American Falls press. [volume] (American Falls, Idaho) 1907-1937, 1915-04-01
INDIANS MASSACRE
PLACER MINERS
THIRTY-FIVE ITALIANS PROBAB-
LY FIRST SNAKE RIVER GOLD
SEEKERS, KILLED BY INDIANS
ABOUT 1860 NEAR NEELEY.
Indians knew They Were Neither
Cinnamon or White Men, Being Mys-
tilted by Their Language and Ap.
pearance-Watched for Many Days
Before Slaughter.
(Recollections of w. T. oliver

OIL the r,gt- near J. D. lsaac's place
1oout 1860 The date canrot re defin-
itely fixed for the reasons that BAN
mock Indians are not very dependable
historians, and they alone were left to
tell the story. All am able TO give is
what Mosho, China Eye and Pocatello
Tom told me. They were boys at the
time and heard the story of the mas
Sacre recounted around the campfire
upon the return of the party that did
the killing. General Pocatello Was the
leader OF the murderous Indians, and
from incidents mentioned to me Dy
these members of the tribe, after they
had grown to manhood lead me to
connect the massacre with the hanging
OF General Pocatello's father, which
took place about 1860 At least it was
near that date, either just before or
Just afterward. The Battle Creek fight
In Franklin county, which made good
Indians of Pocatello and his followers,
took place in December or January,
1868, and was occasioned by the law
sOSS hSNe VI Ntiltidl anu
followers.
China Eye was the best friend had
among the Indians, and it was he who
invited me to witness the funeral of
General Pocatello / had been kind
to him, partly because l did not want
him to think that l did not have good
manners and partly because / wanted
the Indians to be kind to me-
At different times, China Eye, Mo
sho and Pocatello Tom told me frag-
ments of the story Of the massacre
which enabled me to form a clear idea
Of the -;yent
The Indians under General Pocatel-
los leadership, in returning from Ne
vada, encountered a party of miners,
30 in number, at the mouth of Goose
creek. They were new race to the
Indians. They were not Cinnamon,
they knew, because they had killed
Cinnamon on Snake river near Boise.
They were working along the river,
digging in the sand and gravel, which
also mystified the Indians This fact.
that the Indians did not know what
they meant by digging in the sand,
leads to the conclusion that the party
was the first to prospect this part of
the Snake river for gold. The Indians
held council to decide whether to
kill the party or not. After much de-
liberation ii was decided to let them
go unless they stopped to build homes
The Indians did not want them to To-
cate. From Goose creek until their
death the men were under surveillance
all the time, yet were ignorant of the
fact. BY easy stages the men worked
up the river. They followed the old
oregon trail, stopping TO hunt for gold
every time the road came to the river.
For some reason they did not stop at
Bonanza Bar, where gold was later
found by John Calder that brought
many miners here. Passing the Bar
they came to a point opposite red
bluff near Mr. Isaac's place, where
they evidently found what they were
seeking. They stopped here. built ov-
ems and rock huts. giving every indi-
cation of intending TO remain pcrman-
emily. One day while they were work
ing away, entirely ignorant of the
presence of an enemy, they were fired
upon from ambush, most OF them drop
ping at the first volley. The others
sought safety behind the rocks or in
the river, but the Indians were hidden
on both sides OF the river and not one
got away.
Such things as the Indians wanted
they carried away, but left the shovels
and mining implements, which we're
not entirely gone when came in 1877.
China Eye told me the massacre took
place about thirteen years before /,
came, but / think it must have been
longer because there was peace after
the Battle Greek fight until the Ban
mock war In 1873. II must have been
two or three months from the time the
men we're discovered at the mouth of
Goose creek until the massacre. The
description of the men given by the
Indians. their mode of living and what
evidences could be picked up around
the camp. leads to the conclusion that
the strange men were Italians.
At that time the Bannock Indian
reservation was not established, the
home CT the Banuocks being in Lemhi
county. Putting everything together
1 have concluded that Pocatello and
his band were on their way to Lemhi
from the fight in Nevada when they
found the Italians. and fearing that