P
Mexican-American authors to write their own
stories featuring Joaquin Murieta for the popular
press.
“He dashed along that fearful
trail as he had been mounted
upon a spirit-steed, shouting as
he passed:
‘I am Joaquin! Kill me if you
can!’
Shot after shot came clang-
ing around his head, and bullet
after bullet flattened on the
wall of salt at his right. In the
midst of the first firing, his hat
was knocked from his head,
and left his long black hair
streaming behind him.”
—from John Rollin Ridge’s novel
The Life and Adventures
of Joaquin MurietaA figure in Indian headgear appears on
American coins.
A female figure representing liberty is depicted
wearing a plumed Indian headdress on one-dollar
and three-dollar coins issued by the United States.
“Liberty” previously had worn a turbanlike cap as-
sociated with Roman slaves who had been given
their freedom. The change was possibly made to
address complaints of southern slaveholders, who
were discomforted by the image of a freed slave on
American coinage.
Congress passes the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
The Kansas-Nebraska Act creates the Kansas and
Nebraska territories out of the northern portion
of Indian Territory (see entry for AUTUMN 1853).
With its new northern boundary, Indian Terri-
tory covers roughly the same area as present-day
Oklahoma. During the next decade, more than
100,000 white settlers will move onto these for-
mer Indian lands.August 19The Brulé Sioux kill 30 soldiers in the
Grattan Massacre.
As a party of Mormons travel west along the Oregon
Trail, one of their cows wanders into the territory
of the Brulé band of the Lakota Sioux. Afraid of
confronting the Indians, the Mormons tell army
officers at Fort Laramie that the cow was stolen.
Meanwhile, a Brulé named High Forehead kills the
cow with an arrow.
Acting on the Mormons’ complaint, Lieutenant
John L. Grattan leads a force of 30 men into High
Forehead’s village and orders his arrest. When High
Forehead resists, Grattan tells his men to open fire.
As the influential Chief Conquering Bear falls dead,
the Brulé attack the soldiers, killing them all. The
incident ends any hope that the peace established
between the Lakota Sioux and U.S. Army in the
Treaty of Fort Laramie (see entry for SEPTEMBER 8,
1851) will last. (See also entry for SEPTEMBER 2,
1855.)DecemberChief Seattle delivers a speech at the Point
Elliot Treaty negotiations.
In council with Washington territorial governor
Isaac Stevens at Point Elliot, Chief Seattle of the
Suquamish speaks about the trials of his people.
Eyewitnesses describe the speech as eloquent and
moving. Among those present is poet Henry A.
Smith, who claims he took notes in English as
Seattle spoke. Thirty-three years later, a version of
the speech written by Smith appears in print for
the first time in the Seattle Sunday Star. Although
this version will become one of the most famous
examples of Indian oratory, the history of its tran-
scription casts doubts about how accurately it
represents Seattle’s actual words. (See also entry for
APRIL 1992.)