The Ely miner., 1933-09-01


~ slaughter at Fort Minis, Ala. on
Il - "a August 80, 1918, when a thousand
ItIM NM Creek warriors under the leader
INxLSQl ship of Chief Red Eagle, or Will
SSSS-SJ liam Weatherford overwhelmed the
garrison of more than 500 whites, half-breeds
and negroes and left more than half of them
dead.
The number of killed at Fort Minis has never
been accurately determined. Different authorities
give varying figures, ranging from 250 to 45O
with the preponderance of reliable evidence plac-
ing the number at 250. But even taking this
lowest figure, it gives the tragedy at Fort Minis
the doubtful distinction of being much worse
than any of the other Indian massacres whose
stories are familiar to most Americans.
Before discussing the affair at Fort Minis and
some of the factors which make it unique in our
history, it might be well to consider first the
word massacre" and how inaccurately that
word is used by most Americans. For instance
they refer to the annihilation of Capt. w. j. Fet-
terman and his command on December 21. 1866,
as the "Fetterman Massacre" or the Sort Phil
Kearney Massacre" and to the Battle of the Lit
tie Big Horn, fought June %, 1876, as the "Cus-
ter Massacre"
The late Cyrus Townsend Brady in his ''In-
dian Fights and Fighters in commenting on this
says: "Fetterman and Custer attacked the Indi-
ans and fought desperately until they and their
men were all killed. call that battle not a
massacre When an Indian party raided a
settlement overwhelmed a train or murdered
children and women, that, think, was mas
sacre'; but these two instances were not"
Much the reasoning applies to the So
called 'Dade Massacre during the Seminole war.
On December %, 1886, Maj. Francis L. Dade of
the Fourth infantry, who had set out from Fort
Brook in Florida with force of 40 officers and
men to cooperate with another detachment from
Fort King in punitive expedition against Osce-
oa's Seminoles, ambushed near the Withla-
coochee river and fought brayely until all but
four were killed. In this case all of the slain
were soldiers bearing arms so 1t seems hardly
fair to call 1t massacre"
Somewhat different are the cases of the "Cher-
ry Valley Massacre" and the wyoming Valley
Massacre" during the Revolution. At Cherry VAL
ley 80 non-combatants, men, women and chill
dren, were slain by the Indians and Tories who
also killed 16 Continental soldiers of the gar
rison at Fort Alden and their commander Col.
1chabod Alden, whose negligence and incOmpe-
tence mainly responsible for the tragedy
there. At Wyoming Valley it was case of an
armed force about so Continentas and some 25O
soldiers enrolled as militia taking the field
against the enemy, Tories and Indians, being
defeated and suffering loss of approximately
160 killed in action or slaughtered by the In
dians after being taken prisoners and disarmed.
In that respect (the killing of prisoners) it was
a massacre" But despite the exaggerations
and myth-making of the early historians of the
Wyoming Valley affair who painted it as "di-
abolical slaughter of both sexes and every age"
modern historical research has established the
fact that only one man, British deserter, was
put to death after the surrender of Forty Fort
and that there was massacre" of non-com-
batants.
To three other historic affairs, the term "mas-
sacre" may be justly applied. One of them was
the Sort William Henry Massacre in 1857
when some so soldiers, women and children of
the English garrison were slaughtered by the
Indians after the surrender of the fort to the
French before Montcalm the French commander,
could restrain the ferocity of the savages. An
other was the "Fort Dearborn Massacre" in
1912 when the Pottawatomies, after Capt. Nath-
an Heald had evacuated the fort, attacked the
retreating Americans among the sand hills of
Lake Michigan and killed 26 regular soldiers.
IL militia, frontiersman, two women and IL
children, total of 90. The third the River
Raisin Massacre" in 1912 when after the Bat
tie of Frenchtown the British commander Proc
tor, by failing to provide adequate protection
for some 80 wounded American prisoners al
lowed them to fall victims to the scalping knives
of his Indian allies.
But lest it be thought that the slaughter of
whites by Indians were the only Indian mas
sacres," let us remember what took place at
Gnaddenhutten In Ohio in 1882; at Sand Creek
in Colorado in 1854 and at Wounded Knee creek
In South Dakota in 1890. Those were cases of
INDIAN massacre" in which the white men
were the murderers and Indian men, women
and children were the victims. Worst of the three
In many respects was the affair at Gnaddenhut-
ten when party of American frontiersmen led
by Col. David Williamson made prisoners of the
peaceful "Moravian Indians tDelawares who
had been converted to Christianity and in cold
blood put to death 96 men, women and children.
It is difficult to arrive at the truth about the
Sand Greek affair. Whether the Cheyennes un-
der Chiefs Black Kettle and White Antelope and
the Arapahoes under Chief Left Hand were hos
tile or friendly when the force of Colorado vol
unteers, commanded by Col j. NJ Chivington, at
tackled their camp Sand Creek in Colorado
that November day in 1864 is a moot question.
The number of Indians slain Is also a matter for
dispute, variously estimated at from $50 to 500.
But no less an authority than George Bird Grin
nell very definitely calls Sand Creek mas
sacre," declares that two-thirds of the slain were
women and children and tells how Chivington's