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.

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. which, although known for their hostility toward white settlers, did not conduct raids on the settlements. to track down and punish the offending party. Sheridan ordered:

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

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

thumb|Major Eugene M. Baker's Marias River Campaign, Montana, January 19-29, 1870.

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".

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."

Aftermath

thumb| Ninth from left Eugene M. Baker and group of army officers at Fort Ellis, Montana Territory 1871.

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. <!-- However, burning bodies may have been an attempt to kill smallpox. hiding this as it hasn't been sourced in nearly two years, and its inclusion here could be an 'attempt to sway opinion.' --> 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.

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.

The army justified Baker's attack and portrayed him as a hero. De Trobriand claimed that many of the Piegan women had been killed by their husbands to protect them "from tortures among the white men which are inflicted upon white women when captured by those Red fiends." Major General Winfield Scott Hancock claimed that it was necessary for the troops to "fire into the lodges at the outset to drive the Indians out to an open contest." Hancock also claimed that fewer than forty women and children had been killed. The news that many in the camp had been suffering from smallpox added to the outrage about the army's attack on non-combatants. Despite the subsequent controversy, General Sheridan expressed his confidence in Baker's leadership while struggling to protect the U.S. Army politically. He succeeded in preventing an official investigation into the incident. Following the Marias Massacre, Baker was widely viewed as a strong military commander and was selected to command Fort Ellis by General Sheridan. At Fort Ellis, Baker was in command of surveying expeditions into Yellowstone in 1871 and 1872, culminating in a skirmish between his forces and Indian warriors led by Sitting Bull at Pryor's Creek on August 14, 1872. Baker was later arrested by General Hancock for drunkenness in October 1872. He was never charged but was relegated to purchasing horses for the army. Horace—who was half-Indian—was ultimately pardoned for his role in the massacre by the Native community, who viewed his participation as justified by a desire to avenge his father and because of his social and economic standing in the community.

Nathan Clarke was "stabbed to the heart" on September 19, 1872 in Deep Creek, Montana by James Swan, a Métis man. Clarke's death was reported in the Helena Weekly Herald with the cause: "Clark wanted Swan's daughter, to which both Swan and the girl objected." Andrew Graybill's The Red and the White portrays Clarke's stabbing as an expression of the "self-loathing" of "some people of mixed ancestry," asserting that James Swan preferred his daughter marry "a white man." This accusation lacks credibility, given the Swan family's hosting of Louis Riel at their home during his time in Montana and the family's subsequent participation in the North-West Resistance. The daughter in question was likely Adelaide Swan, as she married Alexandre Azure (a Métis man) on November 26, 1872.

Historical significance

Sheridan had been attempting to replace Indian agents with military personnel, as he believed that they could better control the Indians. Sheridan reported to Congress that he could save the government $3.5 million in annual transportation costs alone. Although the Army Appropriation bill in 1870 allowed Sheridan to take over Indian affairs, his involvement in the massacre prevented him from advancing. In an attempt to raise the quality of appointees, Grant appointed as Indian agents numerous Quakers and other persons affiliated with religious groups.

Order of battle

United States Army, Major Eugene M. Baker, commanding.

2nd United States Cavalry Regiment

  • Company F, Second Lieutenant Gus Doane.
  • Company G.
  • Company H.
  • Company L, Captain Lewis Thompson.

13th United States Infantry Regiment

  • Mounted Detachment, 55 men.

Native Americans, Heavy Runner.

Piegan Blackfeet

  • About 230, mostly unarmed women and children.

Legacy

  • For many years, students and faculty from Blackfeet Community College have held an annual memorial on January 23 at the site. One year they placed 217 stones at the site to commemorate the victims, as counted by Joe Kipp.
  • In 2010, the Baker Massacre Memorial was erected at the site.
  • Fools Crow, a novel written by Native American writer James Welch, culminates with the Marias Massacre.
  • Fair Land, Fair Land, a novel written by A. B. Guthrie Jr., also ends with the Massacre.
  • Gustavus Cheyney Doane was honored for participation in the first geological survey of what became Yellowstone National Park by naming one of the peaks "Mount Doane". The mountain was renamed in 2022 to First Peoples Mountain.
  • The Massacre is a major plot point in the 2025 novel The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Blackfeet author Stephen Graham Jones.

Notes

Further reading

  • Ege, Robert J. "Tell Baker to Strike Them Hard!": Incident on the Marias, 23 Jan. 1870 (Old Army Press, 1970).
  • Tovías, Blanca (Spring 2013). "Diplomacy and Contestation Before and After the 1870 Massacre of Amskapi Pikuni". Ethnohistory 60.2: 269–293. .
  • Wylie, Paul R. Blood on the Marias: The Baker Massacre (U of Oklahoma Press, 2016).
  • "Blackfeet Remember Montana's Greatest Indian Massacre", Bozeman Chronicle (MT) newspaper, 1/25/2012
  • "Observing the 1870 Baker Massacre: 'It Is to Be Regretted ... Some Women and Children Were Accidentally Killed., the Missoulians (MT) Buffalo Post—Article on the 2010 Baker Massacre Memorial
  • An Uncelebrated Anniversary, DickShovel website
  • Witness to Carnage: The 1870 Marias Massacre in Montana, DickShovel website
  • Native American Legends: The Marias Massacre, Legends of America