The Marias Massacre (also known as the Baker Massacre or the Piegan Massacre) was a massacre of Piegan Blackfeet Native peoples committed by United States Army forces under Major Eugene Mortimer Baker as part of the Indian Wars. The massacre occurred on January 23, 1870, in Montana Territory. Approximately 200 Native people were killed, most of whom were women, children, and older men.
As part of a campaign to suppress Mountain Chief's band of Piegan Blackfeet, the U.S. Army attacked a different band led by Chief Heavy Runner, to whom the United States government had previously promised their protection. This resulted in public outrage and a long-term shift towards a "Peace Policy" by the Federal Government, as advocated by President Ulysses S. Grant. Grant kept the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a division of the Department of the Interior although the War Department was trying to regain control. He then appointed men recommended by various religious clergy—including Quakers and Methodists—as Indian agents, in hopes that they would be free of the corruption he had previously found in the department.
Background
Relations between the Niitsitapi Confederacy (composed of Blackfeet, Blood, and Piegan tribes, although frequently referred to simply as Blackfeet) and white settlers in Montana Territory had been largely hostile for years, as European Americans encroached on Native American territory and resources. In turn, some Blackfeet stole horses and raided white settlements. Rather than a widespread, organized conflict, such as Red Cloud's War, a series of unrelated clashes marked the relations between the groups. By 1870, the Blackfeet had largely retreated north of the Marias River in the territory.
Malcolm Clarke
Malcolm Clarke was a rancher and fur trader who worked in association with the American Fur Company (AFC). Before his life in the West, Malcolm Clarke had attended West Point until he was expelled for fighting. During his time there, he became friends with classmate William Sherman, although they lost touch after he left school. Clarke found success trading with Blackfeet tribes and eventually married a Native woman named Coth-co-co-na and had four children—Helen, Horace, Nathan, and Isabel. This marriage served as an alliance between Malcolm and the Blackfoot tribe, prolonging his fur trade with the tribe.
Clarke frequently argued with prominent AFC member Owen McKenzie throughout his trading career. This interpersonal conflict ultimately led to Clarke murdering McKenzie. After the murder, Clarke left the fur trading business out of fear of retribution from other traders, as well as the decline of the fur trade during the 1860s due to the dwindling population of bison. Clarke then moved his family to the Rocky Mountains and undertook ranching with his second wife, a mixed-race Blackfoot woman named Good Singing. They established the Clarke Horse and Cattle Ranch in 1864.
Murder of Malcolm Clarke
The inciting incident of the Marias Massacre was the murder of Malcolm Clarke on August 17, 1869. He was killed by Owl Child—a young Piegan warrior—and his comrades at the Clarke Ranch. Two years prior, in 1867, Owl Child had stolen horses from Clarke as payback for losing his horses, which he blamed on the trader. Consequently, Clarke and his son, Horace, beat and humiliated Owl Child in front of a group of Blackfeet. There were accounts from Blackfeet claiming Clarke had also raped Owl Child's wife, who was a cousin of Coth-co-co-na. Other Blackfeet oral histories state that Owl Child's wife became pregnant from the assault, and gave birth to a child who was either stillborn or killed by tribal elders. The Piegan warriors first shot and severely wounded Horace, who survived. They then proceeded to the house, where they shot Clarke in the chest before Owl Child ultimately killed him with an ax. Clarke's other children and his wife took shelter in the house unharmed.
Clarke's murder created a climate of unrest in the region, as outraged white settlers demanded that the government protect them and suppress the outlaw Blackfeet. In response, the U.S. Army demanded that the Blackfoot Confederacy execute Owl Child and deliver his body to them in two weeks. Owl Child fled North and joined Mountain Chief's Piegan band, which, although known for their hostility toward white settlers, did not conduct raids on the settlements.
When the two-week deadline had passed, General Philip Sheridan sent a squadron of cavalry from the Second Cavalry Regiment, led by Major Eugene Baker, to track down and punish the offending party. Sheridan ordered:
If the lives and property of the citizens of Montana can best be protected by striking Mountain Chief's band, I want them struck. Tell Baker to strike them hard.
Sheridan intended that the squadron conduct a dawn attack on the Piegan village; it had snowed heavily, and most of the Blackfeet would be sleeping or staying inside to keep warm. This was a strategy he had used before, as he had directed George Custer to attack Black Kettle's band of Cheyenne in the Battle of Washita River. Following their father's death, Nathan and Horace Clarke intercepted the Second cavalry as they passed through the Prickly Pear Valley and received permission from Colonel Philippe Regis de Trobriand to join the expedition. The two sought revenge for their father and made their expedition known to the press.
The massacre
A command led by Major Eugene M. Baker left Fort Ellis on January 6, 1870, and stopped at Fort Shaw to pick up two more companies, including scouts Joe Kipp and Joseph Cobell who were familiar with the Piegan bands. These scouts were critical to distinguishing between the unfriendly and friendly Piegan bands, as Baker was to refrain from attacking the friendly bands. Baker needed to wait until Sheridan's division inspector general Colonel James A. Hardie reviewed the situation and reported back to him.
Based on Hardie's January 13 report, Sheridan issued an order to "strike them hard". Baker's command, consisting of four companies of the 2nd U.S. Cavalry, and 55 mounted men of the 13th U.S. Infantry, moved North from Fort Shaw on January 19, looking for Mountain Chief's band, which was purportedly located in the Marias River country.
Baker's command came across a small Piegan camp on January 22 and captured the occupants. These prisoners informed Baker that the Big Horn and Red Horn camps—two Piegan leaders considered hostile—could be found a few miles downstream. Baker ordered a forced march that night and moved his mixed infantry and cavalry forces through rough country, locating a camp of 32 lodges in the low ground along the Marias River just South of present-day Dunkirk, Montana. Baker positioned his men on the high ground above the camp in a "natural firing range" and prepared to attack.
The camp
More than three hundred Piegan people were sleeping in Heavy Runner's camp in the predawn hours of January 23. Smallpox had struck, and many people were suffering from the disease. Most of the healthy men had left the camp to hunt. So, on that bitterly cold morning, nearly all the camp's occupants were women, children, or elderly.
The shooting
Scout Joe Kipp recognized that the camp belonged to Heavy Runner, considered peaceful and not to be attacked per orders from Fort Shaw commander Colonel Philippe Régis de Trobriand. When told that the camp belonged to Heavy Runner, Baker responded, "That makes no difference, one band or another of them; they are all Piegans [Blackfeet] and we will attack them." Baker then ordered a sergeant to shoot Kipp if he tried to warn the sleeping camp of Blackfeet and gave the command to attack. Kipp shouted to try to prevent the attack, and Baker placed him under arrest.
The noise alerted the Piegan camp and Chief Heavy Runner. Heavy Runner ran toward the soldiers, "shouting and waving a piece of paper—a safe conduct from the Indian Bureau." He was immediately shot and killed. Scout Joseph Cobell later took credit for shooting Heavy Runner. Cobell was married to the sister of Mountain Chief and wanted to divert attention from his brother-in-law's camp, which he knew was about 10 miles (16 km) downstream. After Cobell's first shot, the rest of Baker's command opened fire.
From the ridges above the camp, the soldiers shot into lodges filled with sleeping people. After a while, they charged into the camp. William Birth of Company K boasted that they sliced open lodge coverings with butcher knives and shot the unarmed people inside. He said: "We killed some with axes" and "gave them an awful massacreing. [sic]"
Survivors' accounts
Spear Woman was six years old at the time of the massacre. She remembered waking up to the noise of barking dogs. She watched Heavy Runner run toward the troops, holding his "name paper" above his head. Then the soldiers began shooting. She ran into a nearby lodge and hid behind a bed backrest. While she waited, soldiers moved from lodge to lodge, killing her people. One soldier cut a hole in the lodge where she hid and shot everyone who moved.
Buffalo Trail Woman saw soldiers surround a lodge and shoot into it in unison. They then took blankets, robes, and anything else they wanted. Finally, they tore down all the tipis and set everything on fire. She saw them burn wounded people in the conflagration.
Long Time Calf escaped through the freezing waters of the Marias River, carrying her infant niece. She was eight years old.
Bear Head had gone out of the camp to catch his horses when he encountered soldiers. They took him prisoner. He saw Heavy Runner run toward the soldiers, waving a paper, and then fall as the troops opened fire. He saw soldiers shoot at the tops of lodges, cutting the bindings and collapsing them onto the fire so that they smothered and burned their occupants. He watched them do this to the lodge of his mother, Fair Singing Woman, killing her and his father's three other wives and their four daughters. He saw them tear down all the remaining lodges, shoot the occupants, and burn everything, bodies, and lodges together. Powerless to save his family, Bear Head wished the soldiers had killed him, too. After the soldiers left, a few people returned to the camp from their hiding places in the brush. They buried the dead as best they could. Bear Head counted fifteen men, ninety women, and fifty children dead.
Aftermath
Learning of the raid, Mountain Chief's band escaped over the border into Canada. Piegan oral history recounts that the U.S. Army threw every dead Native American man into a fire. A rough count by Baker's men showed 173 dead. Only one cavalryman, Private McKay, was killed, and another soldier was injured after falling off his horse and breaking his leg. The count of casualties was disputed by scout Joe Kipp, who later said the total Blackfeet dead numbered 217.
Conflicting reports
Colonel Regis de Trobriand reported to his superior officers on the success of the expedition, informing them that the "murderers, and marauders of last summer" had been killed. Sheridan received de Trobriand's initial report on January 29, which was then forwarded to Sherman with the promise that "this will end Indian troubles in Montana." Sheridan also praised Baker's command: "The lieutenant-general cannot commend too highly the spirit and conduct of the troops and their commander and as one of the results of this severe but necessary and well-merited punishment of these Indians, he congratulates the citizens of Montana upon the prospect of future security." However, de Trobriand needed to explain why Baker had attacked the wrong camp. So, he implied that Baker had attacked a "hostile" camp and that Heavy Runner had been killed by "his own fault" because he had left the safety of the trading post in search of whiskey. According to de Trobriand, Mountain Chief had fled the camp with his followers.
Baker filed his official report on February 18. In it, he claimed that he and his men had killed 173 Indians and had captured more than 100 women and children who were later allowed to go free. He also reported capturing more than 300 horses and burning the Piegans' lodges and supplies.
Blackfeet agent William B. Pease reported the massacre to his superior, Alfred Sully, on January 30 after interviewing the expedition's officers. Sully ordered Pease to interview survivors of the massacre. Based on his interviews with officers and survivors, Pease reported a death toll of eighteen older men, ninety women, and fifty children. According to Pease, only fifteen young men aged twelve to thirty-seven were killed. Pease further reported fifty-one Blackfeet survivors: eighteen women, nineteen children, nine young men who had escaped, and five men who had been out hunting at the time of the attack.