In the history of the European colonization of North America, the term "Indian massacre" was often used to describe either mass killings of Europeans by indigenous people of the North American continent (Indians) or mass killings of indigenous people by the Europeans and by Americans of European origin.
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Determining how many people died in these massacres overall is difficult. In the book The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee, amateur historian William M. Osborn sought to tally every recorded atrocity in the area that would eventually become the continental United States, from first contact (1511) to the closing of the frontier (1890), and determined that 7,193 people died from atrocities perpetrated by whites, and 9,156 people died from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans. Osborn defines an atrocity as the murder, torture, or mutilation of civilians, the wounded, and prisoners. Different definitions would obviously produce different totals.[1]
This is a listing of some of the events reported then or referred to now as "Indian massacres":
Year | Date | Name | Description | Claimants |
---|---|---|---|---|
1539 | Napituca Massacre | After defeating resisting Timucuan warriors, Hernando de Soto had 200 executed, in the first large-scale massacre by Europeans on what became American soil. | Duncan, E., Hernando de Soto, pp. 286–291. | |
1540 | October 18 | Mabila Massacre | The Choctaw retaliated against Hernando de Soto's expedition,[2] killing 200 soldiers, as well as many of their horses and pigs, for their having burned down Mabila compound and killed c. 2,500 warriors who had hidden in houses of a fake village.[3] | Duncan, E., Hernando de Soto, pp. 376–384; Steele, I., Warpaths, p. 15. |
1541–42 | Tiguex Massacres | After the invading Spaniards seized the houses, food and clothing of the Tiguex, and raped their women, the Tiguex resisted. The Spanish attacked them, burning at the stake 50 people who had surrendered. Francisco Vázquez de Coronado's men laid siege to the Moho Pueblo, and after a months-long siege, they killed 200 fleeing warriors. | Sauer, C. Sixteenth Century North America, p. 141. Flint, R., No Settlement, No Conquest, pp. 144–153. | |
1599 | January 22–24 | Acoma Massacre | In retaliation for the killing of 11 Spanish soldiers, Juan de Oñate led a punitive expedition against the natives in a three-day battle at the Acoma Pueblo, killing approximately 800. King Philip II later punished Oñate for his excesses.[4] | Weber, D., The Spanish Frontier in North America, pp. 85–86. |
1601 | Sandia Mountains | Spanish troops destroyed 3 Indian villages in the Sandia Mountains, New Mexico. According to Spanish sources, 900 Tompiro Indians were killed. | [5] | |
1622 | March 22 | Indian massacre of 1622 (Jamestown Massacre) |
Powhatan (Pamunkey) killed 347 English men, women and children throughout the Virginia colony, almost one-third of the English population of the Jamestown colony, in an effort to push the English out of Virginia. | [6] |
1623 | May 12 | Pamunkey Peace Talks | The English poisoned the wine at a "peace conference" with Powhatan leaders, killing about 200; they physically attacked and killed another 50. | Steele, I., Warpaths, p. 47. |
1637 | May 26 | Mystic Massacre | In the Pequot War, English colonists commanded by John Mason (c. 1600–1672), with Mohegan and Narragansett allies, launched a night attack on a large Pequot village on the Mystic River in present-day Connecticut, where they burned the inhabitants in their homes and killed all survivors, for total fatalities of about 600–700. | Cave, A., The Pequot War, pp. 144–154. |
1643 | Pavonia Massacre | In 1643 the Mohawk attacked a band of Wappinger and Tappan, who fled to New Amsterdam seeking the protection of New Netherland governor, William Kieft. Kieft dispersed them to Pavonia[7] and Corlears Hook. They were later attacked, 129 being killed. This prompted the beginning of Kieft's War, driven by mercenary John Underhill.[8][9] | [10] | |
1643 | August | Massacre of Anne Hutchinson and her family | In New Netherland, now northeastern Bronx in New York City, near the Split Rock, local Lenape killed Anne Hutchinson, six of her children, a son-in-law, and as many as seven others (servants). Susanna, one of Hutchinson's daughters, was taken captive and lived with the Lenape for several years. | LaPlante, E., American Jezebel, p. 231. |
1644 | March | Pound Ridge Massacre | In New Netherland, at present day Pound Ridge, New York, John Underhill, hired by the Dutch, attacked and burned a sleeping village of Lenape, killing about 500 Indians. | Steele, I., Warpaths, p. 116. Trelease, A., Indian Affairs in Colonial New York; The Seventeenth Century, pp. 79–80. |
1675 | September 18 | Bloody Brook Massacre | During King Philip's War, Indian warriors killed 60 soldiers of Deerfield, Massachusetts. | [11] |
1675 | December 19 | Great Swamp Massacre (Great Swamp Fight) |
Colonial militia attacked a Narragansett fort near South Kingston, Rhode Island. At least 40 warriors were killed and 300 women, children and elder men burnt in the village. | [12] |
1676 | March 26 | Nine Men's Misery | During King Philip's War, warriors subjected nine captive soldiers to ritual torture and death. | [13] |
1676 | May 10 | Turner Falls Massacre (Battle of Turner's Falls) |
Captain William Turner and 150 militia volunteers attacked a fishing indian camp at present-day Turner Falls, Massachussets. At least 100 women and children were killed in the attack. | [14] |
1676 | July 2 | Rhode Island | Militia volunteers under Major Talcott attacked a band of Narragansetts on Rhode Island, killing 34 men and 92 women and children. | [15] |
1680 | August 10 | Pueblo Revolt | Pueblo warriors killed 380 Spanish settlers, and drove other Spaniards from New Mexico. | [16] |
1689 | August 5 | Lachine massacre | 1,500 Mohawk warriors attacked the small settlement of Lachine, New France and killed more than 90 of the village's 375 French residents, following widespread French attacks on Mohawk villages in present-day New York. | [17] |
1689 | Zia Pueblo | Governor Jironza de Cruzate destroyed the pueblo of Zia, New Mexico. 600 Indians were killed and 70 survivors enslaved. | [18] | |
1690 | February 8 | Schenectady Massacre | As part of the Beaver Wars, French and Algonquins destroyed Schenectady, New York, killing 60 Dutch and English settlers, including ten women and at least twelve children. | [19] |
1704 | Apalachee Massacre | Former Carolinia Governor James Moore launched a serie of brutal attacks on the Apalachee villages of Northern Florida. They killed 1000 Apalachees and enslaved at least 2000 survivors. | [20] | |
1704 | February 29 | Deerfield Massacre | During Queen Anne's War, a force composed of Abenaki, Kanienkehaka, Wyandot and Pocumtuck, led by a small contingent of French-Canadian militia, sacked the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 56 civilians and taking more than 100 as captives. | [21] |
1713 | March 20–23 | Fort Neoheroka | Militia volunteers and Indian allies under Colonel James Moore attacked Ft. Neoheroka, the main stronghold of the Tuscarora Indians. 200 Tuscaroras were burned to death in the village and 900–1000 others were subsequently killed or captured. | [22][23] |
1729 | November 28 | Natchez Massacre | Natchez Indians attacked French settlements near present-day Natchez, Mississippi, killing more than 200 French colonists. | [24] |
1757 | August 9 | Battle of Fort William Henry | Following the fall of Fort William Henry during the Seven Years' War, Indians allied with the French killed between 70 and 180 British and colonial prisoners. | [25] |
1759 | October 4 | St. Francis Raid | During the Seven Years' War, in retaliation for the rumored murder of a captured Stockbridge man and detention of Captain Quinten Kennedy of the Rogers' Rangers, Major Robert Rogers led a party of approximately 150 English regulars, volunteers and Mahican into the village of Odanak, Quebec. They killed up to 30 Abenaki people, among them women and children, as confirmed via conflicting reports. | [26] |
1763 | September 14 | Devil's Hole Massacre | During the Seven Years' War, Seneca allied with the French attacked a British supply train and soldiers just south of Fort Niagara. They killed 21 teamsters from the supply train and 81 soldiers who attempted to rescue the train. | [27] |
1763 | December | Killings by the Paxton Boys | In response to Pontiac's Rebellion, frontier Pennsylvania settlers killed 20 peaceful Susquehannock. | [28][29][30] |
1764 | July 26 | Enoch Brown School Massacre | Four Delaware killed a schoolmaster, 10 pupils and a pregnant woman. Two pupils were scalped but survived. | [30] |
1774 | April 30 | Yellow Creek Massacre | Daniel Greathouse killed members of Chief Logan's family. | [31] |
1778 | July 3 | Battle of Wyoming | During the American Revolutionary War, following a battle with rebel defenders of Forty Fort, Iroquois allies of Loyalist forces hunted and killed those who fled; they were later accused of using ritual torture to kill those soldiers who surrendered. These claims were denied by Iroquois and British leaders at the time. | [32][33][34] |
August 31 | Stockbridge Massacre | A battle of the American Revolutionary War that rebel propaganda portrayed as a massacre. | [35] | |
November 11 | Cherry Valley Massacre | British and Seneca forces attacked the fort and village at Cherry Valley, New York, killing 16 rebel troops and more than 30 settlers. | [36] | |
1781 | September 1 | Dietz Massacre | During the Revolution, Iroquois allied with the British attacked the home of Johannes Dietz, Berne, New York, killing and scalping Dietz, his wife, their daughter-in-law, four children of their son's family, and a servant girl. | [37][38] |
1782 | March 8 | Gnadenhütten massacre | During the Revolution, Pennsylvania militiamen massacred nearly 100 non-combatant Christian Lenape, mostly women and children; they killed and scalped all but two young boys. | [39][40] |
1782 | May 10 | Corbly Family Massacre | During the Revolution, Indians allied with the British attacked the family of John Corbly, a Christian minister in Greene County, Pennsylvania. His wife and three of their children were killed; and two daughters were scalped, but survived. The Reverend Corbly escaped. | Daughters of the American Revolution Magazine, R.R. Bowker Co., 1925, Item notes: v. 59 1925 January–June p. 234 |
1812 | August 15 | Fort Dearborn Massacre (Battle of Fort Dearborn) |
During the War of 1812, Indians allied with the British killed American soldiers and settlers evacuating Fort Dearborn (site of present-day Chicago, Illinois). In all, 26 soldiers, two officers, two women and 12 children, and 12 trappers and settlers hired as scouts, were killed. | [41] |
September 10 | Zimmer Massacre | During the War of 1812, four settlers were killed in an attack believed to be by aggrieved Lenape, in Ashland County, Ohio. | Howe, Henry., Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, Volume 1 .pp. 257–258, 1907 | |
September 15 | Copus Massacre | During the War of 1812, Northwest Indians attacked the Ashland County, Ohio homestead of Rev. James Copus, killing three militiamen and one settler; and wounding two militiamen and a settler's daughter; settlers killed two Indians. | Howe, Henry., Howe's Historical Collections of Ohio, Volume 1 .pp. 258–259, 1907 | |
1813 | January 22 | River Raisin Massacre | During the War of 1812, Indians allied with the British killed between 30 and 60 Kentucky militia after their surrender. | [42] |
August 18 | Dilbone Massacre | During the War of 1812, an Indian allegedly killed three settlers (David Garrard and Henry Dilbone and wife) in Miami County, Ohio. Settlers later killed the Indian they suspected of the murders. | Sutton, R., The History of Shelby County Ohio, p. 122 published 1883 | |
August 30 | Fort Mims Massacre | After Creek were attacked by US forces in the Battle of Burnt Corn (which the Creek won), a band of Red Sticks sacked Fort Mims, Alabama, killing 400 civilians and taking 250 scalps. This action brought the US into the internal Creek War, at the same time as the War of 1812. | [43] | |
1818 | April 22 | Chehaw Affair | During the First Seminole War, U.S. troops attacked a non-hostile Muscogee village, killing an estimated 10 to 50 men, women and children. | [44] |
1824 | March 22 | Fall Creek Massacre | Six settlers in Madison County, Indiana killed and robbed eight Seneca. One suspect escaped trial and another was a witness at subsequent trial. Of those charged with murder, one man was hanged January 12, 1825, and two were hanged June 2, 1825. The last defendant was pardoned at the last minute. | Wikipedia Article |
1826 | Dressing Point Massacre | A posse of Anglo-Texan settlers massacred a large community of Karankawa indians near the mouth of the Colorado River in Matagorda Co., Texas. Between 40 and 50 Karankawas were killed. | [45][46] |
Year | Date | Name | Description | Citations |
---|---|---|---|---|
1832 | May 20 | Indian Creek Massacre | A party of Potawatomi, with a few Sauk allies, killed fifteen men, women and children and kidnapped two young women, who were later ransomed. | [47] |
August 1 | Battle of Bad Axe | Soldiers under General Henry Atkinson and armed volunteers killed around 150 Indian men, women and children Wisconsin. | [48] | |
1835 | December 28 | Dade Massacre | During the Second Seminole War, Seminole killed almost all of a command of 110 American soldiers in Central Florida. All but two of the soldiers were killed; and one survivor died a few months later from his wounds. | Axelrod, Alan, Chronicle of the Indian Wars, p. 146 |
1836 | May 19 | Fort Parker Massacre | Comanche killed seven European Americans in Limestone County, Texas. | [49] |
1838 | October 5 | Killough Massacre | Indians massacred eighteen members and relatives of the Killough family in Texas. | [50] |
1840 | August 7 | Indian Key Massacre | During the Seminole Wars, Florida Seminole attacked and destroyed an Indian Key settlement, killing 13 inhabitants, including noted horticulturist Dr. Henry Perrine. | Knetsch, Joe. Florida's Seminole Wars 1817–1858, p. 128 |
1847 | November 29 | Whitman massacre | Cayuse and Umatilla killed the missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, Mrs. Narcissa Whitman and twelve others at Walla Walla, Washington, triggering the Cayuse War. | [51] |
1850 | May 15 | Bloody Island Massacre | Nathaniel Lyon and his U. S. Army detachment killed 60–100 Pomo people on Bo-no-po-ti island near Clear Lake, (Lake Co., California); they believed the Pomo had killed two Clear Lake settlers who had been abusing and murdering Pomo people. (The Island Pomo had no connections to the enslaved Pomo). This incident led to a general outbreak of settler attacks against and mass killing of native people all over Northern California. | Letter, Brevet Capt. N. Lyon to Major E.R.S. Canby, May 22, 1850.[52] |
1851 | Old Shasta Town | Miners killed 300 Wintu Indians near Old Shasta, California and burned down their tribal council meeting house. | [53] | |
1852 | Hynes Bay Massacre | Texas militiamen attacked a village of 50 Karankawas, killing 45 of them. | [54] | |
1852 | April 23 | Bridge Gulch Massacre | 70 American men led by Trinity County sheriff William H. Dixon killed more than 150 Wintu people in the Hayfork Valley of California, in retaliation for the killing of Col. John Anderson. | Norton, Jack. Genocide in Northern California[55] |
1853 | Yontoket Massacre | A posse of settlers attacked and burnt a Tolowa rancheria at Yontoket, California. Several hundred Indians were massacred. | [56] | |
1853 | Achulet Massacre | White settlers launched an attack on a Tolowa village near Lake Earl in California, killing between 65 and 150 Indians. | [57][58] | |
1853 | Before December 31 | "Ox" incident | US forces attacked and killed an unreported number of Indians in the Four Creeks area (Tulare Co., California) in what was referred to by officers as "our little difficulty" and "the chastisement they have received". | Letter, Bvt. 2nd Lieut. John Nugens to Lieut T. Wright, December 31, 1853.[59] |
1854 | ||||
August 19 | Grattan Massacre | After a detachment of 30 U.S. soldiers in the Nebraska Territory opened fire on an encampment of 4,000 Brulé Sioux, killing Chief Conquering Bear, warriors attacked and killed all the soldiers and their civilian interpreter. | [60] | |
August 20 | Ward Massacre | Shoshone killed 18 of the 20 members of the Alexander Ward party, attacking them on the Oregon Trail in western Idaho. This event led the US eventually to abandon Fort Boise and Fort Hall, in favor of the use of military escorts for emigrant wagon trains. | [61][62][63] | |
1855 | January 22 | Klamath River massacres | In retaliation for the murder of six settlers and the theft of some cattle, whites commenced a "war of extermination against the Indians" in Humboldt Co., California. | Crescent City Herald, quoted in Sacramento newspaper.[64] |
1855 | October 8 | Lupton Massacre | A group of settlers and miners launched a night attack on an Indian village near Upper Table Rock, Oregon, killing 23 Indians (mostly eldery men, women and children). | [65] |
1860 | February 26 | 1860 Wiyot Massacre (Indian Island (Humboldt Bay)Indian Island Massacre) |
During one of three simultaneous assaults on the Wiyot, white settlers killed about 188 Wiyot, mostly women and children, in Humboldt County, California. | [66][67][68] |
1861 | Horse Canyon Massacre | White settlers and Indian allies attacked a Walaiki village in Horse Canyon (Round Valley, California), killing up to 240 Walaikis | [69] | |
1861 | Cooke's Canyon Massacres | Apaches massacred hundreds of Americans and Mexicans in and around Cooke's Canyon, New Mexico over the course of several months. | ||
1862 | Upper Station Massacre | Californian settlers killed at least 20 Walaikis in Round Valley, California. | [70] | |
1862 | August–September | Dakota War of 1862 | As part of the U.S.-Dakota War, the Dakota killed as many as 800 white settlers and soldiers throughout Minnesota. Some 40,000 white settlers fled their homes on the frontier.[71] | [72] |
October 24 | Tonkawa Massacre | During the American Civil War, a detachment of irregular Union Indians, mainly Kickapoo, Delaware and Shawnee, accompanied by Caddo allies, attempted to destroy the Tonkawa tribe in Indian Territory. They killed 240 of 390 Tonkawa, leaving only 150 survivors. | [73] | |
1863 | January 29 | Bear River Massacre | Col. Patrick Connor led a regiment killing 280 Indian men, women and children near Preston, Idaho. | [74] |
April 19 | Keyesville Massacre | American militia and members of the California cavalry killed 35 Tehachapi men in Kern County, California. | [75] | |
1864 | Massacre at Bloody Tanks | A group of white settlers led by King S. Woolsey killed 19 Apaches at a "peace parley". | [76][77] | |
1864 | November 29 | Sand Creek Massacre | Members of the Colorado Militia attacked a peaceful village of Cheyenne, killing at least 160 men, women and children at Sand Creek, Colorado. | [78] |
1865 | Owens Lake Massacre | A posse of viligante attacked a Paiute camp on Owens Lake in California, killing about 40 men, women and children. | [79] | |
1866 | Three Knolls Massacre | White settlers massacrred a Yana community at Three Knolls on the Mill Creek, California. | [80][81] | |
1866 | April 21 | Circleville Massacre | Mormon militiamen killed 16 Paiute men and women at Circleville, Utah. 6 men were shot, allegedly while trying to escape. The others (3 men and 7 women) had their throats cut. 4 small children were spared. | [82] |
1867 | Aquarius Mountains | Yavapai County Rangers killed 23 Indians (men, women and children) in the southern Aquarius Mountains, Arizona. | [83] | |
1867 | July 2 | Kidder Massacre | Cheyenne and Sioux ambushed and killed a 2nd US Cavalry detachment of eleven men and their Indian guide near Beaver Creek in Sherman County, Kansas [2]. | [84] |
1868 | Campo Seco | A posse of white settlers massacred 33 Yahis in a cave north of Mill Creek, California. | [85][86] | |
1868 | November 27 | Washita Massacre (Battle of Washita River) |
During the Indian Wars, Lt. Col. G.A.Custer's 7th cavalry attacked a village of sleeping Cheyenne led by Black Kettle. Custer reported 103 – later revised to 140 – warriors, "some" women and "few" children killed, and 53 women and children taken hostage. Other casualty estimates by cavalry members, scouts and Indians vary widely, with the number of men killed ranging as low as 11 and the numbers of women and children ranging as high as 75. Before returning to their base, the cavalry killed several hundred Indian ponies and burned the village. | [87][88][89][90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97] |
1870 | January 23 | Marias Massacre | White Americans killed 173 Piegan, mainly women, children and the elderly. | [98] |
1871 | Kingsley Cave Massacre | 4 settlers killed 30 Yahi Indians in Tehama Co., California. | [99] | |
1871 | April 30 | Camp Grant Massacre | Led by the ex-Mayor of Tucson, William Oury, eight Americans, 48 Mexicans and more than 100 allied Pima attacked Apache men, women and children at Camp Grant, killing more than 100. | Terrell, J., Land Grab, pp. 4–10. |
1871 | November 5 | Wickenburg massacre | Indians attacked an Arizona stagecoach, killing the driver and his five passengers. | [100] |
1872 | December 28 | Skeleton Cave Massacre | US troops and Indian scouts killed 76 Yavapai Indians men, women and children in a remote cave in Arizona's Salt River Canyon. | [101] |
1873 | June 1 | Cypress Hills Massacre | Following a dispute over stolen horses, American wolfers killed approximately 20 Nakoda in Saskatchewan. | [102] |
1879 | January 9–21 | Fort Robinson Massacre | Northern Cheyenne under Dull Knife attempted to escape from confinement in Fort Robinson, Nebraska; the US Army forces hunted them down, killing 77 of them. The remains of those killed were repatriated in 1994. | [103][104] |
1879 | September 30 | Meeker Massacre | In the beginning of the Ute War, the Ute killed the US Indian Agent Nathan Meeker and 10 others. They also attacked a military unit, killing 13 and wounding 43. | |
1880 | April 28 | Alma Massacre | The Apache chief Victorio led warriors in an attack on settlers at Alma, New Mexico. On December 19, 1885, the Apache killed an officer and four enlisted men of the 8th Cavalry Regiment near Alma. | |
1889 | November 2 | Kelvin Grade Massacre | The Apache Kid and his gang escaped police custody, killing two sheriffs and wounding one settler near present-day Globe, Arizona. | |
1890 | December 29 | Wounded Knee Massacre | Members of the U.S. 7th Cavalry attacked and killed between 130 and 250 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. | [105][106] |
1911 | January 19 | Last Massacre | A group of Shoshone killed four ranchers in Washoe County, Nevada. On February 26, 1911, an American posse killed eight of the Shoshone suspects and captured four children from the band. | [107][108][109] |