The Coolidge examiner., 1933-09-01


IGSA SOl ship of Chief Red Eagle, or VIII
lSz%-9Ssj 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 go to 45O
with the prepOnderance of reliable evidence plac-
ing the number at $50 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 1t 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 humiliation of Capt. w. j. Fet
terman and his command on December 81, 1866
as the "Fetterman Massacre or the Fort Phil
Kearney Massacre" and to the Battle of the Lit
tie Big Horn, fought June %, 1876. as the Gus
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-
and fought desperately until they and tneir
men were all killed. | call that battle not
massacre When an Indian war party raided
settlement or OVerWnelneu traln or murdered
children and women, that, think. was mas
sacre'; but these two instances were not"
Much the same reasoning applies to the so
called "Dade Massacre" during the Seminole war.
On December 2s. 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-
ola's Semnoles was ambushed near the Withla-
coochee river and fought bravely until all but
four were killed. In this case all of the slain
soldiers bearing arms so it seems hardly
fair to call ii 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
Ichabod Alden, whose negligence and incompe-
tence was mainly responsible for the tragedy
there At Wyoming Valley 1t was case of an
armed force about so Continentals and some go
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
dams after being taken prisoners and disarmed
In that respect (the killing of prsoners) it was
Il
and myth making of the early historians of the
Wyoming Valley affair who painted 1t as "dl-
rbolcal slaughter of both sexes and every age"
modern historical research has established the
feet that only one man, British deserter, was
put to death after the surrender of Forty Fort
and that there was no massacre" of non-com-
batants
To three other historic affairs the term "mas-
sacre" may be justly applied. One of them was
the Fort William Henry Massacre" in 1857
when some 80 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.
u militia, a frontiersman, two women and 10
children. a total of 50. The third was 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 1T be thought that the slaughter of
whites by Indians were the only Indian mas
sacreS," let remember what took place at
Gnaddenhutten in Ohio in 1882: at Sand Creek
in Colorado in 1864 and at Wounded Knee creek
in South Dakota in 1890. Those were cases OF
an Indian massacre in which the white men
we're the murderers and Indian men, women
and children were the victims.
To return now to the massacre at Fort Minis
it will be seen from the foregoing that the
toll of death there was greater than that at any
other massacre of whites by the Indians espe
cially II that term is limited to the killing OF