Yakama and whites intensify as a stream of miners
begins passing through the Indians’ lands en route to
gold fields north of the Spokane River. When min-
ers rape several Yakama women and steal horses from
the tribe, Qualchin, the nephew of Yakama leader
Kamiaken, murders the criminals. Despite warnings
that his life is in danger, Indian agent Andrew Bolon
comes to investigate the murders and himself is killed
at Yakama hands.
Bolon’s murder sets into motion the Yakama War
of 1855–56. To avenge Bolon’s death, a 102-soldier
expedition headed by Major Granville O. Haller is
sent to Yakama territory. In their first battle, at Top-
penish Creek, Yakama warriors defeat Haller’s troops.
Other tribes then join the Yakama to launch a full-
scale war on the American force, with skirmishes
continuing for the next 10 months. (See also entry for
DECEMBER 1855.)
September 2
The U.S. Army avenges the Grattan Massacre
at the Battle of Blue Water Creek.
In search of the Indians responsible for the Grattan
Massacre (see entry for AUGUST 19, 1854), a force of
700 men led by Brigadier General William S. Har-
ney marches on a Brulé Sioux (Lakota) village on Blue
Water Creek, in present-day Nebraska. Although the
village leader, Little Thunder, tries to negotiate a sur-
render, Harney’s soldiers attack the Indians, killing
nearly 100 Brulé. The bloody encounter further dete-
riorates the supposed peace between the Lakota Sioux
and the United States established by the Fort Laramie
Treaty only four years earlier. (See entry for SEPTEM-
BER 8, 1851.)
October
The Rogue River War erupts.
In the mountainous Rogue River valley of southern
Oregon, Captain Andrew Jackson Smith attempts
to protect area Indians from white settlers by en-
couraging young Indian warriors to settle near Fort
Lane. Before he can resettle their relatives, the Indi-
ans’ camps are attacked by volunteer soldiers, who
slaughter 23 women, children, and elderly men. In
retaliation, warriors kill 27 white settlers. Through-
out the winter, vengeful volunteers seek out and
attack Indians camping in the mountains. (See also
entry for MAY 27 TO 28, 1856.)NovemberThe Third Seminole War begins.
A crew surveying the Everglades in Florida trample
and raid the garden of Seminole leader Billy Bowlegs.
When his outraged followers attack and wound sev-
eral of the surveyors in retaliation, the army sends in
troops to fight the Seminole, igniting the Third Semi-
nole War. These soldiers will continue to skirmish
with the tribe’s warriors for more than two years. (See
also entry for JANUARY 19, 1858.)DecemberOregon volunteers murder Chief
Pu-Pu-Mox-Mox.
Oregon volunteers recruited to fight the Yakama
War (see entry for SEPTEMBER 1855) capture Chief
Pu-Pu-Mox-Mox, a respected leader of the Walla
Walla, during a peace council. The soldiers shoot
the chief to death, cut off his ears and scalp, and
display them before the area’s white settlers as tro-
phies. The Walla Walla, outraged by the murder of
Chief Pu-Pu-Mox-Mox and the defilement of his
corpse, raid settlements with renewed ferocity.1856Indians are used to represent America’s
“savage” past in a Capitol Building sculpture.
Commissioned to design a bas-relief sculpture for the
pediment of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C.,
Thomas Crawford chooses the theme of the progress
of civilization. To the right of a figure represent-
ing America, Crawford depicts an Indian man and
woman watching as a frontiersman clears their land.
The relief also shows a forlorn Indian chief, holding
his head in his hand, sitting next to an empty grave.