There were three battles between white soldiers and Indian warriors which resulted in the deaths of all the whites. One was the Battle of the Little Big Horn where Custer and all the men with him perished (although other units in the 7th Cavalry survived). Another was the Fetterman Massacre where Sioux warriors wiped out 80 soldiers led by Lt. William Fetterman. But the first so-called massacre was the Grattan Massacre of 1854. This battle was fought near Ft. Laramie on the Oregon Trail. The fort was an outpost in Indian territory and thousands of covered wagons passed by it on the way to California and Oregon. At this time, Indian/white relations were still cordial, but getting tense. Indians would exact tolls of coffee, sugar, and tobacco on the wagon trains. On August 17, a sick cow fell behind a Mormon wagon train. A Sioux warrior named High Forehead played the Indian version of “finders keepers” and made a meal of the cow. Fearing trouble, Chief Conquering Bear went to the fort the next day and offered a horse or mule. The commanding officer said he would wait for the Indian agent to make a decision. Lt. John Grattan, his second in command, argued for a show of force. He was only one year out of West Point and was arrogant and overconfident. On August 19, he was allowed to take 29 men and two cannons to the Indian village to arrest High Forehead. Grattan lined up his men (some of whom were drunk) and loaded up his cannons as negotiations took place. Grattan’s interpreter Lucien Auguste was a jerk who taunted the Indians. Hundreds of warriors surrounded the soldiers as Conquering Bear tried to avoid a conflict, but High Forehead refused to surrender and the offer of compensation for the cow was turned down by Grattan. As tensions peaked, some of the soldiers opened fire. The cannons fired too, but too high. They never fired again as the whites were overwhelmed by the Indians. All were killed. Grattan’s body was found with 24 arrows in it. Unfortunately, the peace-making Conquering Bear was mortally wounded in the ten -minute battle. He was the only Indian death. The bad blood from the incident led to 23 years of warfare on the Plains. The press reported it as a massacre and failed to tell the truth of how Grattan brought it upon himself and his men.
https://www.wyohistory.org/encyclopedia/grattan-fight-prelude-generation-war
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grattan_massacre
0 Comments