The Gila Expedition or Morehead War was an 1850 California militia attack on the

Quechan The Quechan (or Yuma) (Quechan: ''Kwatsáan'' 'those who descended') are a Native American tribe who live on the Fort Yuma Indian Reservation on the lower Colorado River in Arizona and California just north of the Mexican border. Despite the ...

, in retaliation for the Glanton Massacre, which had taken place near the confluence of the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of n ...

and

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid drainage basin, watershed that encompasses parts of ...

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

. It was the beginning of the 1850 to 1853

Yuma War The Yuma War was the name given to a series of United States military operations conducted in southern California and what is today southwestern Arizona from 1850 to 1853. The Quechan (also known as Yuma) were the primary opponent of the United ...

. Downriver from a ferry owned by A.L. Lincoln, the Quechan set up a ferry business to transport people, beasts and goods across the Colorado River on their way to the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California fro ...

John Joel Glanton John Joel Glanton (1819 – 23 April 1850) was an early settler of Arkansas, a Texas Ranger and noted soldier in the Mexican–American War, and the leader of a notorious gang of scalp-hunters in Northern Mexico and the Southwestern United States ...

and his scalp-hunting gang destroyed the Quechan boat and beat the local Quechan chief. For a while they took over Lincoln's ferry operation, killing Mexican and American passengers for their goods and money. In revenge, the Quechan attacked, killed, and scalped Glanton and most of the gang in 1850."John Joel Glanton"
Texas Handbook of History Online, accessed 2 December 2009 Later that year, the California state government recruited men for $6 a day to attack the Quechan. It was California's first military operation against aboriginal Americans. On April 16, 1850, 142 men commenced the expedition against the Quechan. However, the military operation went badly and the expedition members were besieged until September 16th. Because of the inflated costs of goods and wages during the Gold Rush, the cost of the operation reached $113,000, and nearly bankrupted the state.

References

{{reflist

External links

http://www.desertusa.com/yuma/azyumax.html
Pre-statehood history of Arizona Quechan Native American history of Arizona Native American history of California 19th-century military history of the United States 1850 in the United States History of Yuma County, Arizona Gila River Lower Colorado River Valley Yuma War Wars involving the indigenous peoples of North America in California Conflicts in 1850 1850 in California

See also

References

External links