 Jamestown massacre of 1622, depicted as a woodcut by Matthäus Merian, 1628. |
In the history of the European colonization of the Americas, an Indian massacre is any incident between European settlers and indigenous peoples wherein one group killed a significant number of the other group outside the confines of mutual combat in war.
"Indian massacre" is a phrase whose use and definition has evolved and expanded over time. The phrase was initially used by European colonists to describe attacks by indigenous Americans which resulted in mass colonial casualties. While similar attacks by colonists on Indian villages were called "raids" or "battles", successful Indian attacks on white settlements or military posts were routinely termed "massacres". Knowing very little about the native inhabitants of the American frontier, the colonists were deeply fearful, and often, European Americans who had rarely – or never – seen a Native American read Indian atrocity stories in popular literature and newspapers. Emphasis was placed on the depredations of "murderous savages" in their information about Indians, and as the migrants headed further west, they frequently feared the Indians they would encounter.[1][2]
The phrase eventually became commonly used to also describe mass killings of American Indians. Killings described as "massacres" often had an element of indiscriminate targeting, barbarism, or genocidal intent.[3]
According to historian Jeffrey Ostler, "Any discussion of genocide must, of course, eventually consider the so-called Indian Wars, the term commonly used for U.S. Army campaigns to subjugate Indian nations of the American West beginning in the 1860s. In an older historiography, key events in this history were narrated as battles. It is now more common for scholars to refer to these events as massacres. This is especially so of a Colorado territorial militia’s slaughter of Cheyennes at Sand Creek (1864) and the army’s slaughter of Shoshones at Bear River (1863), Blackfeet on the Marias River (1870), and Lakotas at Wounded Knee (1890). Some scholars have begun referring to these events as “genocidal massacres,” defined as the annihilation of a portion of a larger group, sometimes to provide a lesson to the larger group."[4]
It is difficult to determine the total number of people who died as a result of "Indian massacres". In The Wild Frontier: Atrocities during the American-Indian War from Jamestown Colony to Wounded Knee, lawyer William M. Osborn compiled a list of alleged and actual atrocities in what would eventually become the continental United States, from first contact in 1511 until 1890. His parameters for inclusion included the intentional and indiscriminate murder, torture, or mutilation of civilians, the wounded, and prisoners. His list included 7,193 people who died from atrocities perpetrated by those of European descent, and 9,156 people who died from atrocities perpetrated by Native Americans.[5]
In An American Genocide, The United States and the California Catastrophe, 1846–1873, historian Benjamin Madley recorded the numbers of killings of California Indians between 1846 and 1873. He found evidence that during this period, at least 9,400 to 16,000 California Indians were killed by non-Indians. Most of these killings occurred in what he said were more than 370 massacres (defined by him as the "intentional killing of five or more disarmed combatants or largely unarmed noncombatants, including women, children, and prisoners, whether in the context of a battle or otherwise").[6]
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This is a dynamic list and may never be able to satisfy particular standards for completeness. You can help by adding missing items with reliable sources. |
This is a listing of some of the events reported then or referred to now as "Indian massacre".
| Year | Date | Name | Current location | Description | Reported native casualties | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1325 | Crow Creek massacre | South Dakota | 486 known dead were discovered at an archaeological site near Chamberlain, South Dakota. The victims and perpetrators were both unknown groups of Native Americans. | 486 | [7] |
| Year | Date | Name | Current location | Description | Reported casualties | Claimants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1518–19? | Annihilation of the Otomi of Tecoac | Tecoac, modern day Mexico | The entire Otomi population of Tecoac was reportedly killed during Hernán Cortés's first expedition into Mexico | All Otomis in Tecoac allegedly | [8][9][10][11] | |
| 1519 | Cholula Massacre | Cholula, modern day Mexico | Cempoalans reported that fortifications were being constructed around the city and the Tlaxcalans were warning the Spaniards. Cortés ordered a pre-emptive strike, urged by the Tlaxcalans, the enemies of the Cholulans. Cortés confronted the city leaders in the main temple alleging that they were planning to attack his men. They admitted that they had been ordered to resist by Moctezuma, but they claimed they had not followed his orders. Regardless, on command, the Spaniards and Tlaxcalans seized and killed many of the local nobles to serve as a lesson. | 3,000 to over 30,000 | [12][13] | |
| 1520 | Alvarado Massacre | Tenochtitlan, modern day Mexico | The Massacre in the Great Temple, also called the Alvarado Massacre, was an event on May 22, 1520, in the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan during the Spanish conquest of Mexico, in which the celebration of the Feast of Toxcatl ended in a massacre of Aztec elites. | [14][15] | ||
| 1521 | Massacre after the fall of Tenochtitlan | Tenochtitlan, modern day Mexico |
After the Fall of Tenochtitlan the remaining Aztec warriors and civilians fled the city as the Spanish allies, primarily the Tlaxcalans, continued to attack even after the surrender, slaughtering thousands of the remaining civilians and looting the city. The Tlaxcalans did not spare women or children: they entered houses, stealing all precious things they found, raping and then killing women, stabbing children. The survivors marched out of the city for the next three days. One source claims 6,000 were massacred in the town of Ixtapalapa alone. |
At least 40,000 civilians killed or enslaved, 100,000 to 240,000 warriors and civilians killed in the siege overall | [16][17][18][19][9] | |
| 1539 | Napituca Massacre | Florida | After defeating resisting Timucuan warriors, Hernando de Soto had 200 executed, in the first large-scale massacre by Europeans on what later became U.S. soil. | 200 | [20] | |
| 1540 | October 18 | Mabila Massacre | Alabama | The Choctaw retaliated against Hernando de Soto's expedition,[21] 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 and the paramount chief Tuskaloosa, who had hidden in houses of a fake village. | 2,500 | [20][22][23] |
| 1540–42 | Mixtón War | Zacatecas, Mexico | The Caxcan Indigenous people of Mexico resist encroachment by the Spanish colonists. | 4,500 | [24][25] | |
| 1541–42 | Tiguex Massacres | New Mexico | 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 Vásquez de Coronado's men laid siege to the Moho Pueblo, and after a months-long siege, they killed 200 fleeing warriors. | 250 | [26][27] | |
| 1599 | January 22–24 | Acoma Massacre | New Mexico | Juan de Oñate led a punitive expedition against the natives in a three-day battle at the Acoma Pueblo, killing approximately 500 warriors and 300 civilians. King Philip III later punished Oñate for his excesses. | 300 | [28][29] |
| 1601 | Sandia Mountains | New Mexico | Founder of the colony of New Mexico, Juan de Oñate, retaliated for the killing of two Spaniards by sending Spanish troops to destroy 3 Indian villages in the Sandia Mountains, New Mexico. According to one Spanish account, 900 Tompiro Indians were killed. | 900 | [30] | |
| 1609 | Orpax Massacre | Jamestown, Virginia | During The Starving Time at Jamestown in the Colony of Virginia, John Ratcliffe, president of the colony, and around 50 colonists went to meet with a group of Powhatan Indians to bargain for food. However they were ambushed and only 16 survived. Ratcliffe was captured and later tortured to death. | 33 (colonists) | [31][32] | |
| 1610 | August 9 | Paspahegh Massacre | Virginia | Lord De la Warr sent 70 men to attack the Paspahegh Indians. They destroyed their main village near Jamestown, killing between 16 and 65 people. The wife and children of the village chief were captured and shortly afterwards put to death. | 16–65 | [33][34] |
| 1616-1620 | Tepehuan revolt | Durango, Mexico | In Durango, the Tepehuan revolted against Spanish rule. | 400 Spaniards and 1000 Indians died. | [35] | |
| 1622 | March 22 | Jamestown Massacre | Virginia | Powhatan (Pamunkey) killed 347 English settlers 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. They then destroyed crops and livestock causing 500 more people to die of starvation, reducing the settler population to 180. | 847 (English) (500 died from starvation) | [36][37] |
| 1622 | Massacre of Matape | Sonora, Mexico | The Aibinos (Opatas) in 1622 stirred up opposition to the missionaries who were working on the middle Yaqui River among the Lower Pimas. The trouble was serious enough to cause Captain Hurdaide to send an expedition of two thousand soldiers to the vicinity of Matape, where they defeated the Indians in a bloody battle. This was followed by the entrance of two Jesuits who baptized some four hundred children at Matape and Tepupa. | An unknown number of Opatas (which left 400 children orphans) | [38][39] | |
| 1623 | Wessagusset affair | Massachusetts | Several Massachusett chiefs were lured to Wessagusset under peaceful pretenses and put to death. Other Indians present in the village were also killed. | 4 (Native leaders) + unknown number of other Native Americans | [40][41] | |
| 1623 | May 12 | Pamunkey Peace Talks | Virginia | In revenge for the Indian massacre of 1622, English colonists served poisoned wine at a "peace conference" with Powhatan leaders, killing about 200; they physically attacked and killed another 50. | 250 | [23] |
| 1626 | Kalinago Genocide of 1626 | Bloody Point, Saint Kitts and Nevis | 2,000–4,000 Caribs were forced into the area of Bloody Point and Bloody River, where over 2,000 were massacred, though 100 settlers were also killed. One Frenchman went mad after being struck by a manchineel-poisoned arrow. The remaining Caribs fled, but by 1640, those not already enslaved, were removed to Dominica. | 2,000 | [42][43] | |
| 1637 | April 23 | Wethersfield Attack | Connecticut | During the Pequot War, Wongunk chief Sequin attacked the Puritan town Wethersfield, Connecticut with Pequot help. Six men and 3 women were killed and 2 girls kidnapped. | 9 (settlers) | [44][45] |
| 1637 | May 26 | Mystic Massacre | Connecticut | In response to the Wethersfield attack, 90 English colonists commanded by John Mason, with 70 Mohegan and 200 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 400–700. | 400–700 | [46] |
| 1637 | July | Execution of Pequot prisoners | Connecticut | Shortly after their capture, between 20 and 30 Pequot prisoners were taken offshore and deliberately drowned. Their families were subsequently sold into slavery. | 20–30 | [47][48] |
| 1640 | July | Staten Island | New York | 80 Dutch soldiers under Cornelis van Tienhoven attacked a village of Raritans on Staten Island over stolen pigs. Van Tienhoven intended only to demand payment, but his men wanted to massacre the Indians and he eventually consented. | [49] | |
| 1643 | February 25 | Pavonia Massacre | New York | 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[50] and Corlears Hook. They were later attacked, 129 being killed. This prompted the beginning of Kieft's War, driven by mercenary John Underhill. | 129 | [51][52][53] |
| 1643 | August | Hutchinson Massacre | New York | As part of Kieft's War in New Netherland, near the Split Rock (now northeastern Bronx in New York City), local Lenape (or Siwanoy) killed settler 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 natives for several years. | 15 (settlers) | [54] |
| 1644 | Massapequa Massacre | New York | John Underhill's men killed more than 100 Indians near present-day Massapequa. | 100+ | [55][56] | |
| 1644 | April 18 | Beginning of Third Anglo-Powhatan War | Virginia | Powhatan (Pamunkey) killed more than 400 English settlers throughout the Virginia colony, about 4 percent of the English population of the Jamestown colony, in a second effort to push the English out of Virginia. | 400+ (English) | [37] |
| 1644 | March | Pound Ridge Massacre | New York | As part of Kieft's War 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. | 500 | [23][57] |
| 1655 | September 11–15 | Peach War | New York | In response to Director-General of New Netherland Peter Stuyvesant's attacks to their trading partners and allies at New Sweden, united bands of natives attacked Pavonia and Staten Island. | 40 | [58] |
| 1675 | July | Susquehannock Massacre | Virginia | After a raid by Doeg Indians on a plantation in Virginia, which killed 2 settlers, a party of militiamen crossed the Potomac into Maryland and killed 14 members of the friendly Susquehannock tribe they found sleeping in their cabins. | 14 | [59] |
| 1675 | July | Swansea Massacre | Massachusetts | Wampanoag warriors attack the town of Swansea, Massachusetts, killing 7 settlers. This attack marked the beginning of King Philip's War. | 7 (settlers) | [60] |
| 1675 | August | Lancaster Raid (1675) | Massachusetts | Nipmuc warriors attacked the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, killing 7 inhabitants during King Philip's War. | 7 (settlers) | [61] |
| 1675 | September | Susquehannock chiefs massacre | Maryland | Following the massacre of 14 Susquehannock in July, five Susquehannock chiefs were executed after being invited to a parley by Maryland militia commander Thomas Truman. | 5 | [62] |
| 1675 | December 15 | Jireh Bull Blockhouse massacre | South Kingstown, Rhode Island | During King Philip's War, four days before the Great Swamp Fight, Jireh Bull Block House was burned by Narragansett warriors, and fifteen of its inhabitants were killed. | 15 (settlers) | [63] |
| 1675 | December 19 | Great Swamp Massacre | Rhode Island | Colonial militia and Indian allies attacked a Narragansett fort near South Kingstown, Rhode Island. At least 40 warriors were killed and 300 to 1,000 women, children and elder men burnt in the village. | 300–1,000 | [64][65] |
| 1676 | January | January 1676 Susquehannock raids | Virginia & Maryland | In a prelude to Bacon's Rebellion, Susquehannock warriors attacked plantations in retaliation for earlier attacks by colonists. They killed 60 settlers in Maryland and 36 in Virginia. Other tribes joined in, killing more settlers. | 96+ (settlers) | [62] |
| 1676 | February 10 | Lancaster raid (1676) | Massachusetts | Four hundred Narragansett, Nipmuc, and Wampanoag warriors attacked the town of Lancaster, Massachusetts, killing 14 inhabitants and capturing 23 during King Philip's War. | 14 (settlers) | |
| 1676 | March 26 | Nine Men's Misery | Rhode Island | During King Philip's War, warriors subjected nine captive soldiers with ritual torture and death. | 9 (settlers) | [66][67] |
| 1676 | May | Massacre at Occoneechee Island | Virginia | Nathaniel Bacon turned on his Occaneechi allies and his men destroyed three forts within their village on Occoneechee Island, on the Roanoke River near present-day Clarksville, Virginia. Bacon's troops killed one hundred men as well as many women and children. | 100–400 | [68] |
| 1676 | May 10 | Turner Falls Massacre | Massachusetts | Captain William Turner and 150 militia volunteers attacked a fishing Indian camp at present-day Turners Falls, Massachusetts. At least 100 women and children were killed in the attack. | 100 | [69] |
| 1676 | July 2 | Rhode Island | Rhode Island | Militia volunteers under Major Talcott attacked a band of Narragansetts on Rhode Island, killing 34 men and 92 women and children. | 126 | [70] |
| 1676 | July 3 | Warwick Neck Massacre | Rhode Island | Disregarding the promise of safety made to Narragansett sachem Potuck, Major Talcott's troops attacked 80 of his followers who had given themselves up, killing 18 and wounding or capturing 49. Although Potuck had been granted safe conduct to go to Newport, Rhode Island to negotiate terms, he was arrested and subsequently executed. | 18 | [71][72][73] |
| 1676 | August | Dragon Swamp massacre | Virginia | During Bacon's Rebellion, Bacon's men, who were searching for Susquehannock, attacked friendly Pamunkeys in Dragon Swamp, killing many and capturing 45 | Many killed + 45 captured | [62] |
| 1676 | August 13 | Woolwich massacre | Maine | During King Philip's War, Wabanaki fighters attacked Richard Hammond's fortified trading post in present-day Woolwich, Maine, killing fourteen and capturing others. | 14 (settlers) | [61] |
| 1680 | August 10 | Pueblo Revolt | New Mexico | Pueblo warriors killed 401 Spanish settlers, and 21 Franciscan priests, and drove other Spaniards from New Mexico. | 422 (Spaniards) | [74][75] |
| 1688 | December | Fort St. Louis massacre | Victoria County, Texas | A French settlement, founded by explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle on the Garcitas Creek in 1685, was attacked by Karankawa Indians. Twenty settlers were killed and the five survivors were taken captive. | 20 (French) | [76] |
| 1689 | August 5 | Lachine massacre | Quebec | 1,500 Mohawk warriors attacked the small settlement of Lachine, New France and killed more than 90 of the village's 375 French residents, in response to widespread French attacks on Mohawk villages in present-day New York. | 90 (French) | [77] |
| 1689 | Zia Pueblo | New Mexico | Governor Jironza de Cruzate sacked and burned Zia Pueblo, New Mexico. 600 Indians were killed and 70 survivors were enslaved. | 600 | [78] | |
| 1689 | June 27–28 | Cochecho Massacre | New Hampshire | Members of the newly formed Wabanaki Confederacy arrived at Dover, New Hampshire led by Chief Kancamagus. They killed 23 residents and captured 29 beginning King William's War. | 23 (English) | [79] |
| 1690 | February 8 | Schenectady Massacre | New York | 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. | 60 (Dutch and English) | [80] |
| 1690 | March 27 | Raid on Salmon Falls | Maine | During King William's War, Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière, along with Norridgewock Abnaki chief Wahowa, led soldiers of Acadia and the Wabanaki Confederacy to destroy the settlement of Salmon Falls (present-day Berwick, Maine), killing 34 settlers and captured 54. | 34 (English) | [81] |
| 1690 | May 16–20 | Raid on Falmouth | Maine | Joseph-François Hertel de la Fresnière and Baron de St Castin led soldiers of New France and the Wabanaki Confederacy to capture and destroy Fort Loyal and the English settlement on the Falmouth during King William's War, killing 200 settlers. | 200 (English) | [82] |
| 1692 | January 24 | Candlemas Massacre | Maine | During King William's War, 200–300 Abenaki and Canadiens killed 75, took 100 prisoner and burned the encroaching town of York, Maine district of the Province of Massachusetts Bay | 75 (non-Indians) | [83] |
| 1693 | December 30 | Santa Fe reconquest | New Mexico | Diego de Vargas leading about 800 people, including 100 soldiers, and returned to Santa Fe on December 16, 1693. They were opposed by 70 Pueblo warriors and 400 family members within the town. De Vargas and his forces recaptured the town. 70 Pueblo warriors were executed on December 30, and their families were sentenced to ten years' servitude. | 70 | [84] |
| 1694 | July 18 | Oyster River massacre | New Hampshire | During King William's War, Claude-Sébastien de Villieu led 250 members of the Wabanaki Confederacy to attack and destroy the settlement of Oyster River (present-day Durham, New Hampshire). They killed 104 English settlers and captured 27. Much of the settlement was destroyed and pillaged. Crops were also destroyed and livestock killed, causing famine among the survivors. | 104 (English) | [85] |
| 1695 | June 9 | La Matanza | Sonora, Mexico | Spanish militia with Seri Indian auxiliaries killed 49 O'odham Indians (formerly known in the United States as Pima Indians) at peace conference at the El Tupo Cienega two months after the Tubutama Uprising. The meadow became known as La Matanza - Place of The Slaughter. | 49 | [86] |
| 1696 | 1696 Pueblo revolt | New Mexico | In 1696, members of the fourteen pueblos attempted a second organized revolt, launched with the killing of five missionaries and thirty-four settlers and using weapons the Spanish themselves had traded to the natives over the years. | 39 (Spaniards) | [84] | |
| 1697 | March 15 | Raid on Haverhill | Massachusetts | During King William's War, in a raid ordered by Louis de Buade de Frontenac, Governor General of New France, Abenaki warriors led by Chief Nescambious, attacked Haverhill, killing 27 settlers and taking 13 captives. One of those captives, Hannah Duston, stated that the Abenaki killed her baby during the journey to an island in the Merrimack River. In April, Duston and two other captives killed and scalped ten of the Abenaki family holding them hostage. | 28 (English) | [87] |
| 1703 | August | Six Terrible Days | Maine | During Queen Anne's War , Alexandre Leneuf de La Vallière de Beaubassin led 500 members of the Wabanaki Confederacy and a small number of French soldiers. They attacked and destroyed English settlements on the coast of present-day Maine between Wells and Casco Bay, burning more than 15 leagues of New England country and killing or capturing many English settlers. | 150 to 300 killed or captured (English) | |
| 1704 | Apalachee Massacre | Florida | 50 English colonists and 1,000 Creek allies under former Carolina Governor James Moore launched a series of brutal attacks on the Apalachee villages of Northern Florida. They killed 1,000 Apalachees and enslaved at least 2,000 survivors. | 1,000 | [90] | |
| 1704 | February 29 | Deerfield Massacre | Massachusetts | During Queen Anne's War, a force composed of Abenaki, Kanienkehaka, Wyandot and Pocumtuck, accompanied by a small contingent of French-Canadian militia and led by Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville, sacked the town of Deerfield, Massachusetts, killing 56 civilians and taking more than 100 as captives. | 56 (non-Indians) | [91] |
| 1711 | September 22 | Massacre at Bath | North Carolina | The Southern Tuscarora, Pamplico, Cothechneys, Cores, Mattamuskeets and Matchepungoes attacked settlers at several locations in and around the city of Bath, North Carolina. Hundreds of settlers were killed, and many more were driven off. | Hundreds (settlers) | [92] |
| 1712 | Massacre at Fort Narhantes | North Carolina | The North Carolina militia and their Indian allies attacked the Southern Tuscarora at Fort Narhantes on the banks of the Neuse River. More than 300 Tuscarora were killed, and one hundred were sold into slavery. | 300 | [92] | |
| 1712 | May | Fox Indian Massacre | Michigan | 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. | 1,000 (including warriors) | [93] |
| 1712 | Tzeltal rebellion | Chiapas, Mexico | A number of Maya communities in the Soconusco region of Chiapas rose in rebellion. | +1000 | [94] | |
| 1713 | March 20–23 | Fort Neoheroka | South Carolina | Colonial 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 170 more were killed outside the fort while more than 400 were taken to South Carolina and sold into slavery. 900–1,000 were killed or captured in total. | 370 | [95][96][97] |
| 1715 | April 15 | Pocotaligo Massacre | South Carolina | Yamassee Indians killed 4 British traders and representatives of Carolina at Pocotaligo, near present-day Yemassee, South Carolina. 90 other traders were killed in the following weeks. | 94 (traders) | [98] |
| 1715 | April | Massacre at St Bartholemew's Parish | South Carolina | At the onset of the Yamasee War, Yamasee Indians attacked St Bartolehew's Parish in South Carolina, killing over 100 settlers. Subsequent attacks around Charles Town killed many more, and in total, about 7% of the colony's white population perished in the conflict. | 100+ (settlers) | [99] |
| 1715 | May | Schenkingh Plantation | South Carolina | A band of Catawba and Cherokee warriors attacked Benjamin Schenkingh's plantation where about 20 settlers had taken refuge. All were killed. | 20 (settlers) | [99] |
| 1724 | August 24 | Norridgewock Massacre | Maine | Captains Jeremiah Moulton and Johnson Harmon led 200 rangers to the Abenaki village of Norridgewock, Maine to kill Father Sebastian Rale and destroy the Indian settlement. The rangers massacred 80 Abenakis including two dozen women and children and 26 warriors. The rangers suffered 3 dead. | 80 (26 warriors) | [100] |
| 1729 | November 29 | Natchez Revolt | Mississippi | Natchez Indians attacked French settlements near present-day Natchez, Mississippi, killing more than 200 French colonists. | 200 (French) | [101] |
| 1729 | December 4 | Massacre of Chaouacha village | Louisiana | Governor Perier ordered 80 enslaved Blacks to attack the village of the Chaouacha Indians. At least 7 Indians were killed. | 7 | [102] |
| 1730 | September 9 | Massacre at Fox Fort | Illinois | A combined force 1,400 French soldiers and their Indian allies massacred around 500 Fox Indians (including 300 women and children) as they tried to flee their besieged camp. | 500 (including 200 warriors) | [103] |
| 1736 | June 6 | Lake of the Woods Massacre | Minnesota | Sioux warriors ambushed and killed a group of 21 men, including Jean Baptiste de La Vérendrye and Jean-Pierre Aulneau, soon after they left Fort St. Charles on Lake of the Woods to go to Fort Kaministiquia for provisions. | 21 (French) | [104] |
| 1745 | 1745 Massacre at Walden | New York | Upon hearing of an impending French and Indian attack upon the Ulster county frontiers, British colonists massacred several peaceful Munsee families near Walden, New York. | Several families | [105][106] | |
| 1747 | October | Chama River | New Mexico | Spanish troops ambushed a group of Utes on the Chama River, killing 111 Indians and taking 206 as captives. | 111 | [107] |
| 1751 | November | Pima Revolt | Arizona | During a revolt against Spanish rule by Pima Indians, more than 100 Spanish settlers were killed. The uprising began on November 20 in Sáric with the massacre of 18 settlers who had been lured to the home of the rebellion's leader Luis Oacpicagigua, who had previously served as a provincial "Indian governor" for the Spanish. | 100+ (Spanish) | [108] |
| 1752 | June 21 | Raid on Pickawillany | Ohio | 14 Miami killed, including their chief Memeskia who was then boiled and eaten. Three English traders were also killed. | 17 | [109] |
| 1753 | February 21 | Attack at Mocodome | Nova Scotia | 6 Mi'kmaq were killed | 6 | |
| 1753 | April 21 | Attack at Jeddore | Nova Scotia | A British delegation met Mi'kmaq chief Jean-Baptiste Cope at the mouth of a river at Jeddore, Nova Scotia, during Father Le Loutre's War. The Mi'kmaq killed nine of the British delegates and spared the life of the French-speaking translator Anthony Casteel. | 9 (British) | [110] |
| 1755 | July 30 | Draper's Meadow massacre | Virginia | 1 soldier and 3 settlers killed, 2 wounded and 5 captured by Shawnee Indians at Draper's Meadow, Virginia | 4 | [111] |
| 1755 | October 16 | Penn's Creek massacre | Pennsylvania | Lenape Indians attacked a settlement on Penns Creek. It was the first of a series of raids on Pennsylvania settlements by Native American tribes allied with the French in the French and Indian War. | 14 killed, 11 captured (German and Swiss settlers) | [112] |
| 1755 | Oct 31-Nov 2 | Great Cove massacre | Pennsylvania | 100 Lenape and Shawnee Indians, led by the Lenape war captain Shingas the Terrible, attacked a series of settlements in Great Cove and Little Cove and along the Conolloway Creeks near the Maryland border. This was a continuation of the hostilities by Native American tribes allied with the French in the French and Indian War that had begun with the Penn's Creek massacre, above. | 47 either killed or captured (Scotch and Irish settlers) in the Great Cove settlement; at least 10 more in Little Cove and the Conolloway Creeks | [113] |
| 1755 | November 24 | Gnadenhütten massacre (Pennsylvania) | Pennsylvania | Lenape Indians (Munsee) attacked a Moravian missionary settlement (including Lenape and Mahican converts) in present-day Lehighton, Pennsylvania. It was a continuation of a series of raids on Pennsylvania settlements by Native American tribes allied with the French in the early stages of the French and Indian War. | 11 killed, 1 captured and later died (German Moravian missionaries & families) | [114] |
| 1756 | March 2 | 1756 Massacre at Walden | New York | On March 2, 1756, white vigilantes murdered 9 friendly Munsee Indians at Walden. | 9 | [105][106] |
| 1756 | June 11 | Fort Bigham attack | Fort Bigham, Pennsylvania | During the French and Indian War, Lenape warriors, led by Tamaqua, attacked Fort Bigham, killing or capturing 23 English civilians. | 23 (English) | [115] |
| 1757 | August 9 | Massacre at Fort William Henry | New York | Following the fall of Fort William Henry during the French and Indian War, Indians allied with the French killed between 70 and 180 British and colonial prisoners. | 70–180 (British) | [116] |
| 1758 | March 16 | San Saba Mission Massacre | Texas | A large party of Comanche, Tonkawa and Hasinai Indians attacked the mission of San Saba, Texas, killing 8 and burning down the mission. | 8 (missionaries) | [117] |
| 1759 | October 4 | St. Francis Raid | Quebec | During the French and Indian War, in retaliation for a 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 Rangers, regular troops and British-allied Mahican into the village of Odanak, Quebec. They killed up to 30 Abenaki people, among them women and children, as confirmed via conflicting reports. | 30 | [118] |
| 1763 | May | Capture of Fort Sandusky | Ohio | During Pontiac's War, a group of Wyandots entered the British outpost Fort Sandusky under peaceful pretexts. The Wyandots then seized the fort and killed its 15-member garrison along with several British traders. | 15+ (British) | [119] |
| 1763 | June 23 | Clendenin Massacre | West Virginia | Shawnee massacre of Clendenin adult males, captured women and children including John Ewing of Virginia. | ||
| 1763 | September 14 | Devil's Hole Massacre | New York | During the French and Indian War, Seneca allied with the French attacked a British supply train and soldiers just south of Fort Niagara. They killed 21 out of 24 teamsters from the supply train. | 21 teamsters + 81 soldiers (British) | [120] |
| 1763 | October 15 | First Wyoming (Mill Creek) Massacre | Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania | A band of one hundred and thirty-five Native Americans killed about twenty settlers (of an estimated 100) from Connecticut, and burned their houses at Mill Creek. It was likely perpetrated by Captain Bull and his warriors after the report that colonists had murdered on April 16, 1763, his father, Teedyuscung, as well as the fact that the Wyoming lands (purportedly to be reserved for the Native Americans) were being possessed and settled by colonists. | 20 colonists from Connecticut | [121] |
| 1763 | December | Killings by the Paxton Boys | Conestoga Town & Lancaster, Pennsylvania |
In response to Pontiac's Rebellion, frontier Pennsylvania settlers killed 20 peaceful Susquehannock. | 20 | [122][123][124] |
| 1764 | May 26 | Fort Cumberland | Maryland | During Pontiac's War, 15 settlers working in a field near Fort Cumberland were killed by Native Americans. | 15 (settlers) | [125] |
| 1764 | June 14 | Fort Loudoun | Pennsylvania | During Pontiac's War, 13 settlers near Fort Loudoun were killed and their homes burned in an attack by Native Americans. | 13 (settlers) | [125] |
| 1764 | July 26 | Enoch Brown school massacre | Franklin County Pennsylvania |
During Pontiac's War, Four Lenape Indians killed a schoolmaster, 10 pupils and a pregnant woman. Two pupils were scalped but survived. | 12 (non-Indians) | [124] |
| 1765 | May 4 | Anderson's barn massacre | Staunton Virginia |
Five Cherokee, allied with Col. Andrew Lewis (soldier), were treacherously killed by the "Augusta Boys", as a declared emulation of the 1763 Paxton Boys lynch squad. | 5 | [126] |
| 1771 | July 17 | Bloody Falls massacre | Kugluktuk, Nunavut |
The Bloody Falls massacre was an incident believed to have taken place during Samuel Hearne's exploration of the Coppermine River for copper deposits. According to Hearne Chipewyan and "Copper Indian" Dene men led by Hearne's guide and companion Matonabbee attacked a group of Copper Inuit, killing over 20 men, women and children. | 20+ | [127][128] |
| 1774 | September | Spanish Peaks | New Mexico | Spanish troops surprised a large fortified Comanche village near Spanish Peaks (Raton, New Mexico). They killed nearly 300 Indians (men, women and children) and took 100 captives. | 300 | [129] |
| 1774 | April 30 | Yellow Creek Massacre | Hancock County, West Virginia |
Daniel Greathouse killed members of Chief Logan's family. | 12 | [130] |
| 1778 | July 3 | Battle of Wyoming | Wyoming Valley, Pennsylvania |
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. | 340 (colonists) | [131][132][133] |
| 1778 | August 31 | Stockbridge Massacre | Massachusetts | An ambush by the Queen's Rangers during the American Revolutionary War that left nearly 40 Stockbridge Militia dead. | 40 | [134] |
| 1778 | November 11 | Cherry Valley Massacre | New York | British and Seneca forces attacked the fort and village at Cherry Valley, New York, killing 16 rebel troops and more than 30 settlers. | 46 (settlers) | [135] |
| 1780 | June 27 | Westervelt Massacre | Kentucky | Seventeen Dutch settlers killed and two taken captive out of a caravan of 41. The settler caravan was traveling between Low Dutch Station, Kentucky and Harrod's Town, Kentucky. The victims were all scalped and sold to the British for a bounty. | 17 (Dutch) | [136] |
| 1781 | September 1 | Dietz Massacre | New York | 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. | 8 (Dutch) | [137][138] |
| 1781 | September 1 | Long Run Massacre | Jefferson County, Kentucky |
Thirty-two settlers killed by 50 Miami people while trying to move to safety, additionally approximately 15 settlers and 17 soldiers were killed attempting to bury the initial victims. | 64 (settlers) | [139][140] |
| 1782 | March 8 | Gnadenhütten massacre | Gnadenhutten, Ohio |
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. | 100 | [141][142] |
| 1784 | August 14 | Awa'uq Massacre | Sitkalidak Island, Alaska |
200 to 3000 Alutiiq (Sugpiaq) people were killed at Refuge Rock near Kodiak Island by Russian fur trader Grigory Shelekhov and 130 armed Russian men and cannoneers of his Shelikhov-Golikov Company. | 200–3,000 | |
| 1788 | Kirk Family Massacre | Tennessee | A party of Indians killed 11 members of the Kirk family (1 woman and 10 children) on Nine Mile Creek 12 miles south of present-day Knoxville. | 11 (settlers) | [144] | |
| 1788 | Massacre of the Old chiefs | Tennessee | In retaliation to the Kirk Massacre, Old Tassel and 4 other chiefs of the Cherokee peace faction were lured into a trap and axed under a flag of truce in Chilhowee. | 5 | [145] | |
| 1791 | January 2 | Big Bottom massacre | Ohio | 14 settlers were killed by an Indian war party in Stockport, Morgan County, Ohio. | 14 (settlers) | |
| 1791 | November 4 | Fort Recovery Massacre | Ohio | At present day Fort Recovery, Ohio, an army of 1,500 Americans led by Arthur St. Clair, was ambushed by an army of Miami Indians led by chief Little Turtle. 200 to 250 civilians were killed. | 200–250 (Americans) | [146] |
| 1793 | September 25 | Cavett's Station massacre | Tennessee | During the Cherokee–American wars, settlers at Cavett's Station were surrounded by Cherokee and Muscogee warriors. They agreed to surrender following negotiations with one of the leading warriors Bob Benge, who promised no captives would be harmed, however a group led by Doublehead began killing the settlers. One of the Cherokee leaders, James Vann tried unsuccessfully to save two children. | 13 (settlers) | [147] |
| 1794 | November 11 | Sevier's Station massacre | Clarksville, Tennessee | During the Cherokee–American wars, Chickamauga Cherokee warriors attacked Sevier's Station and killed fourteen of the inhabitants. Valentine Sevier was one of the few survivors of the attack. | 14 (settlers) | [148] |
| 1803 | March 22 | Yuquot massacre | Yuquot, British Columbia | Nuu-chah-nulth, led by chief Maquinna, attacked and killed most of the crew of the American trading ship "Boston" . They had boarded the ship under a pretense to trade. Only two of the crew survived, including John R. Jewitt who wrote a famous captivity narrative about his nearly 3 years in captivity. | 26 (sailors) | [149] |
| 1805 | January | Canyon del Muerto | Arizona | Spanish soldiers led by Antonio Narbona massacred 115 Navajo Indians (mostly women, children and old men) in Canyon del Muerto, northeastern Arizona. | 115 | [150] |
| 1811 | June 15 | Battle of Woody Point | Clayoquot Sound, British Columbia | Nuu-chah-nulth, led by chief Wickaninnish, attacked and captured of the crew of the Tonquin, an American merchant ship of the Astor Expedition which was there to trade for furs. They attacked because the ship's lieutenant had insulted the chief the day before. The one surviving sailor on the ship then destroyed the ship the day after the massacre by detonating the powder magazine, killing over 100 people plundering the ship. Four sailors who had escaped in a skiff during the initial attack were pushed ashore by a storm and captured and tortured to death in revenge for the explosion. | 29 (sailors) | [151][152] |
| 1812 | August 15 | Fort Dearborn Massacre (Battle of Fort Dearborn) |
Illinois | 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. | 54 (non-Indians) | [153] |
| 1812 | September 3 | Pigeon Roost Massacre | Indiana | During the War of 1812, twenty four settlers, including fifteen children, were massacred by a war party of Native Americans (mostly Shawnee, but possibly including some Lenape and Potawatomis) in a surprise attack on a small village located in what is today Scott County, Indiana. | 24 (settlers) | [154] |
| 1813 | January 22 | River Raisin Massacre | Michigan | During the War of 1812, Indians allied with the British killed between 30 and 60 Kentucky militia after their surrender. | 30–60 (Americans) | [155] |
| 1813 | August 30 | Fort Mims Massacre | Alabama | After a Creek victory at the Battle of Burnt Corn, a band of Creek Red Sticks attacked Fort Mims, in what today is Alabama, killing 400–500 settlers, slaves, militiamen, and Creek loyalists and taking 250 scalps. This action brought the US into the internal Creek War, at the same time as the War of 1812. | 400–500 (settlers) | [156] |
| 1813 | September 1 | Kimbell-James Massacre | Mississippi | Immediately after departing Fort Mims, Red Sticks warriors led by Josiah Francis (Prophet Francis) attacked the Kimbell and James families seeking refuge near Fort Sinquefield. At least 15 were killed, mostly women and children. | 15 (settlers) | [157] |
| 1813 | November 3 | Battle of Tallushatchee | Tennessee | 900 Tennessee troops under General John Coffee, and including Davy Crockett, attacked an unsuspecting Creek town. About 186–200 Creek warriors were killed, and an unknown number of women and children were killed, some burned in their houses. | 180-300 (including warriors) | [158][159][160] |
| 1813 | November 18 | Hillabee Massacre | Alabama | Tennessee troops under General White launched a dawn attack on an unsuspecting Creek town (the village leaders were engaged in peace negotiations with General Andrew Jackson). About 65 Creek Indians were shot or bayoneted. | 65 | [161] |
| 1813 | November 29 | Autossee Massacre (Battle of Autossee) |
Alabama | Georgia Militia General Floyd attacked a Creek town on Tallapoosa River, in Macon County, Alabama, killing 200 Indians before setting the village afire. | 200 (including warriors) | [162] |
| 1814 | San Nicolas Island Massacre | San Nicolas Island, California |
A party of Aleut otter hunters working for the Russian-American Company (RAC) arrived on the island and massacred most of the Nicoleño islanders after accusing them of killing an Aleut hunter. | |||
| 1817 | November 30 | Scott Massacre | Florida | In retaliation for the sacking of a Mikasuki village, Seminole Indians ambushed a US army boat under the command of Lt. Richard W. Scott on the Apalachicola River. There were ca. 50 people on the boat, including forty soldiers (of which twenty were sick), seven wives of soldiers and possibly four children. Most of the boat’s passengers were killed. One woman was taken prisoner, and six survivors made it to Fort Scott. | 41–45 (settlers and soldiers) | [164][165] |
| 1822 | March | Jemez Pueblo Massacre | New Mexico | 24 Navajo emissaries travelling to a peace conference in Santa Fe were murdered by Mexican soldiers in Jimez Pueblo, New Mexico. | 24 | [166] |
| 1823 | February | Skull Creek Massacre | Texas | After Coco Indians killed two colonists under unclear circumstances, the colonists got together twenty-five men and found a Karankawa people village on Skull Creek. They killed at least nineteen inhabitants of the village before the rest could flee, then stole their possessions and burned their homes to the ground. | 19+ | [167] |
| 1823 | June 2 | General Ashley's 1823 expedition massacre | South Dakota | Arikara warriors killed 12 trappers working for General William Henry Ashley's Rocky Mountain Fur Company on the Missouri River. Many others were wounded, with the survivors, including Hugh Glass, Jedediah Smith, and Jim Bridger fleeing down river. The Arikara had recently traded with the trappers but were angry with them because weeks earlier they had rescued several Sioux who were being hunted by the Arikara. The attack led to the Arikara War. | 12 (trappers) | [168][169] |
| 1824 | March 22 | Fall Creek Massacre | Indiana | Six settlers in Madison County, Indiana killed and robbed eight Seneca. One suspect escaped trial and two others was a witness at subsequent trial. The remaining four suspects were all convicted of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. One man was executed on January 12, 1825, and two others were hanged on June 2, 1825. The last defendant, a teenager, was pardoned moments before he could be hanged. The court had recommended a pardon for him due to his age and the influence of his codefendants, which included his father and uncle, whose executions he'd just witnessed. | 8 | [170] |
| 1824 | February 21 | Battle of Mission Santa Inés | Solvang, California | A revolt by Chumash Indians erupted, with the takeover and burning of Mission Santa Inés. Mexican reinforcements arrived the next day and forced the rebels out. 15 Chumash women and children were killed at the mission on the first day of the revolt. | 15 | [171] |
| 1826 | Dressing Point Massacre | Texas | A posse of Anglo-Texan settlers massacred a large community of Karankawa Indians near the mouth of the Colorado River in Matagorda County, Texas. Between 40 and 50 Karankawas were killed. | 40–50 | [172] |
| Year | Date | Name | Current location | Description | Reported casualties | Claimants |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1830 | June | 1830 Prairie du Chien massacre | Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin | Dakotas (Santee Sioux) and Menominees killed fifteen Meskwakis attending a multi-tribal treaty conference, mediated by the American government, at Prairie du Chien. | 15 | [173] |
| 1831 | July | 1831 Prairie du Chien massacre | Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin | In retaliation to the earlier 1830 massacre at Prairie du Chien, a party of Meskwakis and Sauks killed twenty-six Menominees, including women and children at Prairie du Chien in July 1831. | 26 | [173] |
| 1832 | May 20 | Indian Creek Massacre | Illinois | A party of Potawatomi, with a few Sauk allies, killed fifteen men, women and children and kidnapped two young women, who were later ransomed. | 15 (settlers) | [174] |
| 1832 | August 1 | Battle of Bad Axe | Wisconsin | Soldiers under General Henry Atkinson, armed volunteers and Dakota Sioux killed around 150 Fox and Sauk men, women and children near present-day Victory, Wisconsin. The US suffered 5 dead. | 150 (including warriors) | [175] |
| 1833 | Exact date unknown | Cutthroat Gap Massacre | Oklahoma | The Osage tribe attacked a Kiowa camp west of the Wichita Mountains in southwest Oklahoma, killing 150 Kiowa Indians. | 150 | [176] |
| 1836 | May 19 | Fort Parker Massacre | Texas | Comanche killed seven European Americans in Limestone County, Texas. The five captured included Cynthia Ann Parker. | 7 (Europeans) | [177] |
| 1837 | Amador Massacre | California | Mexican colonists under Jose Maria Amador captured an entire rancheria of friendly Miwok Indians in Northern California and killed their 200 prisoners in two mass executions. | 200 | [178] | |
| 1837 | April 22 | Johnson Massacre | New Mexico | At least 20 Apaches were killed near Santa Rita del Cobre, New Mexico while trading with a group of American settlers led by John Johnson. The Anglos blasted the Apaches with a cannon loaded with musket balls, nails and pieces of glass and finished off the wounded. | 20 | [179] |
| 1837 | August 8 | Santa Fe massacre | Santa Fe, New Mexico | During the start of a popular revolt against New Mexico Governor Albino Pérez, 22 government officials, including Perez and former Governor Santiago Abréu were captured and killed, some by mutilation, by Santo Domingo Pueblo who had joined the rebellion. | 22 (Mexicans) | [180] |
| 1838 | October 5 | Killough Massacre | Texas | A party of Cherokee massacred eighteen members and relatives of the Killough family in Texas. | 18 (settlers) | [181] |
| 1838 | April | Ambush Park | Minnesota | A group of nine Ojibwe led by chief Hole in the Day were welcomed as guests into a camp of Dakota, who served them a meal. During the night the Ojibwe attacked the sleeping Dakota, killing seven, wounding two more, and taking a third captive. | 7 | [182] |
| 1838 or 1839 | Exact date unknown | Webster Massacre | Texas | The Comanche killed a party of settlers attempting to ford the Bushy Creek near present-day Leander, Texas. All of the Anglo men were killed and Mrs. Webster and her two children were captured. | 10 (settlers) | [183] |
| 1840 | March 19 | Council House Massacre | Texas | The 12 leaders of a Comanche delegation were shot in San Antonio, Texas while trying to escape the local jail. 23 others including 5 women and children were killed in or around the city. 65 Comanche including 35 women and children were present. 7 Texas militia were also killed at the court house mostly from friendly fire. 13 captives were killed in retaliation by the Comanche. | 35 (Indians) + 13 (Whites) | [184] |
| 1840 | August 7 | Indian Key Massacre | Florida | During the Seminole Wars, so called "Spanish Indians" attacked and destroyed the settlement on Indian Key, killing 13 inhabitants, including noted horticulturist Dr. Henry Perrine. | 13 (settlers) | [185] |
| 1840 | August 7 | Linnville Raid | Texas | During the Great Raid of 1840, Comanche warriors attacked the settlements of Victoria and Linnville killing 14 Whites, 8 Blacks and 1 Mexican. | 23 (settlers) | [186] |
| 1840 | October 24 | Red Fork of the Colorado River | Texas | Volunteer Rangers, consisting of 90 Texans and 17 Lipan Apaches, under Colonel John Moore, attacked a Comanche village on the Colorado, killing 140 men, women and children and capturing 35 others (mostly small children). | 140 | [187] |
| 1840 | Exact date unknown | Clear Lake Massacre | California | A posse led by Mexican Salvador Vallejo massacred 150 Pomo and Wappo Indians on Clear Lake, California. | 150 | [188] |
| 1844 | February 9 | Fort Mackenzie Massacre | Montana | White traders fired a small cannon on a group of unsuspecting Blackfeet approaching the gates of Fort Mackenzie for trade. They finished off the dying with daggers. Up to 30 Blackfeet were killed. | 30 | [189] |
| 1846 | April 6 | Sacramento River massacre | California | Captain Frémont's men attacked a band of Indians (probably Wintun) on the Sacramento River in California, killing between 120 and 200 Indians. | 120–200 | [190] |
| 1846 | May 12 | Klamath Lake massacre | California | Captain Frémont's men, led by Kit Carson attacked a village of Klamaths on the banks of Klamath Lake, killing at least 14 Klamath people. | 14+ | [191] |
| 1846 | June | Sutter Buttes massacre | California | Captain Frémont's men attacked a rancheria on the banks of the Sacramento River near Sutter Buttes, killing several Patwin people. | 14+ | [191] |
| 1846 | July 6 | Kirker Massacre | Chihuahua | Irish-born American Scalp hunter James Kirker was hired by the Mexican government to kill or capture Apache Indians. Alongside local Mexican citizens, he lured a band of Chiricahua Apaches into Galeana, Chihuahua and got them drunk. After the "festivities", Kirker’s men killed and scalped 130 men, women and children. | 130 | [192] |
| 1846 | December | Pauma massacre | California | 11 Californio were killed by Luiseño Indians at Pauma Valley north of Escondido, California. | 11 (settlers) | [193] |
| 1846 | December | Temecula massacre | California | A combined force of Californio militia and Cahuilla Indians killed 33 to 40 Luiseño Indians in Temecula, California in revenge for the Pauma Massacre. | 33–40 | [193] |
| 1847 | February 3–4 | Storming of Pueblo de Taos | New Mexico | In response to a New Mexican-instigated uprising in Taos, American troops attacked the heavily fortified Pueblo of Taos with artillery, killing nearly 150 rebels, some being Indians. Between 25 and 30 prisoners were shot by firing squads. | 25–30 | [194] |
| 1847 | March | Rancheria Tulea massacre | California | White slavers retaliate to a slave escape by massacring five Indians in Rancheria Tulea. | 5 | [191] |
| 1847 | March 29 | Kern and Sutter massacres | California | In response to a plea from White settlers to put an end to raids, U.S. Army Captain Edward Kern and rancher John Sutter led 50 men in attacks on three Indian villages. | 20 | [191] |
| 1847 | late June/early July | Konkow Maidu slaver massacre | California | Slavers kill 12–20 Konkow Maidu Indians in the process of capturing 30 members of the tribe for the purpose of forced slavery. | 12–20 | [191] |
| 1847 | November 29 | Whitman massacre | Washington | Cayuse and Umatilla warriors killed the missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, Mrs. Narcissa Whitman and 12 others at Walla Walla, Washington, in retaliation for the belief that Whitmans were responsible for the deaths of 200 natives from measles, triggering the Cayuse War. Subsequently, the U.S hanged 5 Cayuse, including the Waiilatpu Leader Tiloukaikt. | 14 (missionaries) | [195] |
| 1848 | April | Brazos River | Texas | A hunting party of 26 friendly Wichita and Caddo Indians was massacred by Texas Rangers under Captain Samuel Highsmithe, in a valley south of Brazos River. 25 men and boys were killed, and only one child managed to escape. | 26 | [196] |
| 1849 | March 5 | Battle Creek massacre | Utah | In response to some cattle being stolen, Governor Brigham Young sent members of the Mormon militia to "put a final end to their depredations". They were led to a band, where they attacked them, killing the men and taking the women and children as captives. | 4 (more by some accounts) | [197] |
| 1850 | Feb 8 | Battle at Fort Utah | Utah | Governor Brigham Young issued a partial extermination order of the Timpanogos who lived in Utah Valley. In the north, the Timpanogos were fortified. However, in the south, the Mormon militia told them they were friendly before lining them up to execute them. Dozens of women and children were enslaved and taken to Salt Lake City, Utah, where many died. | 102 + "many" in captivity | [198] |
| 1850 | May 15 | Bloody Island Massacre | California | Nathaniel Lyon and his U.S. Army detachment of cavalry 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. Site is California Registered Historical Landmark #427 | 60–100 | [199][200][201] |
| 1851 | January 11 | Mariposa War | California | The gold rush increased pressure on the Native Americans of California, because miners forced Native Americans off their gold-rich lands. Many were pressed into service in the mines; others had their villages raided by the army and volunteer militia. Some Native American tribes fought back, beginning with the Ahwahneechees and the Chowchilla in the Sierra Nevada and San Joaquin Valley leading a raid on the Fresno River post of James D. Savage, in December 1850. In retaliation Mariposa County Sheriff James Burney led local militia in an indecisive clash with the natives on January 11, 1851 on a mountainside near present-day Oakhurst, California. | 40+ | |
| 1851 | March | Oatman Massacre | Arizona | Royce Oatman's emigrant party of 7 was killed by Mohave or Yavapai Indians. The survivors, Olive and Mary Ann Oatman were enslaved. Olive escaped five years later and spoke extensively about the experience. | 7 (settlers) | [202] |
| 1851 | Old Shasta Town | California | Miners killed 300 Wintu Indians near Old Shasta, California and burned down their tribal council meeting house. | 300 | [203] | |
| 1852 | Hynes Bay Massacre | Texas | Texas militiamen attacked a village of 50 Karankawas, killing 45 of them. | 45 | [204] | |
| 1852 | April 23 | Bridge Gulch Massacre | California | 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. | 150 | [205] |
| 1852 | November | Wright Massacre | California | White settlers led by a notorious Indian hunter named Ben Wright massacred 41 Modocs during a "peace parley". | 41 | [206] |
| 1853 | Howonquet Massacre | California | Californian settlers attacked and burned the Tolowa village of Howonquet, massacring 70 people. | 70 | [207] | |
| 1853 | Yontoket Massacre | California | A posse of settlers attacked and burned a Tolowa rancheria at Yontocket, California, killing 450 Tolowa during a prayer ceremony. | 450 | [208][209] | |
| 1853 | Achulet Massacre | California | White settlers launched an attack on a Tolowa village near Lake Earl in California, killing between 65 and 150 Indians at dawn. | 65–150 | [210] | |
| 1853 | Before December 31 | "Ox" incident | California | U.S. forces attacked and killed an unreported number of Indians in the Four Creeks area (Tulare County, California) in what was referred to by officers as "our little difficulty" and "the chastisement they have received". | [211] | |
| 1854 | January 28 | Nasomah Massacre | Oregon | 40 white settlers attacked the sleeping village of the Nasomah Indians at the mouth of the Coquille River in Oregon, killing 15 men and 1 woman. | 16 | [212] |
| 1854 | February 15 | Chetco River Massacre | Oregon | Nine white settlers attacked a friendly Indian village on the Chetco River in Oregon, massacring 26 men and a few women. Most of the Indians were shot while trying to escape. Two Chetco who tried to resist with bows and arrows were burned alive in their houses. Shortly before the attack, the Chetco had been induced to give away their weapons as "friendly relations were firmly established". | 36+ | [213] |
| 1854 | May 15 | Asbill Massacre | California | Six white settlers from Missouri attacked previously uncontacted Indians in the Round Valley, massacring approximately 40 of them. | 40 | [214] |
| 1854 | August 20 | Ward Massacre | Idaho | 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 U.S. eventually to abandon Fort Boise and Fort Hall, in favor of the use of military escorts for emigrant wagon trains. | 18 (settlers) | [215][216][217] |
| 1854 | Dec 25 | Fort Pueblo Massacre | Colorado | 16 settlers were killed by Utah & Apache | 16 (settlers) | |
| 1855 | January 22 | Klamath River massacres | California | 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 County, California. | [218] | |
| 1855 | September 2 | Harney Massacre | Nebraska | US troops under Brigadier General William S. Harney killed 86 Sioux, men, women and children at Blue Water Creek, in present-day Nebraska. 27 US soldiers also died in the skirmish. About 70 women and children were taken prisoner. Women and children accounted for about half of the Sioux deaths. | 86 (including warriors) | [219] |
| 1855 | October 8 | Lupton Massacre | Oregon | During the Rogue River Wars, a group of settlers and miners launched a night attack on an Indian village near Upper Table Rock, Oregon, killing 23 Indians (mostly elderly men, women and children). | 23 | [220] |
| 1855 | October | Gold Beach Massacre | Oregon | During the Rogue River Wars, in response to the Lupton massacre, Indians killed 27 settlers in what later became Gold Beach. | 27 (settlers) | [221] |
| 1855 | December 23 | Little Butte Creek | Oregon | Oregon volunteers launched a dawn attack on a Tututni and Takelma camp on the Rogue River. Between 19 and 26 Indians were killed. | 19–26 | [222] |
| 1856 | June | Grande Ronde River Valley Massacre | Oregon | Washington Territorial Volunteers under Colonel Benjamin Shaw attacked a peaceful Cayuse and Walla Walla Indians on the Grande Ronde River in Oregon. 60 Indians, mostly women, old men and children were killed. | 60 | [223] |
| 1856 | March | Shingletown | California | In reprisal for Indian stock theft, white settlers massacred at least 20 Yana men, women and children near Shingletown, California. | 20 | [224] |
| 1856 | March 26 | Cascades Massacre | Oregon/Washington | Yakama, Klickitat and Cascades warriors attacked white soldiers and settlers at the Cascades of the Columbia River for controlling portage of the river and denying them their source of nutrition. Nine Cascades Indians who surrendered without a fight, including Chenoweth, Chief of the Hood River Band, were improperly charged and executed. | 17 (settlers) | [225] |
| 1857 | Mar 8–12 | Spirit Lake Massacre | Iowa | Thirty-five to 40 settlers were killed and 4 taken captive by Santee Sioux in the last Indian attack on settlers in Iowa. | 35–40 (settlers) | [226] |
| 1857 | Sep 7-11 | Mountain Meadows Massacre | Utah | Between 14 and 200 Paiutes (perhaps reluctantly) participated in an attack staged by the Mormon Militia against the Baker-Fancher wagon train from Arkansas. The Mormons of the area erroneously feared that the settlers were part of a plot by the US Army to invade Utah. The settlers surrender after a few days but are subsequently massacred by members of the Militia who suspected that the settlers had recognized that some of the attackers were non-Indians in disguise. | 120 to 140 settlers killed. 17 younger children were passed out to local families, later repatriated to their families back in Arkansas. | |
| 1856–1859 | Round Valley Settler Massacres | California | White settlers killed over a thousand Yuki Indians in Round Valley over the course of three years in an uncountable number of separate massacres. | 1000+ | [227][228] | |
| 1858 | Aug 9–17 | Fraser Canyon War | British Columbia | Settlers killed dozens of Nlaka’pamux non-combatants and burned five villages. | 36+ | [229] |
| July 1859 to January 1860 | Jarboe's War | California | White settlers calling themselves the "Eel River Rangers", led by Walter Jarboe, kill at least 283 Indian men and countless women and children in 23 engagements over the course of six months. They are reimbursed by the U.S. government for their campaign. | 283+ | [227] | |
| 1859 | Spring Valley Massacre | Nevada | In late summer or early autumn of 1859, a US Army company led by General Albert Sidney Johnston tracked down and attacked an encampment of the Western Shoshone north of the Bahsahwahbee area. US army interpreter and guide Elijah Nicholas Wilson estimated that 350 men were killed, as well as many women and children. | 350 men 175–350 women and children |
[230] | |
| 1859 | September | Pit River | California | White settlers massacred 70 Achomawi Indians (10 men and 60 women and children) in their village on Pit River in California. | 70 | [231] |
| 1859 | Chico Creek | California | White settlers attacked a Maidu camp near Chico Creek in California, killing indiscriminately 40 Indians. | 40 | [232] | |
| 1860 | Exact date unknown | Massacre at Bloody Rock | California | A group of 65 Yuki Indians were surrounded and massacred by white settlers at Bloody Rock, in Mendocino County, California. | 65 | |
| 1860 | February 26 | Indian Island Massacre | California | In three nearly simultaneous assaults on the Wiyot, at Indian Island, Eureka, Rio Dell, and near Hydesville, California white settlers killed between 80 and 250 Wiyot in Humboldt County, California. Victims were mostly women, children and elders, as reported by Bret Harte at Arcata newspaper. Other villages massacred within two days. The main site is National Register of Historic Places in the United States #66000208. | 80–250 | [233][234][235][236] |
| 1860 | December 18 | Battle of Pease River | Texas | Texas Rangers under Captain Sul Ross attacked a Comanche village in Foard County, Texas, killing at least 14 unarmed people. | 14 | [237] |
| 1860 | September 8 | Otter Massacre | Idaho | Near Sinker Creek Idaho, 11 persons of the last wagon train of the year were killed by Indians and several others were subsequently killed. Some that escaped the initial massacre starved to death | 11+ (settlers) | [238] |
| 1861 | Horse Canyon Massacre | California | White settlers and Indian allies attacked a Wailaki village in Horse Canyon (Round Valley, California), killing up to 240 Wailakis. | 240 | [239] | |
| 1861 | February | Bascom affair | Arizona | Lt. George Nicholas Bascom incorrectly believed Chiricahua Apache had kidnapped a twelve-year-old boy. Boscom tried to imprison their leader Cochise during a meeting. Cochise escaped, however others were captured. Two days later, Cochise captured and killed nine Mexicans. Three Americans who were also captured as hostages for negotiations, but they were killed after negotiations failed. Six of the captive Apache were later hung, including Cochise's brother and nephews. | 12 (Mexicans/Americans) + 6 (Apache) | [240] |
| 1861-1863 | Cookes Canyon Massacres | New Mexico | Apaches massacred as many as 100 Americans and Mexicans in Cooke’s Canyon, New Mexico between 1861 and 1863. | 100 (Americans and Mexicans) | [241] | |
| 1861 | September 21 | Fort Fauntleroy Massacre | New Mexico | Soldiers massacred between 12 and 20 Navajos at Fort Fauntleroy, following a dispute over a horse race. | 12–20 | [242] |
| 1862 | Upper Station Massacre | California | California settlers killed at least 20 Wailakis in Round Valley, California. | 20 | [243] | |
| 1862 | Big Antelope Creek Massacre | California | California settlers led by notorious Indian hunter Hi Good launched a dawn attack on a Yana village, massacring about 25 Indians. | 25 | [244] | |
| 1862 | August | Kowonk Massacre | California | A posse of 25 California settlers killed 45 Konkow Indians on their reservation in Round Valley, California. | 45 | [245] |
| 1862 | August–September | Dakota War of 1862 | Minnesota | As part of the U.S.-Dakota War, the Sioux killed as many as 800 white settlers and soldiers throughout Minnesota. Some 40,000 white settlers fled their homes on the frontier.[246] | 450–800 (settlers) | [247] |
| 1862 | October | Massacre at Gallinas Springs | New Mexico | Soldiers under Capt. James Graydon's shot an aged Mescalero leader who was approaching with his hand up as a sign of peace. 11 other Mescaleros were also killed, including a woman. | 12 | [248] |
| 1862 | October 24 | Tonkawa Massacre | Oklahoma | During the U.S. Civil War, a detachment of irregular Union Indians, mainly Kickapoo, Lenape 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. | 240 | [249] |
| 1863 | January 29 | Bear River Massacre | Idaho | Col. Patrick Connor led a United States Army regiment killing up to 280 Shoshone men, women and children near Preston, Idaho. 21 US soldiers were also killed in the fight. | 246–280 (including warriors) | [250][251] |
| 1863 | April 19 | Keyesville Massacre | California | American militia and members of the California cavalry, under the command of Captain Moses A. McLaughlin, killed 35 Tübatulabal men in Kern County, California. | 35 | [252] |
| 1863 | May 3 | Swamp Cedars Massacre | Nevada | Cavalry company led by Captain S. P. Smith, under orders of Colonel Patrick Connor of Fort Ruby, massacred 24 Goshute in their sleep on May 3 and 5 more the next day, followed by a massacre of 23 Indians in the Swamp Cedars of Spring Valley. | 52 | [230] |
| 1863–1865 | Mowry massacres | Arizona | 16 settlers were killed in a series of Indian raids at Mowry, Arizona Territory | 16 (settlers) | [253] | |
| 1864 | Cottonwood | California | 20 Yanas of both sexes were killed by white settlers in the town of Cottonwood, California. | 20 | [254] | |
| 1864 | Massacre at Bloody Tanks | Arizona | A group of white settlers led by King S. Woolsey killed 19 Apaches at a "peace parley". | 19 | [255][256] | |
| 1864 | Oak Run Massacre | California | California settlers massacred 300 Yana Indians who had gathered near the head of Oak Run, California for a spiritual ceremony. | 300 | [254] | |
| 1864 | Skull Valley Massacre | Arizona | A group of Yavapai families was lured into a trap and massacred by soldiers under Lt. Monteith in a valley west of Prescott, Arizona (Arizona). The place was named Skull Valley after the heads of the dead Indians left unburied. | [257][258] | ||
| 1864 | November 29 | Sand Creek Massacre | Colorado | Members of the Colorado][Militia (United States)|Militia, in retaliation for theft and violence by Cheyenne Indians against settlers, attacked a village of Cheyenne, killing up to 600 men, women and children at Sand Creek in Kiowa County. | 70–600 | [259][260] |
| 1865 | January 14 | American Ranch Massacre | Colorado | During the Colorado War, Cheyenne and Sioux warriors attacked a ranch near present-day Sterling, Colorado where they killed all of the male settlers and took three captives, one of who was later killed. | 8 (settlers) | [261] |
| 1865 | March 14 | Mud Lake Massacre | Nevada | US troops under Captain Wells attacked a Paiute camp near Winnemucca Lake, killing 32 Indians. One soldier was slightly wounded during the attack. | 32 (including warriors) | [262] |
| 1865 | July 18 | The Squaw Fight/The Grass Valley Massacre | Utah | While searching for Antonga Black Hawk, the Mormon militia came upon a band of Ute Indians. Thinking they were part of Black Hawk's band, they attacked them. They killed 10 men and took the women and children captive. After the women and children tried to escape, the militia shot them too. | 10 men + unknown women and children | [263] |
| 1865 | Owens Lake Massacre | California | Following the murder of Mrs. McGuire and her son at Haiwai_Meadows, White vigilantes tracked the attackers from the meadows to a Paiute camp on Owens Lake in California. They attacked it killing about 40 men, women and children. | 40 | [264] | |
| 1865 | Three Knolls Massacre | California | White settlers massacred a Yana community at Three Knolls on the Mill Creek, California. | [265][266] | ||
| 1865 | September 12 | Thacker Pass Massacre | Nevada | Led by Capt. Payne and Lt. Littlefield, the 1st Nevada Cavalry murdered at least 31 Paiute men, women, and children. | 31+ | [267][268] |
| 1865 | September | Bloody Point Massacre | Oregon | A wagon train of 65 settlers was massacred by Modoc Indians near Lake Tule in Oregon. One man survived and alerted the Oregon militia who buried the bodies. | 65 (settlers) | [269] |
| 1866 | April 21 | Circleville Massacre | Utah | 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. | 16 | [270] |
| 1867 | Aquarius Mountains | Arizona | Yavapai County Rangers killed 23 Indians (men, women and children) in the southern Aquarius Mountains, Arizona. | 23 | [271] | |
| 1868 | Campo Seco | California | A posse of white settlers massacred 33 Yahis in a cave north of Mill Creek, California. | 33 | [272][273] | |
| 1868 | September 24 | Massacre at La Paz | Arizona | A group of teamsters attacked a sleeping Yavapai camp in the outskirts of La Paz, Arizona, killing 15 Indians. | 15 | [274] |
| 1868 | November 27 | Washita Massacre (Battle of Washita River) |
Oklahoma | During the American Indian Wars, Lt. Col. G.A.Custer's 7th U.S. 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 and as low as 17. Before returning to their base, the cavalry killed several hundred Indian ponies and burned the village. 21 US soldiers were also killed. | 17–75 | [275][276][277][278][279][280][281][282][283][284][285] |
| 1870 | January 23 | Marias Massacre | Montana | US troops killed 173 Piegan, mainly women, children and the elderly after being led to the wrong camp by a soldier who wanted to protect his Indian wife's family. | 173–217 | [286] |
| 1871 | Kingsley Cave Massacre | California | 4 settlers killed 30 Yahi Indians in Tehama County, California about two miles from Wild Horse Corral in the Ishi Wilderness. It is estimated that this massacre left only 15 members of the Yahi tribe alive | 30 | [287] | |
| 1871 | April 30 | Camp Grant Massacre | Arizona | 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, Arizona Territory killing 144, with 1 survivor at scene and 29 children sold to slavery. All but eight of the dead were Apache women or children. | 144 | [288][289] |
| 1871 | May 5 | Salt Creek massacre | Texas | Kiowa warriors attacked a corn wagon train, killing and mutilating seven of the wagoneer's bodies. Three of the attack leaders were later arrested at Fort Sill: Satanta, Satank, and Ado-ete. Satank was later killed during an escape attempt, while the other two were convicted of murder. | 7 (settlers) | [290] |
| 1871 | November 5 | Wickenburg massacre | Arizona | Indians attacked an Arizona stagecoach, killing the driver and his five passengers, leaving two wounded survivors. | 6 (settlers) | [291][292] |
| 1872 | December 28 | Skeleton Cave Massacre | Arizona | U.S. troops and Indian scouts killed 76 Yavapai Indians men, women and children in a remote cave in Arizona's Salt River Canyon. | 76 | [293] |
| 1873 | June 1 | Cypress Hills Massacre | Saskatchewan | Following a dispute over stolen horses, American wolfers killed approximately 20 Nakoda in Saskatchewan. | 20 | [294] |
| 1873 | August 5 | Massacre Canyon | Nebraska | A large Oglala/Brulé Sioux war party, numbering over 1,500 warriors led by Two Strike, Little Wound, and Spotted Tail attacked a band of Pawnee during their summer buffalo hunt, killing more than 150 Pawnees, including 102 women and children. Some the dead were mutilated and set on fire. | 156–173 (including warriors) | [295] |
| 1874 | August 24 | Lone Tree Massacre | Kansas | Surveyors under Captain Oliver Francis Short were ambushed by a group of 25 Cheyenne, near the lone Cottonwood tree by the Crooked Creek, near present day Meade Kansas. | 7 | [296] |
| 1875 | April | Sappa Creek Massacre | Kansas | Soldiers under Lt Austin Henly trapped a group of 27 Cheyenne, (19 men, 8 women and children) on the Sappa Creek, in Kansas and killed them all. | 27 | [297] |
| 1877 | August 8 | Battle of the Big Hole | Montana | US troops under Colonel John Gibbon attacked a Nez Perce encampment on the North fork of the Big Hole river in Montana Territory during the Nez Perce War. They killed 70 to 90 including 33 warriors before being repulsed by the Indians. 31 US soldiers were killed. | 70–90 (33 warriors) | [222][298] |
| 1879 | January 9–21 | Fort Robinson Massacre | Nebraska | Northern Cheyenne under Dull Knife attempted to escape from confinement in Fort Robinson, Nebraska; U.S. Army forces hunted them down, killing between 64 and 77 of them. The remains of those killed were repatriated in 1994. 12 U.S. soldiers were also killed. | 64–77 (including warriors) | [299][300] |
| 1879 | September 30 | Meeker Massacre | Colorado | 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. | 11 | [301][302] |
| 1880 | April 28 | Alma Massacre | New Mexico | 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. | 35–41 (settlers) | [303] |
| 1882 | April 16 | Stephens Ranch massacre | Arizona | The Apache chief Geronimo asked for food at a sheep herder camp near Bryce, Arizona. After promising the sheep herders they would not be harmed, Geronimo and his band were fed. Geronimo then ordered the family and sheep herders to be killed. | 16+ (settlers) | [304] |
| 1885 | April 2 | Frog Lake Massacre | Frog Lake, Alberta | During the Cree uprising in the North-West Rebellion, Cree men, Led by Wandering Spirit, killed 9 officials, clergy and settlers in the small settlement of Frog Lake in the District of Saskatchewan. | 9 (settlers) | [305] |
| 1885 | June 19 | Beaver Creek Massacre | Colorado | White cattlemen killed six Ute Mountain Utes at a camp on Beaver Creek, about 16 miles north of Dolores in present Montezuma County. | 6 | [306] |
| 1889 | February 14 or 15 | Jim Jumper massacre | Florida | Jim Jumper, a biracial-Seminole, killed at least six Seminoles when his request to marry a Seminole woman was refused. Jumper was then killed by another Seminole. | 7 or more | [307] |
| 1890 | December 10 | Buffalo Gap Massacre | South Dakota | Several wagonloads of Sioux were killed by South Dakota Home Guard militiamen near French Creek, South Dakota, while visiting a white friend in Buffalo Gap. | [308] | |
| 1890 | December 16 | Strong Hold | South Dakota | South Dakota Home Guard militiamen ambushed and massacred 75 Sioux at the Stronghold, in the northern portion of Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. | 75 | [308] |
| 1890 | December 29 | Wounded Knee Massacre | South Dakota | Members of the U.S. 7th Cavalry attacked and killed between 130 and 250 Sioux men, women and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota. | 130–250 | [309][310] |
| 1897 | Unknown | Swamp Cedars Massacre of 1897 | Nevada | A group of vigilantes targeted a Shoshone gathering, killing all in attendance, mainly women, children, and elders, except two young girls. | [230][311] | |
| 1911 | January 19 | Last Massacre | Nevada | 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. | 5 (4 ranchers & 1 policeman) + 8 (Indians) | [312][313][314] |
| 1915 | December 2 | Massacre of San Pedro de la Cueva | Sonora, Mexico | During the Mexican Revolution, on the morning of December 2, 1915, after the disastrous campaign of his army in the state of Sonora, Pancho Villa angrily arrived in San Pedro de la Cueva and ordered the mass execution of all the residents of the town. He blamed them for the deaths of five of his men. An outpost under the command of one of her colonels, Margarito Orozco, had apprehended 300 men, women and children, training them in front of the church. When Villa ordered his officers to initiate the executions, Colonel Macario Bracamontes, who was active in his ranks, convinced him to spare the lives of a hundred women and children. Immediately, the rest of the prisoners, who numbered 112 men, were lined up against one of the walls of the Catholic church to be put under arms; at the beginning of the executions, the village priest, Andrés A. Flores Quesney, pleaded three times for the lives of the condemned, including his father, but Villa ended up killing him with a shot. The killing continued. | Around 91 people between residents, Opatas, foreigners (4) and Chinese (3) | [315] |
