The Shoshoni Frontier and the Bear River Massacre

by Brigham Madsen

In January 1863 over two hundred Shoshoni men, women, and children died on the banks of the Bear River at the hands of volunteer soldiers from California. Bear River was one of the largest Indian massacres in the Trans-Mississippi West, yet the massacre has gone almost unnoticed as it occurred during a time when national attention was focused on the Civil War, and the deaths of the Shoshoni Indians in a remote corner of the West was of only passing interest. 

Bear River was the culmination of events from nearly two decades of Indian-white interaction. The Shoshoni homelands encompassed a huge expanse of territory and were traversed by the main paths of western travel, forcing Indian-white encounters. Initially friendly and accommodating to white travelers in the 1840s, by the late 1850s resentment soared among the Indians as they were killed and their food stocks were consumed by emigrants and their livestock. The process of white appropriation of Indian lands reached crisis proportions in the Far West and Great Basin before it did on the Great Plains.

In the historiography of western Indians, few have appreciated the role of tribes inhabiting the regions of along the Oregon and California Trails. Madsen makes a compelling argument that precedents were established that were followed again and again on subsequent western Indian frontiers, offering a new view of early encounters in the Trans-Mississippi West. This detailed narrative of the events and conflicts that culminated in the massacre remains the definitive account of this bloody chapter in United States-Native American relations.

Genres: History, Native American

312 pages, Paperback

First published October 10, 1985

Reviews

[Allan Branstiter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although it's a little dated (it was originally published in 1985), Brigham Madsen's book remains the definitive account of the Shoshone during the 19th century and the events leading up to the Bear River Massacre in 1862. As part of Utah Centennial series, this book can sometimes read like it was primarily written for a Mormon audience living in Utah; however, Madsen does an excellent job linking conflicts with Native Americans in the intermountain West to a wider historical context. He argues that conflicts between whites and the various Shoshone tribes indigenous to the region (an he makes a point to illustrate the cultural, political, and geographic diversity of the Shoshone people) were caused by several factors. First, increasing white settlement in Indian country destroyed Native food sources, which resulted in widespread starvation and desperation among Native people. Second, the federal government consistently failed to ratify treaties with the Shoshone people, while ignoring Indian agents who repeatedly urged Washington to send aid to Native Americans. Third, when the U.S. Army was pulled out of the frontier to fight in the East during the Civil War, they were replaced with California Volunteers who were much more aggressive and brutal in their treatment of Native Americans. In the end, Madsen concludes that the Bear River Massacre was a result of glory-seeking California Volunteers, Mormon settlers eager to see Native Americans exterminated in Idaho's cache valley, and decades of increasing Shoshone desperation in the face of starvation, environmental displacement, racism, and indiscriminate killing at the hands of white Americans.

[Matthew · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good detail and information; poorly written.

[Reyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two of my Great-Great Grandfathers were living in the area at the time, one in the nearest town, Franklin, in what is now Idaho. the other across the border in a small town in what is now Utah.

But I learned recently that I had another Great-Great Grandfather who was serving with Connor's cavalry. I learned about the massacre in Idaho magazine.

I have a keen interest in history and had visited the area many times but never learned until now about this event.

The book was recommended to me. It is heavy with details which is what I wanted.