DeoVindice (talk | contribs) m Undid revision 1181422485 by Reywas92 (talk) The PDF you cited states "The Spring Valley Massacre of 1859 does not appear to have occurred within the Bahsahwahbee TCP area itself." Wilson provides no date and location for the alleged incident. Unless you can provide a date and location, Wilson's story will be removed as your original research. Tags: Undo Reverted |
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=== Spring Valley Massacre of 1859 === |
=== Spring Valley Massacre of 1859 === |
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Beginning in May 1859, Army Captain [[James H. Simpson]] surveyed a new route across the Great Basin to California, resulting in increased emigrant traffic through Newe territory and further disruption of their resources and lifestyles. |
Beginning in May 1859, Army Captain [[James H. Simpson]] surveyed a new route across the Great Basin to California, resulting in increased emigrant traffic through Newe territory and further disruption of their resources and lifestyles. According to the 1910 account of [[Elijah Nicholas Wilson]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Elijah Nicholas |url=https://archive.org/details/whiteindianboyst0000wils/page/160/mode/2up |title=The White Indian Boy: The Story of Uncle Nick Among the Shoshones |publisher=World Book Company |year=1926 |location=New York}}</ref>, who claimed to be one of the army's interpreters and guides, and [[Oral history|oral histories]]<ref name="nrhpdoc" /> in late summer or early autumn, General [[Albert Sidney Johnston]] brought four companies of soldiers from [[Camp Floyd State Park Museum|Camp Floyd]] in Utah to Spring Valley to punish the Indians for a raid on an emigrant caravan to California. Wilson wrote that Johnston's scouts found two Indians and brought them back to the military camp and forced them to inform on a rendezvous of Indian warriors. Wilson's account states that the warriors "were waiting for some more of the Pocatello Indians to come, and as soon as they arrived they were going to burn all the stations and kill all of the riders and station keepers."<ref>Wilson, pp. 158</ref> Wilson and the scouts led Johnston's army to the Indian campsite and the U.S. soldiers surrounded the warriors and began firing. |
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In his description of the battle, Wilson said the fighting was fierce, with "the soldiers with their bayonets and sabers, and the Indians with their clubs, axes, and knives... I saw a soldier and an Indian that had clinched in a death struggle. They had each other by the hair of the head, and I saw a squaw run up to them with an ax and strike the soldier in the back and he sank to the ground, then she split his head with the ax. While she was doing this, a soldier ran a bayonet through her, and that is the way it was going over the whole battleground... It lasted about two hours, and during that short period of time, every Indian, [[squaw]], and [[papoose]], and every dog was killed."<ref>Wilson, pp. 165</ref> Wilson reported at least 350 men were killed; including women and children, there were an estimated 525–700 deaths. Although this estimate would make it one of the largest massacres of Indian people by the United States government, it is known only from Wilson's report and [[Oral history|oral histories]]; Johnston did not report it to the Secretary of War, and his report to General [[Winfield Scott]] in November 1859 makes no reference to a massacre.<ref>Senate of the United States; First Session of the 36th Congress, 1859-60; No. 42, p. 26</ref> |
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''The Mountaineer'' Newspaper reported that on August 14, 1859, "Brevet Brigadier General Albert S. Johnston, Colonel 2nd Cavalry, commanding department of Utah, having received information that a band of northern Indians had robbed and murdered a party of emigrants on the California road, detached 2nd Lieutenant Ebenezer Gay, 2nd Dragoons, in command of Company G, 2nd Dragoons, from Camp Floyd, to take such steps as circumstances might require. The latter learning, near Box Elder, that the Indians were not distant, resolved to attack them... Lieutenant Gay surprised the encampment of the Indians, and charged upon the main body, killing and wounding several. The number of the Indians is estimated from one hundred and fifty to two hundred warriors, of whom some twenty were killed; twenty horses were captured, nearly half being American horses; four men severely, and two slightly wounded; and nine horses wounded."<ref>''The Mountaineer'' Newspaper, 31st December 1859 edition, Salt Lake City, Utah, pp. 3</ref> |
Possibly referencing the same event, ''The Mountaineer'' Newspaper reported that on August 14, 1859, "Brevet Brigadier General Albert S. Johnston, Colonel 2nd Cavalry, commanding department of Utah, having received information that a band of northern Indians had robbed and murdered a party of emigrants on the California road, detached 2nd Lieutenant Ebenezer Gay, 2nd Dragoons, in command of Company G, 2nd Dragoons, from Camp Floyd, to take such steps as circumstances might require. The latter learning, near Box Elder, that the Indians were not distant, resolved to attack them... Lieutenant Gay surprised the encampment of the Indians, and charged upon the main body, killing and wounding several. The number of the Indians is estimated from one hundred and fifty to two hundred warriors, of whom some twenty were killed; twenty horses were captured, nearly half being American horses; four men severely, and two slightly wounded; and nine horses wounded."<ref>''The Mountaineer'' Newspaper, 31st December 1859 edition, Salt Lake City, Utah, pp. 3</ref> |
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Possibly referencing the same event, [[Elijah Nicholas Wilson]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wilson |first=Elijah Nicholas |url=https://archive.org/details/whiteindianboyst0000wils/page/160/mode/2up |title=The White Indian Boy: The Story of Uncle Nick Among the Shoshones |publisher=World Book Company |year=1926 |location=New York}}</ref>, who claimed to be one of the army's interpreters and guides, published a book of anecdotes in 1910 that claimed that 350 Indians were killed by the troops on an unspecified date in 1859 at Bahsahwahbee. [[Oral history|Oral histories]] that rely heavily on Wilson's account also reference the event but there is no substantiation by contemporary documentary evidence.<ref name="nrhpdoc" /> |
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=== Swamp Cedars Massacre of 1863 === |
=== Swamp Cedars Massacre of 1863 === |
Revision as of 13:23, 23 October 2023
Bahsahwahbee | |
Location | 5 miles northeast of Majors Place, Nevada |
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Coordinates | 39°08′N 114°27′W / 39.14°N 114.45°W |
Area | 14,175 acres (57.36 km2) |
NRHP reference No. | 100000464[1] |
Added to NRHP | May 1, 2017 |
Bahsahwahbee is a grove of Rocky Mountain juniper trees, locally called swamp cedars, in White Pine County, Nevada, where multiple massacres of Western Shoshone people occurred in the 19th century, two by the U.S. Army and one by vigilantes.[2][3] The name means "sacred water valley" in the Shoshoni language.[4] The area is managed by the Bureau of Land Management and is located eight miles northwest of Great Basin National Park and five miles northeast of Majors Place.[5]
The grove was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2017 as a traditional cultural property.
Ecology
Spring Valley is a north–south valley between the Snake Range and Schell Creek Range in the Great Basin region that covers much of Nevada. More than 100 springs are in the valley.[6] The valley's abundance of water in the soil, trapped by a shallow layer of clay forming a perched water table, allows the Rocky Mountain juniper (Juniperus scopulorum), also called swamp cedars, take root at ground level. This is the largest of three areas they grow in a valley rather than dry, rocky mountainsides.[7][3][6] The cone-bearing evergreen trees reach up to 40 feet tall.[2] The slender thelypody (Thelypodium sagittatum) is also endemic to this region of the Great Basin.[7]
History
Western Shoshone and Goshute people (Newe) have their homeland in northern Nevada and have lived in the Bahsahwahbee area since time immemorial. Archaeological artifacts in Spring Valley date to at least 10,000 years ago. These peoples typically lived in small family groups, but Bahsahwahbee was the place where they came together to engage in ceremonial activities. At seasonal events, including the Round Dance in the fall and Grass Dance in the spring, they took part in giving thanks to Mother Nature, religious customs, gathering food and hunting, and meeting with other tribes.[4]
Westward expansion of the United States accelerated in the late 1840s and 1850s as American setters sought gold in California and new lands and opportunities. The California Trail, one of the Emigrant Trails, and the Overland Trail passed through Newe lands in northern Nevada. The emigrants depleted the Indians' food and water supplies, causing the starvation of Newe, whose population had already suffered from smallpox epidemics. Conflict between Indians and white Americans continued as emigration increased, but an 1855 peace treaty with the Newe was not ratified by the United States, allowing for tensions and violence to worsen.[4]
Spring Valley Massacre of 1859
Beginning in May 1859, Army Captain James H. Simpson surveyed a new route across the Great Basin to California, resulting in increased emigrant traffic through Newe territory and further disruption of their resources and lifestyles. According to the 1910 account of Elijah Nicholas Wilson[8], who claimed to be one of the army's interpreters and guides, and oral histories[4] in late summer or early autumn, General Albert Sidney Johnston brought four companies of soldiers from Camp Floyd in Utah to Spring Valley to punish the Indians for a raid on an emigrant caravan to California. Wilson wrote that Johnston's scouts found two Indians and brought them back to the military camp and forced them to inform on a rendezvous of Indian warriors. Wilson's account states that the warriors "were waiting for some more of the Pocatello Indians to come, and as soon as they arrived they were going to burn all the stations and kill all of the riders and station keepers."[9] Wilson and the scouts led Johnston's army to the Indian campsite and the U.S. soldiers surrounded the warriors and began firing.
In his description of the battle, Wilson said the fighting was fierce, with "the soldiers with their bayonets and sabers, and the Indians with their clubs, axes, and knives... I saw a soldier and an Indian that had clinched in a death struggle. They had each other by the hair of the head, and I saw a squaw run up to them with an ax and strike the soldier in the back and he sank to the ground, then she split his head with the ax. While she was doing this, a soldier ran a bayonet through her, and that is the way it was going over the whole battleground... It lasted about two hours, and during that short period of time, every Indian, squaw, and papoose, and every dog was killed."[10] Wilson reported at least 350 men were killed; including women and children, there were an estimated 525–700 deaths. Although this estimate would make it one of the largest massacres of Indian people by the United States government, it is known only from Wilson's report and oral histories; Johnston did not report it to the Secretary of War, and his report to General Winfield Scott in November 1859 makes no reference to a massacre.[11]
Possibly referencing the same event, The Mountaineer Newspaper reported that on August 14, 1859, "Brevet Brigadier General Albert S. Johnston, Colonel 2nd Cavalry, commanding department of Utah, having received information that a band of northern Indians had robbed and murdered a party of emigrants on the California road, detached 2nd Lieutenant Ebenezer Gay, 2nd Dragoons, in command of Company G, 2nd Dragoons, from Camp Floyd, to take such steps as circumstances might require. The latter learning, near Box Elder, that the Indians were not distant, resolved to attack them... Lieutenant Gay surprised the encampment of the Indians, and charged upon the main body, killing and wounding several. The number of the Indians is estimated from one hundred and fifty to two hundred warriors, of whom some twenty were killed; twenty horses were captured, nearly half being American horses; four men severely, and two slightly wounded; and nine horses wounded."[12]
Swamp Cedars Massacre of 1863
The U.S. Army established Fort Ruby in White Pine County in 1862 to protect white emigrants. At this time, the Newe faced severe starvation and resorted to eating grains given by the Overland Mail Company and even undigested barley from horses' manure.[4] Stationed at Fort Ruby, Colonel Patrick Connor instructed his troops to "destroy every male Indian whom you may encounter."[4]
On March 22, 1863, Goshute warriors attacked a stage station near Spring Valley, killing the company operator and taking stock animals. In retribution, Captain S. P. Smith led a cavalry company to seek out those responsible. Discovering an Indian encampment at Duck Creek on May 3, they massacred 24 Indians in their sleep and five more who arrived at the camp the next day. Two days later, the company attacked another Indian camp in the Bahsahwahbee area. Military records state they massacred another 23 Indians, though others were able to escape because some of the Army's horses became stuck in the swamp. Goshute oral history states "most of them" were killed.[4]
Five months after this Goshute War, the Newe signed the Treaty of Ruby Valley that gave the United States significant rights to the use of their land.[4]
Swamp Cedars Massacre of 1897
The third massacre at Bahsahwahbee, as reported through oral histories, was committed by vigilantes in 1897. False accusations that the Newe's gatherings were to prepare for war led settlers to target the Newe at their seasonal events. Self-appointed militia members are told to have followed Indians to the Swamp Cedars site where tribal members were gathered for a harvest festival. The attackers raped the women and killed almost everyone there, who were largely women, children, and elders, as the men were away hunting.[4] Only two young girls survived the massacre.[6]
By the 1930s, 16 small villages remained in Spring Valley.[4]
Modern use
Since the three massacres, the Newe have a spiritual connection to Bahsahwahbee as a place where their ancestors lived and died. The site went from being a place of celebration to a place of commemoration, where the swamp cedar trees each represent those killed. The site's waters and springs are considered sacred, and the Newe – now organized as the Ely Shoshone Tribe, the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe, and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation – also continue to use it for gathering of plants and hunting.[4]
Designation and protection
The Bureau of Land Management designated 3,200 acres (13 km2) as the Swamp Cedar Area of Critical Environmental Concern in 2008, affording that portion protections including limits on off-road vehicle use, plant collection, cattle grazing, and surface mining.[13]
In 2017, an area encompassing 14,175 acres (57.36 km2) was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as a traditional cultural property.[1] It lies between White Pine County Road 893, White Pine County Road 37, U.S. Route 50, and the Spring Valley Wind Farm, entirely on Bureau of Land Management land.
The Swamp Cedar Natural Area is a historic resource of the Great Basin National Heritage Area.[14]
Native American tribes opposed a water pipeline that would have brought groundwater from Spring Valley and others in the county to Las Vegas; the potential depletion of the aquifer could have affected the swamp cedars, and plans for the pipeline were canceled in 2020.[15] A 2021 Nevada law made it illegal to cut or destroy any swamp cedars in the Bahsahwahbee area without a permit.[16] The bill was requested by Native American advocates, though state agencies stated protection of the area is the responsibility of the Bureau of Land Management, rather than the state.[17]
In 2021, the Nevada Legislature passed a resolution in support of federal protection of the area, the Senate doing so unanimously.[3][6][18] Advocates have proposed the site, with a suggested area of 27,240 acres (110.2 km2), be added to Great Basin National Park or protected as a national monument managed by the National Park Service.[2][6][19] In 2023, Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen called on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to support making the site a national monument.[20] Cortez Masto visited the site in July 2023 and Rosen in August.[21][22]
See also
References
- ^ a b "National Register Database and Research". National Park Service. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
- ^ a b c Marvar, Alexandra (October 18, 2021). "This sacred valley could become America's next national monument". National Geographic. Archived from the original on May 24, 2023. Retrieved May 24, 2023.
- ^ a b c "'Their bodies are in those trees': Nevada tribes seek national monument status for sacred trees". Reno Gazette Journal. Retrieved May 24, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "National Register of Historic Places Registration: Bahsahwahbee" (PDF). National Park Service. June 30, 2016. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 22, 2017. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
- ^ "Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Ely District Update" (PDF). September 2017. Archived from the original on February 2, 2019. Retrieved June 10, 2023.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ a b c d e Bahouth, Brian (March 15, 2021). "Spring Valley swamp cedars - more than trees for Western Shoshone". Sierra Nevada Ally. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
- ^ a b "Appendix Q: Areas of Critical Environmental Concern" (PDF). Bureau of Land Management. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 7, 2023. Retrieved June 7, 2023.
- ^ Wilson, Elijah Nicholas (1926). The White Indian Boy: The Story of Uncle Nick Among the Shoshones. New York: World Book Company.
- ^ Wilson, pp. 158
- ^ Wilson, pp. 165
- ^ Senate of the United States; First Session of the 36th Congress, 1859-60; No. 42, p. 26
- ^ The Mountaineer Newspaper, 31st December 1859 edition, Salt Lake City, Utah, pp. 3
- ^ "Notice of Availability of the Proposed Resource Management Plan and Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Ely Field Office, Nevada". Federal Register. Archived from the original on April 24, 2021. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
- ^ "Management Plan for the Great Basin National Heritage Area" (PDF). Great Basin Heritage Area Partnership. April 30, 2013. Archived (PDF) from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
- ^ Lochhead, Colton (March 16, 2021). "Legislature moves to protect swamp cedars considered sacred". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
- ^ Solis, Jeniffer (May 26, 2021). "Swamp cedar protections, no-knock warrants among dozens of bill signed". Nevada Current. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
- ^ Solis, Jeniffer (March 16, 2021). "State balks at tribes' request to protect sacred trees". Nevada Current. Archived from the original on May 31, 2023. Retrieved May 30, 2023.
- ^ "AJR4". Nevada Legislature. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
- ^ "Bahsahwahbee National Monument (Swamp Cedars) Information Sheet". Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
- ^ Jessica, Hill (April 26, 2023). "Another national monument in works for Nevada?". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved June 6, 2023.
- ^ Timko, Steve (July 8, 2023). "Cortez Masto visits sacred swamp cedar site in eastern Nevada". KOLO. Retrieved July 14, 2023.
- ^ "Rosen Visits Bahsahwahbee, Meets With Tribal Leaders and Local Stakeholders to Discuss Support for Proposed National Monument". Jacky Rosen. August 11, 2023. Retrieved August 19, 2023.