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N0KFQ > TODAY 23.01.17 15:11l 74 Lines 3665 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 20043_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Jan 23
Path: IW8PGT<IR2UBX<SR1BSZ<LU4ECL<ZL2BAU<N9PMO<KA9LCF<NS2B<N0KFQ
Sent: 170123/1303Z 20043@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ6.0.13
1870
Soldiers massacre the wrong camp of Indians
Declaring he did not care whether or not it was the rebellious
band of Indians he had been searching for, Colonel Eugene Baker
orders his men to attack a sleeping camp of peaceful Blackfeet
along the Marias River in northern Montana.
The previous fall, Malcolm Clarke, an influential Montana
rancher, had accused a Blackfeet warrior named Owl Child of
stealing some of his horses; he punished the proud brave with a
brutal whipping. In retribution, Owl Child and several allies
murdered Clarke and his son at their home near Helena, and then
fled north to join a band of rebellious Blackfeet under the
leadership of Mountain Chief. Outraged and frightened, Montanans
demanded that Owl Child and his followers be punished, and the
government responded by ordering the forces garrisoned under
Major Eugene Baker at Fort Ellis (near modern-day Bozeman,
Montana) to strike back.
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
Chief's band. Soldiers later reported that Baker drank a great
deal throughout the march. On January 22, Baker discovered an
Indian village along the Marias River, and, postponing his attack
until the following morning, spent the evening drinking heavily.
At daybreak on the morning of January 23, 1870, Baker ordered his
men to surround the camp in preparation for attack. As the
darkness faded, Baker's 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. Mountain Chief
and Owl Child, Kipp quickly realized, must have gotten wind of
the approaching soldiers and moved their winter camp elsewhere.
Kipp rushed to tell Baker that they had the wrong Indians, but
Baker reportedly replied, "That makes no difference, one band or
another of them; they are all Piegans [Blackfeet] and we will
attack them." Baker then ordered a sergeant to shoot Kipp if he
tried to warn the sleeping camp of Blackfeet and gave the command
to attack.
Baker's soldiers began blindly firing into the village, catching
the peaceful Indians utterly unaware and defenseless. 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. Knocking
down lodges with frightened survivors inside, the soldiers set
them on fire, burnt some of the Blackfeet alive, and then burned
the band's meager supplies of food for the winter. Baker
initially captured about 140 women and children as prisoners to
take back to Fort Ellis, but when he discovered many were ill
with smallpox, he abandoned them to face the deadly winter
without food or shelter.
When word of the Baker Massacre (now known as the Marias
Massacre) reached the east, many Americans were outraged. One
angry congressman denounced Baker, saying "civilization shudders
at horrors like this." Baker's superiors, however, supported his
actions, as did the people of Montana, with one journalist
calling Baker's critics "namby-pamby, sniffling old maid
sentimentalists." Neither Baker nor his men faced a court martial
or any other disciplinary actions. However, the public outrage
over the massacre did derail the growing movement to transfer
control of Indian affairs from the Department of Interior to the
War Department-President Ulysses S. Grant decreed that henceforth
all Indian agents would be civilians rather than soldiers.
73 - K.O., n0kfq
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