The Bear River Massacre (January 29, 1863)
The Shoshone were utterly unaware of what was coming for them. They were extremely short on supplies, with old Shoshone men and women having to mold bullets in the middle of the fight. There were only Northwestern Shoshone members at this battle, no Bannock or other tribes. As you will read in the account given by Northwestern Shoshone members, their tribe was not responsible for the violence and thievery that had befallen the area. What started as a fight quickly turned into a massacre. Connor and his commanders had planned the attack so that the majority of Shoshones would be penned in.
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Nearly all the Shoshone men were killed, along with many women and children. Around 250 Shoshone were killed at the Bear River Massacre and the majority of their property was taken by soldiers, while only about fourteen soldiers died.
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After the massacre, the local Mormon Bishop of Franklin, Idaho sent men to the battlefield to offer assistance to the few survivors. The Mormon congregation in Cache Valley however, expressed their gratitude and approval for “the movement of Col. Connor as an intervention of the Almighty…” in the official ward minutes. The dead and wounded soldiers were returned to Camp Douglas, with the help of Porter Rockwell and other Mormon settlers.
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In contrast, the bodies of the fallen Shoshone remained on the field for months and even years. In the fall of 1863, a visiting Captain recorded that “Many of the skeletons of the Indians yet remained on the ground, their bones scattered by the wolves.” Cache Valley settlers continued to celebrate Connor’s victory, noting that the Shoshone would “never again attempt a fair stand-up fight” and that it had “put a quietus on the Indians.”
The PDFs below are different primary and secondary source accounts of the Bear River Massacre. The first is an account written by Darren Parry, current Chairman of the Northwest Shoshone Band. The account given by Mae Parry is the tribal account that was passed on orally for generations. The other two accounts of the Massacre were given by Colonel Connor and a settler of the area.
As you read the different accounts of the Bear River Massacre, focus on the similarities and differences in all accounts. What is missing in some accounts but there in others? What is the same in all three accounts? Why would different recollections of the same event have different information? Darren Parry’s writings offer additional background information on the Northwestern Shoshone Band and the massacre, focusing on the human experiences during the battle rather than the military tactics. In Parry’s writing, you can feel the emotional impact the massacre has had on the Northwestern Band even 150+ years later. Mae Parry’s account is very similar to her grandson Darren’s account, demonstrating how precise oral traditions can be in passing down history. Colonel Connor’s report of the Bear River Massacre is an official military document. Connor’s focus on troop movement and Shoshone aggression is interrupted by his personal feelings, where he notes that the Mormons were nowhere to be seen and calls the surviving Shoshone murderers. How might Connor’s personal feelings influence his report of the massacre? The Mormon settler account of the massacre was from an observer of the massacre. The settler makes no mention of feeling compelled to rouse the Mormon settlers to join the massacre on either side. This account again mentions how terrible the destruction and annihilation of the Shoshone were. In the retelling, the settle relates that the Mormon community nearby hosted the soldiers after the massacre and only after they left did they go look for Shoshone survivors. What does this order of events, as well as the words chosen in the retelling, suggest about the settlers’ feelings about the massacre?
1. Lorenzo H. Handy, Interview, as qtd in Madsen, p. 181.
2. Edward J. Barta, “Battle Creek: The Battle of Bear River,” p. 86, 93.
3. Tullidge, “The Cities of Cache Valley and Their Founders,” Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine 1, no. 4 (July 1881): 536.
4. Franklin County Citizen, Feb. 1, 1917.
5. U.S. Congress, House, The Expedition of Captain Fisk to the Rocky Mountains, p. 32.
6. Tullidge, “The Battle of Bear River,” Tullidge’s Quarterly Magazine 1, no. 2 (Jan. 1881): 194.
7. H. Ballard, Memories, p. 32, as qtd in Madsen, p. 197.
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Figure 1. Bear River Massacre, Madsen, The Shoshoni Frontier and the Bear River Massacre, 184.