Klamath Lake massacre
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The Klamath Lake massacre refers to the murder of at least fourteen Klamath people on the shores of Klamath Lake in modern-day Oregon, United States, on May 12, 1846, by a group led by John C. Frémont and Kit Carson.
Background
The Expansionist Movement of the 1840s motivated many Americans to work to push America's borders out into land claimed by Mexico and Native American tribes. "Manifest Destiny", a term coined by journalist John L. O'Sullivan, captured the idea that the young American nation was destined to rule all of the North American continent.[1]
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.[2][3] 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.[4] On April 5, 1846, Frémont and his men committed the Sacramento River massacre on its banks near present-day Redding, California. They then proceeded north up the Sacramento River Valley and into Oregon Territory.
Incident
Frémont and his band had taken to killing Native Americans on sight as they traveled. In his memoirs, expedition member Thomas S. Martin stated, "We followed up the Sacramento River killing plenty of game, and an occasional Indian. Of the latter we made it a rule to spare none of the bucks."[5] 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."[6]
On the night of May 9, 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 was "determined to square accounts with these people."[7] His scouts killed two Klamath warriors on 11 May 1846, but Frémont considered that inadequate.
On May 12, 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.[8][9]
Repercussions
Neither Frémont nor any of his expedition members were charged or punished in any way for the killings.[10] The U.S. government ordered Frémont back to California to participate in the war against Mexico, and he did not return to Oregon territory.