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Though she died in 1920, she left her children with a description of the massacre, which was published in a 1932 edition of the Billings Gazette: Spear Woman rushed into a tent where there were a number of sick and dying people. Something in her upbringing, in her belief system, in her value system, in that moment made her want her daughter to survive. A world away. When the two-week deadline had passed, General Philip Sheridan sent a squadron of cavalry from the Second Cavalry Regiment, led by Major Eugene Baker,[9][10] to track down and punish the offending party. As a result of his role in the campaign, he would be haunted by visions of Indians while traveling in Canada. In any case, a deep shadow of danger and paranoia hung over the Marias River country for more than sixty years, and was to prevail in a different guise a hundred years later on. Pease further reported fifty-one Blackfeet survivors: eighteen women, nineteen children, nine young men who had escaped, and five men who had been out hunting at the time of the attack. Hamilton and his gang returned to Missouri. However, calling the massacre Bear River can be confusing because there was a massacre against Native Americans in Idaho called the Bear River Massacre that happened around the same time. Before the first shot was fired an Army scout named Joe Kipp tried to warn Colonel Baker that the camp the guns were trained on was not Mountain Chiefs. On the Marias bend, the landscape melts away from us into the faded white of the mist until finally the sun melts the fog slowly way and an empty sea of grass appears. The Rintfleisch or Rindfleisch movement was a series of massacres against Jews in 1298. The Marias Massacre is also known as the Baker Massacre and Piegan Massacre. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_6411_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_6411_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); Just fifteen miles to the southeast is another historic place stained by hatred, which has no monument except the collective, anguished memory of the Blackfeet people. By, "Blood on the Marias: The Baker Massacre", Grizzly bear kills woman near West Yellowstone; Food-conditioned bear killed in Glacier, Officials detect the West Nile virus in Blaine County mosquitos, Three million gallons of wastewater has leaked into Warm Springs Creek, The Montana Democratic Party convenes to elect new officers, Evacuation orders remain in place as Colt Fire grows, Blackfeet Art: Painting The Silver Screen At The Big Sky Documentary Film Fest, Blackfeet To Offer Four-Year Teaching Degrees On Reservation, Blackfeet Tribe Greenlights New Constitution, Blackfeet Constitutional Reform Faces Opposition Despite Early Support. Information on the Marias Massacre in Montana on January 23, 1870, and its aftermath for the state and the nation. [25] Baker died at age 47 on December 19, 1884, at Fort Walla Walla, Washington;[20] a January 1885 obituary listed his cause of death as "general debility.". Learn about efforts to rename Yellowstone National Parks Mount Doane, named for Lieutenant Augustus Doane, who served under Baker and boasted about his role in the massacre. Montana Centennial Farm and Ranch Program, Historic Architecture & Tax Credit Programs, Download The Pikuni and the U.S. Armys Piegan Expedition: Competing Narratives of the 1870 Massacre on the Marias River,, Download the primary-source based lesson plan, Learn about efforts to rename Yellowstone National Parks Mount Doane. Confused by Annies vague response, Carol asked her to elaborate. We went through a ceremony to send our ancestors on because they were trapped in that area from the devastation and trauma. In response, Baker claimed that his men had killed 120 "able men" and 53 women and children. The editorial surmised that the warriors "it seems, fled; at all events, the great majority of those left were women and children. The killing inflamed the public, which caused General Philip Sheridan to send out a band of cavalry led by Major Eugene Baker to track down and punish the offending party. They had spent the last 3 days sleeping on frozen ground without fires, in order to assure a surprise attack. Its different to talk about in class than to actually go there because place-based education helps with historical understanding. The cavalry suffered one fatality. [1] [2] [3] Amnesty International reports that 175 people were killed in what they call the "Maher Bridge incident". Some settlers repeatedly demanded that the government do something about their problem. Ultimately, the senior military officer for the territory, General Philip Sheridan, responded with a fateful decision from his office in Chicago: If the lives and property of citizens of Montana can best be protected by striking Mountain Chiefs band, I want them struck. Like Carol, Leo Bird, didnt hear about the massacre until he was in college. Marias River | Montana, Wildlife, Fishing | Britannica Montana Territory Massacre: Blood on the Snow - HistoryNet Though the incident was as significant as many others, such as the Bear River, Sand Creek, and Washita Massacres, history has overlooked this incident, with little mention of the event in the books and journals of the past. Based on his interviews with officers and survivors, Pease reported a death toll of eighteen older men, ninety women, and fifty children. [1] The event, in later terminology a pogrom, was the first large-scale persecution in Germany since the First Crusade . But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! From its headwaters, the Marias River travels approximately 170 miles towards the southeast, across Montana's Prairie. And then peace came over a lot of us, and the healing started, he said. [6] Other Blackfeet oral histories state that Owl Child's wife became pregnant from the assault, and gave birth to a child who was either stillborn or killed by tribal elders. We are moving on in a good way.. In the spring of 1863, Griffith was recognized and arrested. It is located on the grounds of an abandoned munitions . "[20][21] However, de Trobriand needed to explain why Baker had attacked the wrong camp. MORE:Native American businesses in Montana to get from grant, Our language is crippled, our relationships, everything that makes up a society was fractured, and in my mind, the massacre was the event that started that, Carol said, adding that she intentionally chose the word fractured.. The U.S. 2nd Cavalry had instead reached Chief Heavy Runners band. She saw them burn wounded people in the conflagration. After the murder, Clarke left the fur trading business out of fear of retribution from other traders, as well as the decline of the fur trade during the 1860s due to the dwindling population of bison. Before this event, relations between the Blackfoot Confederacy comprised the Blackfoot, Blood, and Piegan tribes, and the white settlers had been hostile for several years. [17] A rough count by Baker's men showed 173 dead. The Marias Massacre (also known as the Baker Massacre or the Piegan Massacre) was a massacre of Piegan Blackfeet Native peoples which was committed by the United States Army as part of the Indian Wars. The Marias is a Class I river from Tiber Dam to its confluence with the Missouri River for public access for recreational purposes. Im happy that were finding a way to rebuild ourselves after this happened to us.. All articles are regularly reviewed and updated by the HISTORY.com team. We are still here: Blackfeet mark Baker Massacre anniversary [2], From the ridges above the camp, the soldiers shot into lodges filled with sleeping people. As a monument to the Cold War, this nameless, graceless megalith could last longer than the pyramids of Egypt. CN: As with every story, this one has multiple viewpoints. The Marias River (Baker) Massacre | Sutori The whole uproar started in Montana in August when Malcolm Clarke, Horaces father, was lured out of his cabin and murdered by Pete Owl Child, a son of Mountain Chief. Marias Massacre - Wikipedia Vincent Colyer, the secretary to the Board of Indian Commissioners and a noted humanitarian, wrote a letter to board chairman Felix Brunot alerting him to Pease's claim that only 15 men of fighting age had been killed; in contrast, the rest had been women, children, and elderly. He also reported capturing 140 women and children who were later released because of smallpox. Griffith was hanged on October 30, 1863. Two years prior, in 1867, Owl Child had stolen horses from Clarke as payback for losing his horses, which he blamed on the trader. Jan 25, 2020 1 of 8 Carol Murray, vice president of Blackfeet Community College, shares the story of the Baker Massacre during a memorial ceremony observing the 150th anniversary near the. When the carnage was over, 173 lay dead primarily women, children, and the elderly. At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday morning, 23 January 1870, within easy range of the 32 skin lodges clustered near the Marias River beneath the bluffs, 200 soldiers opened fire with their fifty-caliber rifles. Marias River Masscre - Blackfeet Nation - Daniel N. Paul Their blood is coursing through my veins. Also known as the Marias River Massacre or Bear River Massacre, the Baker Massacre occurred Jan. 23, 1870, when the U.S. 2nd Cavalry, led by Maj. Eugene Baker, killed at least 173 members. Those men were from Mountain Chief's band. Museum and research center closed for renovations. Download discussion questions created to accompany the article. So we cant just get over it.. Army. When writer Frank Bird Linderman requested an interview for a story, Kipp refused because the military would hang him if he told what he knew about the massacre. Some believe, however, that using Bakers name rightfully assigns blame. The fear was built up inside them from years of not talking about it. Broken implies theres no coming back. Maher Massacre - Wikipedia Rintfleisch massacres - Wikipedia [26] Horacewho was half-Indianwas ultimately pardoned for his role in the massacre by the Native community, who viewed his participation as justified by a desire to avenge his father and because of his social and economic standing in the community. The incident horrified the U.S. and inspired John Greenleaf Whittier to write a poem on the murders, "Le Marais du Cygne", which appeared in the September 1858 The Atlantic Monthly. They then took blankets, robes, and anything else they wanted. Approximately 200 Native people were killed, most of whom were women, children, and older men. The Montana Watershed Coordination Council is an advocate for the river. [2]Edited by Vernon Carroll. In the meantime, Major Eugene Baker led his troops downstream to find the actual target designated clearly in his orders. There were accounts from Blackfeet claiming Clarke had also raped Owl Child's wife, who was a cousin of Coth-co-co-na. On January 23, 1870, the cavalry received a scouting report that the Piegan, led by Mountain Chief, was camped along the Marias River. They didnt know Maria, Carol said. They took him prisoner. Baker positioned his men on the high ground above the camp in a "natural firing range" and prepared to attack. Baker needed to wait until Sheridan's division inspector general Colonel James A. Hardie reviewed the situation and reported back to him. The massacre occurred on January 23, 1870, in Montana Territory. Jan 25, 2020 0 1 of 3 Iva Croff, division chair of Piikani studies at Blackfeet Community College, arrives with her grandchildren for the 150th commemoration of the Baker Massacre on the Marias. In retaliation, de Trobriand accused Pease of slander and claimed that he had filed a false report. Nathan Clarke was "stabbed to the heart" on September 19, 1872 in Deep Creek, Montana by James Swan, a Mtis man. Blood on the Marias: The Baker Massacre - YouTube This mother, who just watched her little girl drop to the ground is still pushing her older daughter to want life and to survive, said Carol. She ran into a nearby lodge and hid behind a bed backrest. But it was the wrong camp. And the gold camps were fairly well protected Virginia City, Diamond City, Helena all with thousands of gold miners there. No one wanted to rock the boat. [14], For his part, guide Joe Kipp claimed that he had counted 217 casualties, mostly older men, women, and children. Arlen J. As the darkness faded, Bakers scout, Joe Kipp, recognized that the painted designs on the buffalo-skin lodges were those of a peaceful band of Blackfeet led by Heavy Runner. It is a place of bitter lives and frozen grass. In 1887, Congress passed the Dawes Act, which stripped an additional 17 million acres from the Blackfeet. Around the time of the massacre, there was a movement to have Indian Affairs controlled by the War Department, as it had been in the past. Between Sheridan and Shermans statements, an official investigation into the incident never occurred. Chief Heavy Runners 5-year-old daughter, Spear Woman, also survived the massacre. Meriwether Lewis named the Marias River after his cousin, Maria Wood, in 1805, changing it from its Blackfoot name, Kiaayoaitahtaa, or Bear River. Why was this kept from me? A descendant of Heavy Runner, accessed February 6, 2011, "2011, CarolMurrayTellsBakerMassacre1.flv", Annual reuion His Civil War Rank was Brevet Lt. Col of Volunteers and Assistant Adj General/Inspector, "Soldiers Massacre the Wrong Camp of Indians", "The Baker Massacre (Told by Bear Head, a Survivor, circa 1935)", accessed Feb. 5, 2011 CarolMurrayTellsBakerMassacre1.flv, "Major Eugene Baker, 2nd U.S. Cavalry, Fort Ellis, MT", "Canada, Saskatchewan Catholic Church Records, 1846-1957", Article on the 2010 Baker Massacre Memorial, Witness to Carnage: The 1870 Marias Massacre in Montana, Native American Legends: The Marias Massacre, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marias_Massacre&oldid=1165832739. He also claimed that Baker was drunk on the morning of the attack. And I think thats present throughout the book, in different places, that the Indians will eventually simply be obliterated and then wont be a problem. Blackfeet Nation commemorates 150th anniversary of Baker Massacre Marias Massacre - dickshovel.com Historians use alternating names for the massacre. Though he hasnt attended another commemoration since, Bird plans to bring his students to the upcoming commemoration Jan 23. Declaring he did not care whether or not it was the rebellious band of Native Americans he had been searching for,MajorEugene Baker orders his men to attack a sleeping camp of peaceful Blackfeet along the Marias River in northern Montana. He succeeded in preventing an official investigation into the incident. [21] Following the massacre, President Ulysses S. Grant adopted a "Peace Policy." Based on Hardie's January 13 report, Sheridan issued an order to "strike them hard". 2023, A&E Television Networks, LLC. Clarke then moved his family to the Rocky Mountains and undertook ranching with his second wife, a mixed-race Blackfoot woman named Good Singing. She remembered waking up to the noise of barking dogs. De Trobriand claimed that many of the Piegan women had been killed by their husbands to protect them "from tortures among the white men which are inflicted upon white women when captured by those Red fiends." Marias Massacre. Along the way, they captured 11 Free-Staters, none of whom were armed and, it is said, none of whom had participated in the ongoing violence. Owl Child fled North and joined Mountain Chief's Piegan band,[8] which, although known for their hostility toward white settlers, did not conduct raids on the settlements.[2]. The Marias Massacre is the name of one of the worst massacres of American history. Today, January 23rd, fell on a Sunday back in 1870. Sully ordered Pease to interview survivors of the massacre. He said: "We killed some with axes" and "gave them an awful massacreing. Relations between the Niitsitapi Confederacy (composed of Blackfeet, Blood, and Piegan tribes, although frequently referred to simply as Blackfeet) and white settlers in Montana Territory had been largely hostile for years, as European Americans encroached on Native American territory and resources. PW: The best Blackfeet version was given, I think, by Joe Kipp. [14], Bear Head had gone out of the camp to catch his horses when he encountered soldiers. His mission was to punish the Piegan men who had killed Malcolm Clarke, a white trader and rancher. We are patriots, said Blackfeet Tribal Chairman Tim Davis. However, after the massacre, that movement ended, and Indian Affairs were handled instead by the Department of Interior, where they continue to be handled today, according to Andrew Graybill. Sherman wanted "to meet the public charge that of the number killed the greatest part were squaws and children." Rather than a widespread, organized conflict, such as Red Cloud's War,[2] a series of unrelated clashes marked the relations between the groups. According to Carol, as the armys gunshots sailed through the camp, a mother sat in a teepee with her two young daughters and a newborn child. Additionally, the able-bodied men were out hunting, so Heavy Runners camp mostly consisted of the elderly, women, children and victims of smallpox. Only one cavalryman died in the massacre after falling off his horse and breaking his leg. To absolve himself, he adopted and raised several Native American survivors, so some descendants of the massacre bear his last name. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Why didnt somebody tell me? All rights reserved. But Bakers soldiers attacked the camp of Chief Heavy Runner, a friendly chief, killing him and most of his people. When told that the camp belonged to Heavy Runner, Baker responded, "That makes no difference, one band or another of them; they are all Piegans [Blackfeet] and we will attack them." A History of the Marias River Massacre part I - YouTube By the time the brutal attack was over, Baker and his men had, by the best estimate, murdered 37 men, 90 women, and 50 children. Box 201201, Helena, MT 59620-1201, 406-444-2694. Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, Idaho Governor's Lewis and Clark Trail Committee. After a while, they charged into the camp. "[28] This accusation lacks credibility, given the Swan family's hosting of Louis Riel at their home during his time in Montana[29] and the family's subsequent participation in the North-West Resistance. Clarke's other children and his wife took shelter in the house unharmed. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_6411_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_6411_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); Descendants of Heavy Runners band of Blackfeet Indians stand at the place from which their forebears were attacked by U.S. cavalry in 1870. One soldier cut a hole in the lodge where she hid and shot everyone who moved. Lewis and his three companions were watchful every moment of their journey through Marias River country, for they had been led to expect trouble from the Blackfeet. Sherman responded by issuing a press release denying military guilt and insisting that most of the dead Piegans were warriors in Mountain Chiefs camp. The river was the scene of the 1870 Marias Massacre. We call it nation-building. At daybreak on the morning of January 23, 1870, Baker ordered his men to surround the camp in preparation for attack. He saw them tear down all the remaining lodges, shoot the occupants, and burn everything, bodies, and lodges together. The story of the massacre is told in Chapter 35 of the novel Fools Crow (1986), by James Welch (1940-2003), himself the offspring of a Blackfeet father and a Gros Ventre mother. PW: Extermination, if not a primary goal, was certainly high on the list of alternatives as a way to handle the Indians. For more info, call (406) 444-2694. [24] The news that many in the camp had been suffering from smallpox added to the outrage about the army's attack on non-combatants. Marais des Cygnes massacre - Wikipedia As the refugees made their way to Fort Benton, some 90 miles away, many of them froze to death. The Marias River was the name of the massacre's location in Montana. Legislature:Bullock signs Hanna's Act, vetoes other measures. The massacre was initially reported in local newspapers as an achievement. And as the book will tell us, Joe Cobell probably fired the shot that killed Heavy Runner himself. [2] Baker's command, consisting of four companies of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and 55 mounted men of the 13th U.S. Infantry, moved North from Fort Shaw on January 19, looking for Mountain Chief's band, which was purportedly located in the Marias River country. 140 others were captured, later to be turned loose without horses, adequate food, and clothing. The violence that the American government is willing to perpetrate is so immense at that point, that it really ends that cycle of violence and forces Blackfeet people onto reservations.. This resulted in public outrage and a long-term shift towards a "Peace Policy" by the Federal Government, as advocated by President Ulysses S. Grant. Thats when I went home and started asking about it, he said. The massacre had lasting cultural consequences as well. [14], Long Time Calf escaped through the freezing waters of the Marias River, carrying her infant niece. When word of the Baker Massacre (now known as the Marias Massacre) reached the east, many Americans were outraged. 'We are still here': Blackfeet mark Baker Massacre anniversary With seven basements, it was considered to be suitably hardened against nuclear warheads. I just have to admire that mother. When Hardie ordered de Trobriand to interview guides Horace Clarke and Joe Kipp and mail their testimonies to him, de Trobriand ignored the order. [18] The count of casualties was disputed by scout Joe Kipp, who later said the total Blackfeet dead numbered 217. Rather, because of it, she grew even more fascinated by the event in 1870. The river was the site of one of the bloodiest incidents of the Indian Wars when, on January 23, 1870, U.S. soldiers killed 173 Piegan, Blackfoot, and Blood Indians, mostly elderly men, women, and children, in an event that came to be known as the Marias Massacre. Despite the subsequent controversy, General Sheridan expressed his confidence in Baker's leadership while struggling to protect the U.S. Army politically. The U.S. Army heard about Clarkes death, and Gen. Philip Sheridan, who was leading efforts to repress Native Americans, selected Maj. Eugene Baker to lead a retaliatory attack against the Piegan Indians, a branch of the Blackfeet peoples. A reminder that for several decades, every time the news media reported a crisis in Russian-American relations, people hereabouts, whatever their ancestry, tended to glance toward the northern horizon. I think of their resilience and their survival against what could have taken all of their lives, she said. Sheridan reported to Congress that he could save the government $3.5 million in annual transportation costs alone. 4 Day - Marias River - Missouri River Outfitters Its important to look at the story from both sides of the event and realize the atrocities that happened and what the consequences were so that we dont repeat them, he said. Strengthening his cavalry units with two infantry groups from Fort Shaw near Great Falls, Baker led his troops out into sub-zero winter weather and headed north in search of Mountain Chiefs band. The daughter in question was likely Adelaide Swan, as she married Alexandre Azure (a Mtis man) on November 26, 1872. Family structures fractured, and the Blackfeet Nation suffered language and culture loss. The older girl grabbed her little sisters hand, and when they got near the teepees door, the little sister was fatally shot in the head. The Marais des Cygnes massacre ( / mr d zin, - sin, mr d zin /, [1] [2] also / mri d sin, mre d sen /) [citation needed] is considered the last significant act of violence in Bleeding Kansas prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. In attempt to calm his camp, Heavy Runner approached the army, waving a note of safe passage he received from the superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Montana Territory. They were afraid people would come kill the rest of us, he said. Paul Wylie: The settlers came, basically, for gold. It was an exhausting era of ideological rivalry, risky power plays, and emotional abuse between the Soviet Republic and the United States. In this years line-up, 20 films are listed in the "Made In Montana", The Blackfeet Tribe is working to expand teacher education on the reservation. Welch's surrealistic, moving novel, Winter in the Blood, was recently made into a movie by Alex and Andrew Smith, filmed on Montana's Hi-Line and featuring Native . Rintfleisch massacres. and ended discussions about returning control of Indian affairs to the U.S. As the name implies, the Marias Massacre was not a battle, but an attack on a sleeping band of peaceful Blackfeet camped along the Marias River southeast of Shelby, on what is now the. The other seemingly duplicity in the whole thing is the hiring of Joe Cobell. Only one Free-Stater escaped injury.[3]. His mission was to punish the Piegan men who had killed Malcolm Clarke, a white trader and rancher. "[27] Andrew Graybill's The Red and the White portrays Clarke's stabbing as an expression of the "self-loathing" of "some people of mixed ancestry," asserting that James Swan preferred his daughter marry "a white man. These prisoners were led into a defile, where Hamilton ordered his men to shoot, firing the first and last bullet himself. He saw soldiers shoot at the tops of lodges, cutting the bindings and collapsing them onto the fire so that they smothered and burned their occupants. Mountain Chief was also called Big Brave (Omach-katsi) and adopted the name Frank Mountain Chief. Doane was a participant in the Marias Massacre of approximately 200 Piegan Blackfeet people (mostly women, children, and old men). A Native American literature professor suggested she write about the Baker Massacre, which occurred Jan. 23, 1870, when the U.S. 2nd Cavalry, led by Maj. Eugene Baker, reportedly killed 173 members of the Blackfeet Nation at a camp near present-day Shelby. [14], The conflict between settlers and the Blackfeet declined after the massacre. Amidst low-level hostilities in 1869, a young warrior named Owl Child stole several horses from Malcolm Clarke, a white trader. For the next hour, the army attacked. And when I say Heavy Runner I dont mean himself, I mean members of his band. Mountain Chief and Owl Child, Kipp quickly realized, must have gotten wind of the approaching soldiers and moved their winter camp elsewhere. As part of a campaign to suppress Mountain Chief's band of Piegan Blackfeet, the U.S. Army attacked a different band led by Chief Heavy Runner, to whom the United States government had previously promised their protection. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001). The Marias has rich Blackfeet history and it is a culturally significant river. The massacre was real. Following the brutal slaughter, the soldiers then burned the Indians tipis and other possessions and took their horses, decreasing the likelihood that those who survived the attack would be able to survive the harsh winter weather. There is a question, though, as to whether or not he was totally objective in trying to find Mountain Chiefs camp. History on the Marias includes: native stories, the Marias Massacre, Bison pits, Corps of Discovery, homesteading and much more.