1855, courtesy National Park Service.

Walker War (1853) - When the Mormons began to settle on the hunting grounds of the Ute Indians, the natives were at first friendly, working out accommodations with the immigrants and even inviting Brigham Young to send Mormon colonists to the Sanpitch (now Sanpete) Valley. Relations between the two groups were helpful and cooperative when they first began to settle in 1849. However, when the Mormons began to attempt to suppress New Mexican trade, tensions developed with the Ute, who had long depended on the trade, especially that of native slaves, to which the Mormons strongly objected. Though Young had negotiated a trading relationship with Chief Walkara in 1850, the colonists began to interfere in many of the Ute transactions. At the same time, the area was being traveled more and more with non-Mormon trading expeditions and settlers and in a few isolated instances, some Ute Indians were killed.

The tensions came to ahead on July 17, 1853 when several Utes were trading at James Ivie's home near Springville. During the transaction, a dispute erupted between a Ute man and his wife over her failure to strike a good bargain. When Ivie tried to intervene, the dispute turned violent and in the end, Ivie killed an Indian brave named Shower-Ocats, who was a relative of Walkara. The Ute were outraged.

In response, Captain Stephen C. Perry of the Springville Militia led a unit into Walkara's camp the next day to try to mollify the Indians; however, the Utes demanded the death of of a white settler in retribution. When their demands were not met, the Ute were even angrier and Perry’s militia fled. The Walker War had begun, which primarily consisted of Ute raids against the Mormon outposts and retaliations by the pioneers. As a result, Brigham Young directed settlers to move from outlying farms and ranches and establish centralized forts.

The Walker War ended through negotiations between Young and Walkara during the winter of 1853. Casualties during the war equaled about twelve white settlers and an estimated equal amount of Indians. The next summer, about 120 of Walkara's tribe were baptized as Mormons.

Washington

Four Lakes Battlefield (1858) - The clash at this site on September 1, 1858 marked the beginning of a running engagement that culminated four days later in the Battle of Spokane Plain. In these battles, Colonel George Wright revenged the victory of the Spokan, Palouse, and Coeur d'Alene tribes of eastern Washington against Major Steptoe in May about 25 miles to the southeast of the Four Lakes Battlefield. Wright's 600 cavalry men and infantry men, equipped with the new 1855 long-range rifle-muskets, beat an equal-sized Indian force, emboldened by its triumph over Major Edward J. Steptoe. The troops, who did not have a single casualty, killed 60 Indians and wounded many others. An arrow-shaped stone pyramid in the town of Four Lakes, Washington marks the site of the battle.

Spokane Plain Battlefield (1858) – In the wake of the Battle of Four Lakes, the Battle of Spokane Plain was the last in Colonel George Wright's 1858 campaign in eastern Washington. Ranging over 25 miles and testing the endurance of the participants, it resulted in another Army victory over the Yakima, Spokane, Palouse, and Coeur d'Alene tribes. Occurring on September 5, 1858, the battle began about ten miles west of present-day Spokane and continued east across the plains until evening.

After the battle, shrugging off peace overtures, Wright marched through Indian country singling out the leaders of the war and destroying their horse herds. The Yakima chieftain, Kamiakin, again escaped. But, before returning to Fort Walla Walla, Wright hanged 15 war leaders and placed others in chains. Like the Rogue River Indians of Oregon, the tribes he campaigned against in 1858 never again tried to stem the flow of settlers by force of arms. Today, a large stone pyramid commemorates the battle in the one-acre Spokane Plains State Park.

The Yakima War (1855-1858)

Between the years of 1855 and 1858 the Yakama Indians (spelled Yakima at the time) were living along the Columbia and Yakima Rivers on the plateau in central Washington Territory. Living in an area that was "in the way” of white settlers, most particularly, miners looking for their fortunes, the first governor of the newly formed Washington Territory, Isaac Stevens, along with the Superintendent of Oregon Territory, Joel Palmer, sought to move the Yakama, as well as the Walla Walla, Umatilla, and Cayuse tribes onto reservations in 1855. Ceding in excess of six million acres to the U.S. government in exchange for $200,000, the Indians were promised that white miners and settlers would not be allowed to trespass upon their lands.

However, when gold was discovered in the Colville area and in the Fraser River area of British Columbia, the miners ignored the rules and trespassed anyway, sometimes stealing the Indian's horses and mistreating them. When some of the Yakama warriors retaliated by killing miners in isolated incidents, Andrew J. Bolon, the Indian sub-agent at The Dalles was sent in to investigate. When, he too was killed, troops were sent into the Yakima Valley, starting the Yakima Indian War in October, 1855.

As the troops continued to flood the region, the Yakama united with the Walla Walla and Cayuse tribes and a number of raids and battles took place. The last phase of the Yakima War, referred to as the Coeur d'Alene War or Palouse War came in 1858 when a force under the command of Colonel George Wright was sent in to deal with the Indians. In September, 1858, Wright’s troops defeated the Yakama and their allies in the Battle of Four Lakes near Spokane, Washington. Though the main Indian leader, Yakama Chief Kamiakin fled to Canada, 24 other chiefs were captured, and then hanged or shot. The remainder of the tribes were then permanently placed on reservations.

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