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In the frigid dawn of January 29, 1863, Sagwitch, a leader among the Shoshone of Bia Ogoi, or Big River, in what is now Idaho, stepped outside his lodge and saw a curious band of fog moving down the bluff toward him across a half-frozen river. The mist was no fog, though. It was steam rising in the subzero air from hundreds of U.S. Army foot soldiers, cavalry and their horses. The Army was coming for his people.
Over the next four hours, the 200 soldiers under Colonel Patrick Connor’s command killed 250 or more Shoshone, including at least 90 women, children and infants. The Shoshone were shot, stabbed and battered to death. Some were driven into the icy river to drown or freeze. The Shoshone men, and some women, meanwhile, managed to kill or mortally wound 24 soldiers by gunfire.
Historians call the Bear River Massacre of 1863 the deadliest reported attack on Native Americans by the U.S. military—worse than Sand Creek in 1864, the Marias in 1870 and Wounded Knee in 1890.
It is also the least well known. In 1863, most of the nation’s attention was focused on the Civil War, not the distant western territories. Only a few eyewitness and secondhand accounts of the incident were published at the time in Utah and California newspapers. Local people avoided the site, with its bones and shanks of hair, for years, and the remaining Bia Ogoi families quietly dispersed. But their descendants still tell the tale of that long-ago bloody day, and now archaeologists are beginning to unearth the remains of the village that didn’t survive.
Darren Parry, a solemn man who is a council member of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation and Sagwitch’s great-great-great grandson, stands on a hill named Cedar Point. He looks down on the historic battlefield in its braided river valley. An irrigation canal curves along the base of the bluffs, and a few pickup trucks drive along U.S. Highway 91, following a route used by the Shoshone 200 years ago.
These alterations to the landscape—roads, farms and an aqueduct, along with shifts in the river’s meandering course through the valley—have made it difficult, from a scientist’s perspective, to pinpoint the location of the Shoshone winter village. Parry, though, does not have this problem.
“This spot overlooks everything that was important to our tribe,” he says. “Our bands wintered here, resting and spending time with family. There are warmer places in Utah, but here there are hot springs, and the ravine for protection from storms.”
The So-So-Goi, or People Who Travel on Foot, had been living well on Bia Ogoi for generations. All their needs—food, clothes, tools and shelter—were met by the rabbits, deer, elk and bighorn sheep on the land, the fish in the river, and the camas lilies, pinyon nuts and other plants that ripened in the short, intense summers. They lived in loose communities of extended families and often left the valley for resources such as salmon in Oregon and bison in Wyoming. In the cold months, they mostly stayed in the ravine village, eating carefully stored provisions and occasional fresh meat.
White-skinned strangers came through the mountain passes into the valley seeking beaver and other furs. These men gave the place a new name, Cache Valley, and the year a number, 1825. They gave the So-So-Goi a new name, too—Shoshone. The Shoshone traded with the hunters and trappers, who were little cause for concern since they were few in number and only passing through.
But then people who called themselves Mormons came to the northern valley. The Mormons were looking for a place where they, too, could live well. They were many in number, and they stayed, calling this place Franklin. The newcomers cut down trees, built cabins, fenced the land to keep in livestock, plowed the meadows for crops and hunted the remaining game. They even changed Big River’s name to Bear.
At first, relations between the Shoshone and the Mormons were cordial. The settlers had valuable things to trade, such as cooking pots, knives, horses and guns. And the Shoshone knowledge of living off the land was essential when the Mormons’ first crops failed.
But eventually, the Shoshone “became burdensome beggars” in the eyes of the Mormons, writes Kenneth Reid, Idaho’s state archaeologist and director of the Idaho State Historic Preservation Office, in a new summary of the massacre for the U.S. National Park Service’s American Battlefield Protection Program. “Hunger, fear and anger prompted unpredictable transactions of charity and demand between the Mormon settlers and the increasingly desperate and defiant Shoshones. The Indians pretended to be friendly, and the Mormons pretended to take care of them, but neither pretense was very reassuring to the opposite party.”
In Salt Lake City, the territorial commissioner of Indian affairs was well aware of the growing discord between the two peoples and hoped to resolve it through treaty negotiations that would give the Shoshones land—somewhere else, of course—and food. Conflict continued, however, and when a small group of miners was killed, Army Colonel Connor resolved to “chastise” those he believed responsible—the Shoshone people living in the ravine in the northern valley at the confluence of a creek and the Bear River.
Pointing below Cedar Point, Parry says, “My grandmother told me that her grandfather [Sagwitch’s son Yeager, who was 12 years old and survived the massacre by pretending to be dead] told her that all the tipis were set up right here in the ravine and hugging the side of the mountain.” He continues, “Most of the killing took place between here and the river. Because the soldiers drove the people into the open and into the river.”
In 2013, the Idaho State Historical Society began efforts to map and protect what may remain of the battlefield. The following year, archaeologists KennethCannon, of Utah State University and president of USU Archeological Services, and Molly Cannon, director of the Museum of Anthropology at Utah State, started investigating the site.
Written and oral accounts of the events at Bear River suggested the Cannons would find remains from the battle in a ravine with a creek that flowed into the river. And soon they did find artifacts from the post-massacre years, such as buckles, buttons, barbed wire and railroad spikes. They even found traces of a prehistoric hearth from around 900 A.D.
But their primary goal, the location of the Shoshone-village-turned-killing-ground, proved elusive. There should have been thousands of bullets that had been fired from rifles and revolvers, as well as the remnants of 70 lodges that had sheltered 400 people—post-holes, hardened floors, hearths, pots, kettles, arrowheads, food stores and trash middens.
Yet of this core objective, the scientists found only one piece of hard evidence: a spent .44-caliber round lead ball of that period that could have been fired by a soldier or warrior.
The Cannons dove back into the data. Their team combined historic maps with magnetometer and ground-penetrating-radar studies, which showed potential artifacts underground, and geomorphic maps that showed how floods and landslides had reshaped the terrain. That’s when they found “something really exciting,” says Kenneth Cannon.
“The three different types of data sources came together to support the notion that the Bear River, within a decade of the massacre, shifted at least 500 yards to the south, to its present location,” he says.
The archaeologists now suspect that the site where the heaviest fighting and most deaths occurred has been buried by a century of sediment, entombing all traces of the Shoshone. “We had been looking in the wrong place,” Kenneth Cannon says. If his team can get funding, the Cannons will return to the Bear River valley this summer to resume their search for Bia Ogoi.
Though the exact site of the village is still unknown, the massacre that destroyed it may finally be getting the attention it deserves. In 2017, the Idaho State Museum in Boise will host an exhibit on the Bear River Massacre. And the Northwestern Shoshone are in the process of acquiring land in the area for an interpretive center that would describe the the lives of their ancestors in the Bear River valley, the conflicts between native people and European immigrants and the killings of 1863.
This is a story, Parry says, that needs to be told.
Editor's Note, May 13, 2016: After publishing, two corrections were made to this story. First, a sentence was clarified to indicate that archaeologists found evidence of a prehistoric hearth, not a dwelling. Second, a sentence was removed to avoid the implication that the scientists are looking for or collecting human bones as part of their research.
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Sylvia Wright | READ MORE
Sylvia Wright is a science writer and photographer based in Davis, Calif. She tells stories about the work of researchers in the American West.
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FAQs
What was the worst Native American massacre in history? ›
During the First Fox War, French troops alongside their Indian allies killed around 1,000 Fox Indians men, women and children in a five-day massacre near the head of the Detroit River.
When was the last American Indian massacre? ›On December 29, 1890, in one of the final chapters of America's long Indian wars, the U.S. Cavalry kills 146 Sioux at Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota.
Where was the last Indian massacre? ›The ambush, by a white posse, left Mike and seven other Indians dead in the snow near Winnemucca, Nev., on Feb. 26, 1911, 21 years after the last major Indian massacre, at Wounded Knee, S.D. According to researchers, Shoshone Mike refused to settle on the Ft.
How many Indians were killed in the Sand Creek Massacre? ›In 1864, the U. S. Army carried out a surprise attack on a non-combatant encampment of Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians along the Big Sandy Creek in southeastern Colorado, killing about 160 men, women, and children, including elderly or infirm.
What was the main cause of Native American deaths? ›In addition to deliberate killings and wars, Native Americans died in massive numbers from infections endemic among Europeans. Much of this was associated with respiratory tract infections, including smallpox, tuberculosis, measles, and influenza (1, 2).
What killed the most natives in the Americas? ›They had never experienced smallpox, measles or flu before, and the viruses tore through the continent, killing an estimated 90% of Native Americans. Smallpox is believed to have arrived in the Americas in 1520 on a Spanish ship sailing from Cuba, carried by an infected African slave.
How many Native Americans are left? ›The number of Indigenous people in the United States of America is estimated at between 4 and 7 million,1 of which around 20% live in American Indian areas or Alaska Native villages. Indigenous Peoples in the United States are more commonly referred to as Native groups.
What was the last Native American tribe to surrender? ›Native History: Geronimo Is Last Native Warrior to Surrender - ICT.
Did the Indians massacre settle? ›...
Indian massacre of 1622.
| 1622 Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Target | English settlers in the Virginia colony |
| Attack type | Massacre |
| Deaths | 347 |
| Perpetrators | Powhatan |
Ishi, who was widely acclaimed as the "last wild Indian" in the United States, lived most of his life isolated from modern North American culture. In 1911, aged 50, he emerged at a barn and corral, 2 mi (3.2 km) from downtown Oroville, California. Northern California Sierra Foothills, U.S.
What was the best known incident of Indian Removal? ›
During the fall and winter of 1838-39, the Cherokees were forcibly moved from their homes to the Indian Territory—some having to walk as many as 1,000 miles over a four-month period. Approximately 4,000 of 16,000 Cherokees died along the way. This sad chapter in our history is known as the "Trail of Tears."
What was the Indian Removal called? ›On May 28, 1830, Congress passed the Indian Removal Act, beginning the forced relocation of thousands of Native Americans in what became known as the Trail of Tears.
Do the Creek Indians still exist? ›Today, the Muscogee (Creek) Nation is located in Oklahoma and has land claims in the Florida panhandle. The Tribal headquarters is located in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, and the tribe has approximately 44,000 tribal members.
Who is to blame for the Sand Creek Massacre? ›On November 29, 1864, peaceful band of Southern Cheyenne and Arapahoe Native Americans are massacred by Colonel John Chivington's Colorado volunteers at Sand Creek, Colorado.
Where was the last Battle of the Indian wars? ›The final battle between Native American fighters and U.S. Army forces occurred 100 years ago in Bear Valley near the Arizona border with Mexico.
What genetic disorders are common in Native Americans? ›Native American Myopathy (NAM) is a genetic disease as well as a genetic disorder caused by a unique gene mutation that almost exclusively effects American Indians. Myopathy is the general term that oversees both a large and diverse group of diseases that can all be defined as a muscle disease.
Who were the first people in America? ›In the 1970s, college students in archaeology such as myself learned that the first human beings to arrive in North America had come over a land bridge from Asia and Siberia approximately 13,000 to 13,500 years ago. These people, the first North Americans, were known collectively as Clovis people.
Why did pilgrims resist bathing? ›Rather than bathing, early American colonists believed that other practices, like regularly changing their undergarments, qualified as good hygiene. Rather than bathing, early American colonists believed that other practices, like regularly changing their undergarments, qualified as good hygiene.
How was 90% of the Native American population destroyed? ›Indigenous people both north and south were displaced, died of disease, and were killed by Europeans through slavery, rape, and war. In 1491, about 145 million people lived in the western hemisphere. By 1691, the population of indigenous Americans had declined by 90–95 percent, or by around 130 million people.
What Indian tribe scalped the most? ›Apache and Comanche Indians were both popular with scalp hunters.
What happened to American Indians after 1492? ›
European colonization of the Americas, which began in 1492, resulted in a precipitous decline in Native American population because of new diseases, wars, ethnic cleansing, and enslavement.
How much money do you get a month for being Native American? ›The bottom line is Native Americans do not get automatic monthly or quarterly checks from the United States government. Maybe they should, and maybe one day they will, but at this time it is merely a myth.
What state has the most Indians? ›| State | Asian Indian population (2010 Census) | Asian Indian population (2000 Census) |
|---|---|---|
| California | 528,120 | 314,819 |
| New York | 313,620 | 251,724 |
| New Jersey | 292,256 | 169,180 |
| Texas | 245,981 | 129,365 |
The "Clovis first theory" refers to the hypothesis that the Clovis culture represents the earliest human presence in the Americas about 13,000 years ago.
Who is now responsible for the Native American tribes? ›The BIA carries out its core mission to serve 574 Federally recognized tribes through four offices. The Office of Indian Services operates the BIA's general assistance, disaster relief, Indian child welfare, tribal government, Indian Self-Determination, and reservation roads programs.
Who was the 1st tribe to be removed? ›On September 27, 1830, the Choctaw signed the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek and became the first Native American tribe to be removed.
What is the only Native American group to resist removal? ›The Cherokee Nation, led by Principal Chief John Ross, resisted the Indian Removal Act, even in the face of assaults on its sovereign rights by the state of Georgia and violence against Cherokee people.
Did Native Americans have dogs? ›The Arrival of Dogs in North America
Dogs were Native American's first domesticated animal thousands of years before the arrival of the European horse. It is estimated that there were more than 300,000 domesticated dogs in America when the first European explorers arrived.
The term "Indian," in reference to the original inhabitants of the American continent, is said to derive from Christopher Columbus, a 15th century boat-person. Some say he used the term because he was convinced he had arrived in "the Indies" (Asia), his intended destination.
Did the British fight the Native Americans? ›While many Native Americans fought with the British, battles on the frontiers involved very few professional British soldiers. Most of the fighting was between Native warriors, American Loyalists, and rebel militia. This war did not end when General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown in 1781.
How old was the average Native American? ›
The median age for American Indians and Alaska Natives is 31 years, compared with a median age of 37.4 for the U.S. population as a whole.
How old did the average Native American live? ›Johnson said then that the average age of death for an American Indian was 44, compared to a U.S. average of 65 – half again as long as that for Native Americans.
How far back do Native Americans go? ›The indigenous people hadn't always been there, nor had they originated there, as some of their traditions state, but they had occupied these American lands for at least 20,000 years.
Which was one of the most brutal incident in the Indian history? ›Jallianwala Bagh Massacre, Jallianwala also spelled Jallianwalla, also called Massacre of Amritsar, incident on April 13, 1919, in which British troops fired on a large crowd of unarmed Indians in an open space known as the Jallianwala Bagh in Amritsar in the Punjab region (now in Punjab state) of India, killing ...
Who did the Indian Removal Act hurt? ›Although the treaty mandated the removal of “all white people who have intruded, or may hereafter intrude, on the lands of the Cherokees,” the United States instead forcibly removed more than 15,000 Cherokees in 1838 and 1839.
How long did Indian removal last? ›The cases decided by the court over this nine year period ultimately divested Indians from land ownership and made them mere occupiers of the land in which they inhabited; confirmed the federal government to be the sole body capable of legislating over Indians; and established the Indian canons of construction to help ...
What tribes fought the Indian Removal? ›The problem lay in the Southeast, where members of what were known as the Five Civilized Tribes (Chickasaw, Choctaw, Seminole, Cherokee, and Creek) refused to trade their cultivated farms for the promise of strange land in the Indian Territory with a so-called permanent title to that land.
How much land do Native American own today? ›Approximately 56 million acres of land are held in trust by the United States for various Native American tribes and individuals.
Why did they want to remove the Indians? ›The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was approved and enforced by President Andrew Jackson. This act enabled the forced removal of Native American Tribes from their already claimed lands to land west of the Mississippi River. The reason for this forced removal was to make westward expansion for Americans easier.
Who was a famous Creek Indian? ›Chief Menawa Menawa was one of the most famous Creek Indians of the nineteenth century. He is best known for his leadership in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend, the most defining battle of the Creek War of 1813-14.
What is the religion of the Creek tribe? ›
Creek spirituality encompasses awareness of spiritual beings, both good and bad. Participants believed that spirits exist alongside people and can send and receive messages from people to guide and inform them. Creeks have ongoing, though not constant, relationships with loved ones and others who have died.
Who is the leader of the Creek tribe? ›The most important Creek leader was the mico or village chief. In addition to providing domestic leadership , micos served as diplomatic representatives. They welcomed traders, diplomats, and other sojourners into the village, served as representatives at treaty negotiations, and led warriors into battle.
How did the Sand Creek Massacre end? ›After finishing the massacre in the creek bed, the troops hunted for anyone who had escaped, then scalped and mutilated the bodies of the dead Indians, and destroyed the village. In all, roughly 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho died in the massacre.
How did the Civil War lead to the Sand Creek Massacre? ›The slaughter would come to be known as the Sand Creek Massacre. The massacre was rooted in the Civil War with local Colorado officials concerned that the Natives were being led astray by Confederate agents.
What did the Wounded Knee massacre lead to? ›The massacre was the climax of the U.S. Army's late 19th-century efforts to repress the Plains Indians. It broke any organized resistance to reservation life and assimilation to white American culture, although American Indian activists renewed public attention to the massacre during a 1973 occupation of the site.
How many American Indian tribes still exist? ›The U.S. government officially recognizes 574 Indian tribes in the contiguous 48 states and Alaska. These federally recognized tribes are eligible for funding and services from the Bureau of Indian Affairs, either directly or through contracts, grants, or compacts.
What was the last free Indian tribe? ›His people, the Yahi, had supposedly vanished decades earlier, and because they were the last Natives living freely in the West, Ishi became famous as “the last wild Indian.”
What is the number one killer of Native Americans? ›European settlers killed 56 million indigenous people over about 100 years in South, Central and North America, causing large swaths of farmland to be abandoned and reforested, researchers at University College London, or UCL, estimate.
What was the bloodiest battle between U.S. troops and Native Americans? ›On December 29, 1890, the U.S. Army surrounded a group of Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee Creek near the Pine Ridge reservation of South Dakota. During the ensuing Wounded Knee Massacre, fierce fighting broke out and 150 Indians were slaughtered.
Which Native Americans were the most vicious? ›
The Comanches, known as the "Lords of the Plains", were regarded as perhaps the most dangerous Indians Tribes in the frontier era.
How painful is being scalped? ›Although extremely painful, being scalped alive was not always fatal. A full-scalping would often lead to serious medical complications. This included profuse bleeding, infection, and eventual death if the bone of the skull was left exposed.
Why is Native American hair so long? ›For Native Americans, long hair equates to POWER, VIRILITY, and PHYSICAL STRENGTH. Beliefs and customs do differ widely between tribes, however, as a general rule, both men and women are encouraged to wear their hair long. Long hair ties the people to Mother Earth, reflecting Her long grasses.
Does hair grow back after scalping? ›Hair regrowth is not a guarantee
However, in the vast majority of cases where hair is pulled from the scalp, hair grows back. If you or I were to reach up a pluck a hair, it will grow back.
Alaska, Oklahoma and New Mexico have the highest population share of American Indians and Alaska Natives, according to new census figures. Nov. 26, 2021, at 7:30 a.m.
Did Native Americans believe in God? ›According to Harriot, the Indians believed that there was "one only chief and great God, which has been from all eternity," but when he decided to create the world he started out by making petty gods, "to be used in the creation and government to follow." One of these petty gods he made in the form of the sun, another ...
What was the most bloody battle in U.S. history? ›The Battle of Antietam remains the bloodiest single day in American history. The battle left 23,000 men killed or wounded in the fields, woods and dirt roads, and it changed the course of the Civil War.
What was the most violent battle in the American Revolution? ›The bloodiest battle by the number of deaths in the Revolutionary War was the Battle of Camden where 68 British soldiers lost their life and between 800 and 900 Americans lost theirs. The battle was one of many the British won shortly after the Siege of Charleston that ended on May 12, 1780.
Which was the bloodiest war ever fought on American soil and what was the reason for its eruption? ›Lasting three days in 1863, from July 1-3, Gettysburg was the bloodiest battle ever fought on American soil, with up to 10,000 Union and Confederate troops dead and another 30,000 wounded. But surprisingly, this tremendous battle was a purely unplanned accident that grew out of a desperate need for soldiers' shoes!