Hualapai War
Part of the American Indian Wars
A map of Camp Date Creek and the adjoining Hualapai reservation in 1869.
Date 1865 - 1870 Location Mohave County, Arizona Territory Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States	Hualapai Yavapai
Commanders and leaders
William Hardy William Redwood Price	Anasa † Wauba Yuma † Sherum
Strength
unknown	~250 warriors[1]

The Hualapai War^[2], fought from 1865 to 1870, was an armed conflict between the Hualapai native Americans against the United States in Arizona Territory. The Yavapai also participated on the side of the Hualapai and Mohave scouts were employed by the United States Army. Following the death of the prominent Yavapai leader Anasa in April of 1865, the natives began raiding American settlements which provoked a response by the United States Army forces stationed in the area. By 1868 disease forced the majority of the Hualapais to surrender though some skirmishing continued for almost two more years.^[3]

Tension between the Hualapi people and the Americans has its routes in the encroachment on native American land by settlers. The Hualapai lived in the are between the Grand Canyon and the Bill Williams River. In 1863, gold was discovered in the Prescott Valley that brought a steady flow of miners and other settlers to the area. In 1864 Captain William Hardy built a toll road through Hualapai territory between Prescott and Bull Head City, which was then known as Hardyville. The road later spread out, leading to other places such as Fort Mohave and the Colorado River ports. Relations with the natives were generally peaceful and Hardy was able to aquire a fortune by building a ferry across the Colorado River and by taxing the the settlers who used his road. However, in April of 1865, drunken settlers killed Anasa during some sort of meeting which led the Yavapai to wage war. The Hualapai called on their Yavapai allies to help them fight and they accepted, warriors under Chief Leve Leve assembled. In all there were about 250 Hualapai warriors, and an unknown number of Yavapai and Apache allies, facing hundreds of United States Army troops and militia. At the time, the Americans made no distinction between the Yavapai and the Western Apache people, due to their close relationship with tribes such as the Tonto, the word Yavapai was not then in use so the Americans referred to the Yavapai as Tonto-Apaches, or Apache-Mohaves.^[4] The actual fighting took the form of guerilla warfare, in which small bands of natives cut off Hardy's road and raided using hit and run tactics. It was not until Captain Hardy negotiated a peace treaty with the Hualapai at Camp Beale's Spring that the raids were ceased. Nine months later, during another meeting with the Hualapai chiefs, settlers killed Wauba Yuma which renewed the hostilities.^[5][6][7]

Men of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, from Fort Whipple, and men of the 14th Infantry Regiment, under William Redwood Price, responded by counter raiding into Hualapai territory. The soldiers fought several small battles with the natives and burned many of their rancherías. They also built posts, including Camp Date Creek, in January of 1867, and Camp Hualapai, in May of 1869. Camp Date Creek was located along Date Creek and the road between Prescott and La Paz. Camp Hualapai was located north of Prescott, southeast of Aztec Pass, along Walnut Creek and Captain Hardy's toll road. Both of the posts greatly improved the Americans ability to defeat the natives but disease would conquer the Hualapai first. The war is generally recorded as having ended in December of 1868 due to an outbreak of dysentery and whooping cough that caused many of the natives to surrender, however, the Chief Leve Leve did not surrender until 1869 and Chief Sherum continued to lead his followers until 1870. Many of the Hualapais were moved to a reservation at Camp Beale's Spring but three years later moved to the Colorado River Reservation near La Paz. Some went to a temporary reservation at Camp Date Creek in 1871 but by 1874 the post was closed. Conditions at the reservations led to starvation and disease so in 1875 some of the Hualapai escaped to their traditional lands, only to find that it had already been settled. The Hualapais then either went back to the reservation or took up work in mines or on ranches. In 1882, a 900,000 acre reservation was established for the Hualapai but it was described a poor land, either because of weather, or from the American ranchers whos cattle destroyed many of the indigenous plants that were vital to the Hualapais source of food. It is estimated that one-third of the Hualapai population was lost between 1865 and 1870.^[8][9][10]

• Apache Wars
• Yavapai Wars
• Navajo Wars

• Broder, Patricia Janis (1990). Shadows on glass: the Indian world of Ben Wittick. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 0847676315. ((cite book)): Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Utley, Robert Marshall (1981). Frontiersmen in Blue: The United States Army and the Indian, 1848-1865. University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0803295502. ((cite book)): Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)