The Klamath Lake massacre refers to the murder of at least fourteen

Klamath people The Klamath people are a Native American tribe of the Plateau culture area in Southern Oregon and Northern California. Today Klamath people are enrolled in the federally recognized tribes: * Klamath Tribes (Klamath, Modoc, and Yahooskin (Yahu ...

on the shores of

Klamath Lake Upper Klamath Lake (sometimes called Klamath Lake) ( Klamath: ?ews, "lake" ) is a large, shallow freshwater lake east of the Cascade Range in south-central Oregon in the United States. The largest body of fresh water by surface area in Oregon, it ...

, now in

Oregon Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, on 12 May 1846 by a band led by

John C. Frémont John Charles Frémont or Fremont (January 21, 1813July 13, 1890) was an American explorer, military officer, and politician. He was a U.S. Senator from California and was the first Republican nominee for president of the United States in 1856 ...

and

Kit Carson Christopher Houston Carson (December 24, 1809 – May 23, 1868) was an American frontiersman. He was a fur trapper, wilderness guide, Indian agent, and U.S. Army officer. He became a frontier legend in his own lifetime by biographies and n ...

History

Background

The expansionist movement of the 1840s motivated many Americans to work to push America's borders out into land claimed by

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

and Native American tribes. "

Manifest Destiny Manifest destiny was a cultural belief in the 19th century in the United States, 19th-century United States that American settlers were destined to expand across North America. There were three basic tenets to the concept: * The special vir ...

", a term coined by journalist John O'Sullivan, captured the idea that the young American nation was destined to rule all of the North American continent. Democratic Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri was a prominent leader of this movement, into which he enlisted his son-in-law, John C. Frémont. Benton obtained government funding for several expeditions led by Frémont to map and explore the western territory. In 1845, Captain Frémont was sent by the War Department on an expedition to survey the Great Basin and Alta California, a possession of Mexico. Upon arriving in California, Frémont and his men moved about the northern half of the state for several months, provoking the Mexican authorities and building up patriotic sentiment among Americans who had settled there. On 5 April 1846 Frémont and his men committed the Frémont massacre on the banks of the Sacramento River near present-day

Redding, California Redding is the economic and cultural capital of the Shasta Cascade region of Northern California and the county seat of Shasta County. Redding lies along the Sacramento River, north of Sacramento, and south of California's northern border wi ...

. They then proceeded north up the Sacramento River Valley and into

Oregon Territory The Territory of Oregon was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from August 14, 1848, until February 14, 1859, when the southwestern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Oregon. Ori ...

Incident

Frémont and his band had taken to killing Native Americans on sight as they traveled. Expedition member Thomas S. Martin stated in his memoirs, "We followed up the Sac. river killing plenty of game, and an occasional indian. Of the latter we made it a rule to spare none of the bucks." Expedition member Thomas E. Breckenridge said that the men "had orders while in camp or on the move to shoot Indians on sight. While on the march the crack of a rifle and the dying yell of a native was not an unusual occurrence." On the night of 9 May 1846 a band of 15-20 Klamath natives retaliated and attacked Frémont's group under cover of darkness, killing 2-3 members of the party. Frémont now "determined to square accounts with these people." His scouts killed two Klamath warriors on 11 May 1846, but Frémont considered that inadequate. On 12 May 1846, Frémont's assistant Kit Carson led an assault on a Klamath village named ''Dokdokwas'' on the shores of Klamath Lake. The assailants destroyed the village and killed at least 14 villagers, without taking a single casualty themselves.

Repercussions

Neither Frémont nor any of his expedition members were charged or punished in any way for the killings. Orders from the U.S. government recalled Frémont back to California to participate in the war against Mexico, and he did not return to Oregon territory.

Aftermath

Frémont and his band continued to kill Native Americans on sight on the way back down to California, and committed a "preemptive" attack on a rancheria (see

Sutter Buttes massacre The Sutter Buttes massacre refers to the murder of a large group of Californian Indians on the Sacramento River near Sutter Buttes in June 1846 by a militarized expeditionary band led by Captain John C. Frémont of Virginia. Estimates of the number ...

). John C. Frémont became Military Governor of California in January 1847, but was forced to give up the position less than two months later. In 1850 Frémont became California's first U.S. Senator. In 1856 Frémont was nominated as the Republican candidate for President, losing the race to James Buchanan. He later fought as a Union general during the Civil War. The Klamath peoples continued to be subject to violence from White settlers, including a long string of similar massacres and attacks. By 1855, the Humboldt Times reported that miners were "determined to commence an indiscriminate massacre of all the Indians" in the Klamath watershed, while the Sacramento Daily Union reported that "people look upon it there as a war of extermination, and are killing all grown up males." Judge Fletcher of Klamath County stated of fleeing natives that "whites are hunting them down like deer." Captain H.M. Judah reported men advocating, "the total extermination of all the Indians in this section."quoted in In 1864 the Klamath people were forced to give up claims to twenty million of the twenty-two million acres they had lived on, with the remaining two million acres forming the Klamath Reservation. They became financially self-sufficient on this land, due to a profitable timber mill, cattle ranching, and other enterprises. In 1954 an Act of Congress (against the will of the Klamath people) terminated the tribal status of the Klamath, forcing them to give up their claim to the land and lose all federal services in exchange for a monetary payoff. In 1986 their tribal status was restored, but their land was not returned.

Footnotes

References

* * * * * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Klamath Lake massacre 1846 in Oregon Country May 1846 events Massacres in 1846 Native American history of Oregon Massacres of Native Americans Massacres committed by the United States History of Oregon Klamath History of racism in Oregon California genocide