Camp Grant massacre The Camp Grant massacre , on April 30 , 1871 , was an attack on Pinal and Aravaipa Apaches who surrendered to the United States Army at Camp Grant , Arizona , along the San Pedro River . The massacre led to a series of battles and campaigns fought between the Americans , the Apache , and their Yavapai allies , which continued into 1875 , the most notable being General George Crook ' s Tonto Basin Campaign of 1872 and 1873 . Background . Some historians feel the reduction of Indian hostilities in the region had triggered fears of economic crisis in Tucson , since the Federal government was reducing funds for pacifying and controlling hostile tribes , mostly Apaches . Merchants who survived on the " blankets for peace " economy , were afraid their source of income would soon be lost . In early 1871 , to bolster public support for increased hostilities and increased federal funding of " gifts " to the Apaches , several Arizonans allegedly staged mock raids on isolated settlements . One of these settlements was in Aravaipa Canyon . Native American affairs in early 1870s Arizona lurched back and forth between peace and war . Each new round of hostilities brought increasing conflict between the settlers and the soldiers . The report of the Indian Peace Commission , in 1867 , led to the creation of the Board of Indian Commissioners two years later . Investigating abuses within the Office of Indian Affairs , the commissioners spearheaded a growing movement for native American rights that culminated in the Quaker Policy of President Ulysses S . Grant ' s administration . A major problem faced by Arizona ' s military was they had too few soldiers for too vast an area of land . Most chronicle s of the time regarded Apaches as the biggest menace , but Yuman - speaking Yavapais , who were often identified as Apache Mohaves or Apache Yumas , killed and mutilated settlers just as often . Divided into four subtribes , the Tolkapaya , or Western Yavapais , the Yavepe and the Wipukpaya or Northeastern Yavapais and the Kewevkapaya or Southeastern Yavapais , the Yavapais ranged from the Colorado River to the Tonto Basin . Like the Apaches , they were mobile and extremely independent , their only political authorities being war chiefs and advisory chiefs selected by local groups . This made it extremely difficult for the United States Army to run down or negotiate with more than one Yavapai group at a time . Troops had to pursue the Yavapais across rough desert terrain . Many of the soldiers deserted , fleeing places like Camp Grant , a sun - scorched collection of adobe buildings . Camp Grant . Early in 1871 , a 37 - year - old first lieutenant named Royal Emerson Whitman assumed command of Camp Grant , Arizona Territory , about 50 miles ( 80 km ) northeast of Tucson . In February 1871 , five old Apache women straggled into Camp Grant to look for a son who had been taken prisoner . Whitman fed them and treated them kindly , so other Apaches from Aravaipa and Pinal bands soon came to the post to receive rations of beef and flour . That spring , Whitman created a refuge along Aravaipa Creek , about five miles ( 8 km ) east of Camp Grant for nearly 500 Aravaipa and Pinal Apaches , including Chief Eskiminzin . The Apaches began cutting hay for the post ' s horses and harvesting barley in nearby ranchers ' fields . Whitman may have suspected that peace could not last . He urged Eskiminzin to move his people to the White Mountains near Fort Apache , which was established in 1870 , but he refused . During the winter and spring , William S . Oury and Jesús María Elías formed a Committee of Public Safety , which blamed every depredation in southern Arizona on the Camp Grant Apaches . After Apaches ran off livestock from San Xavier on April 10 , Elías contacted his old ally Francisco Galerita , leader of the Tohono O ' odham at San Xavier . Oury collected arms and ammunition from his followers . Massacre . On the afternoon of April 28 , six Americans , 48 Mexicans , and 92 O ' odham gathered along Rillito Creek and set off on a march to Aravaipa Canyon ; one of the Americans was William S . Oury , the brother of Granville Henderson Oury . At dawn on Sunday , April 30 , they surrounded the Apache camp . The O ' odham were the main fighters , while the Americans and Mexicans picked off Apaches who tried to escape . Most of the Apache men were off hunting in the mountains . All but eight of the corpses were women and children . Twenty - nine children had been captured and were sold into slavery in Mexico by the Papago and the Mexicans themselves . A total of 144 Aravaipas and Pinals had been killed and mutilated , nearly all of them scalped . Aftermath . Lieutenant Whitman searched for the wounded , found only one woman , buried the bodies , and dispatched interpreters into the mountains to find the Apache men and assure them his soldiers had not participated in the " vile transaction " . The following evening , the surviving Aravaipas began trickling back to Camp Grant . Many of the settlers in southern Arizona considered the attack justifiable homicide and agreed with Oury , but this was not the end of the story . Within a week of the slaughter , a local businessman , William Hopkins Tonge , wrote to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs stating , " The Indians at the time of the massacre being so taken by surprise and considering themselves perfectly safe with scarcely any arms , those that could get away ran for the mountains . " He was the first person to refer to what had taken place as a massacre . The military and the Eastern press called it a massacre , so President Grant informed Governor A . P . K . Safford that if the perpetrators were not brought to trial , he would place Arizona under martial law . In October 1871 , a Tucson grand jury indicted 100 of the assailants with 108 counts of murder . The trial , two months later , focused solely on Apache depredations ; it took the jury just 19 minutes to pronounce a verdict of not guilty . Western Apache groups soon left their farms and gathering places near Tucson in fear of subsequent attacks . As pioneer families arrived and settled in the area , Apaches were never able to regain hold of much of their ancestral lands in the San Pedro River Valley . Many groups of Apaches joined up with the Yavapais in Tonto Basin , and from there , a guerilla war began which lasted until 1875 . Site of Camp Grant and the massacre . The massacre occurred in the vicinity of Camp Grant . In 1871 , its location was on an upper terrace on the east bank of the San Pedro River , just north of the junction with Araviapa Creek . The camp was in the vicinity of 32°50 ' 51 . 22 " N , 110°42 ' 11 . 91 " W . The Camp Grant site was near the present Aravaipa Campus of Central Arizona Community College , which is located between the towns of Mammoth and Winkelman on Arizona State Route 77 . Few remains of the site are visible . Current authorities place the massacre site south of the Aravaipa Creek and about five miles upstream from Camp Grant . No marker is at the site of the massacre , and the location is only generally known .