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Eastern Sierra Nevada: Inyo Indian War — Part 2By RICHARD HUGHEYDemocrat columnistilh the resumption of hostilities by the Indians, the white residents of Owens Valley agitated for protecdon and vengeance. A detachment of six troopers and a lieutenant was sent into the valley, and the Indians immediately attacked it. Two troopers were killed and the lieutenant wounded. Indian depredations continued throughout the valley into the spring of 1863.The military force at Camp Independence was augmented, and in March a unit of 120 soldiers and 35 citizens encountered a band of 200 Indians. In the ensuing battle, there were two casualties among the whites, and 35 Indians were killed. Military units spread throughout the valley and engaged Indian bands whenever they found them. They also destroyed Indian caches of food stock and cut off their access to water whenever possible. In April a large band of Indians was found camped on the Kern River and attacked by a U.S. Cavalry unit. Thirty-five Indians were slain without a casualty to the soldiers. The Indians were from a tribe believed to be peaceable, and the massacre was denounced by editorial writers who pointed out that there had been no evidence the Kera Indians were involved in anyway in the Owens Valley troubles. According to one source, the Indians had surrenderedwithout fighting and were then executed by the soldiers en masse.Cavalry scouting raids into the valley were having an effect, especially in destroying the Indians’ sources of food and water. They 'especially hunted Joaquin Jim, the most hostile and charismatic of the Indian chiefs. They located and destroyed his campground on one occasion but could not arrest Jim, who, once again, escaped capture. The destruction of the Indian food stores had brought them to dire need, however; and in May 1863 Captain George, an Indian chief, second in importance to Joaquin Jim, came to Camp Independence to parley with the soldiers.Hostilities ceased in large part and Indians came to the camp to surrender. The while settlers and prospectors treated the Indians who came to the camp brutally, however. Many were killed on their way to Camp Independence, including Indian children. A group of Indians on their way to Camp Independence to surrender was set upon by a group of whites who killed 9 of the 12 Indians. They had a letter of safe conduct that had been issued by the commander at Camp Independence. A squad of soldiers was sent to arrest the white murderers. One was taken into custody and subsequently released.Chief George called his braves to the warpath once again; and Joaquin Jim reestablished himself in north Owens Valley, where he ruled like an Asian warlord. Two prospectors in the White Mountains who had killed two Indians, planted a white flag at their campsite as a sign they wanted peace with the Indians. Joaquin Jim appeared and pulled out the flag, replacing it with his own war banner, a scarlet cloth . bordered with raven feathers.In, July a wagon train of settlers known as the Church partyentered Owens Valley against the advice of county officials. They believed their pacific intentions and good will would disarm the Indians. A group of about a half dozen men from the Church party encampment went into the mountains to chop wood. Indians attacked them and ai! but one was killed. A few days later the survivor led a posse of about 30 men to the spot where the massacre occurred. After the bodies of the white men were buried, the group went in search of the Indian camp. It was empty of Indians but the group found clothing and items that belonged to the dead white men, and they set about destroying all the food supplies the Indians had cached in the camp.In April 1863, a running battle between a band of Indians and a group of prospectors took place in the Panamint Mountains. Three Indians were killed and one of the prospectors had his horse shot out from under him and was left at the site on foot. In the same month the Indians killed three men and a woman who lived in a cabin near Camp Independence.About 10 years later at Anvil Springs, prospectors discovered the skulls of 12 white men under a shelving pile of rocks. It is believed that the group took refuge there during an Indian attack. Nothing is known about their identities.The Indians in the Owens Valley were never completely tamed, but expeditions by army columns and citizen posses had the effect of restoring relative peace to the valley and settlers who had left the valley began returning and new immigrants were arriving daily. Joaquin Jim remained a threat in the nonhem portion of the valley, however. In 1864 his women and children moved into the mountains, an ominous sign. Isolated prospectors and lone travelers were set upon and killed.In November an Indian and his squaw approached a miners’ camp and asked the cook for food. As the prospector ladled atin dish with sustenance, the Indian drew a pistol and shot him in the face. Suddenly other Indians appeared and started shooting. One of the three miners was killed and another hid in a well. The wounded cook trekked across the mountains for two days to Big Pine. He recovered from his wound, but it rendered his speech unintelligible. The miner who hid in the well was rescued by an Indian chieftain named Joe Bowers who was treated as a hero by the whites and put on a pension in his old age by the state.The final Indian depredation appears to have been the murder of Mrs. O’Brien and her 8-year-old son at Haiwai, which was followed by severe retribution of the white settlers. Haiwai was a way station on the route between Visalia and Owens Valley. A large posse of white men trailed the perpetrators and captured four of them, each one “shot while trying to escape.” Another eight were located in an Indian campground near the mouth of the Owens River. Over 40 Indians were slain, in an attack on the encampment.Indians continued to be hunted in Inyo County. Seventeen Indian braves were killed at a site north of Independence. In January 1865, an army contingent of 95 men arrived led by Capt. Kelley, who had been a Pony Express rider and who won his commission from the governor of Nevada in a poker game.Isolated raids by small marauding bands of Indians continued followed by retributive action by soldiers and citizens, but generally hostilities in Owens Valley declined in 1865. The following year the army was withdrawn from Camp Independence. Even indubitably hostile Joaquin Jim ceased his raids and attacks, though he remained aloof and contemptuous of the white settlers. Early-day number crunchers added up the score: 60 whites and 200 Indians were killed in the Inyo Indian War. Others believe the carnage was much greater on both sides.
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Placerville Mountain Democrat
Placerville, California, US
Fri, Oct 08, 2004
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Full Page
Clipped by
Jerome F.
USA 17 Apr 2019
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