Snake War

The capital of Idaho Territory is moved on November 7, 1864, from Lewiston to ...

...Boise.

The Snake War, which is not defined by one large battle, is a series of guerrilla skirmishes by natives nd American patrols from many small camps, that take place across California, Utah, Nevada, Oregon, and Idaho.

The conflict is a result of increasing tension over several years between the native tribes and the white settlers who are encroaching on their lands, and competing for game and water.

Explorers' passing through had had minimal effect.

In October 1851, Shoshone Indians had killed eight men in Fort Hall Idaho.

From the time of the Clark Massacre, in 1851, the region's natives, commonly called the "Snakes" by the white settlers, have harassed and sometimes attacked emigrant parties crossing the Snake River Valley.

Settlers had retaliated by attacking native villages.

In September 1852, Ben Wright and a group of miners had responded to a native raid by attacking the Modoc village near Black Bluff in Oregon, killing about forty-one Modoc.

Similar attacks and retaliations had taken place in the years leading up to the Snake War.

In August 1854, native attacks on several pioneer trains along the Snake River had culminated in the Ward Massacre on August 20, 1854, in which twenty-one emigrants were killed.

The following year, the U.S. Army mounted the punitive Winnas Expedition.

From 1858, at the end of the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War, the US Army had protected the migration to Oregon by sending out escorts each spring.

Natives had continued to attack migrant trains, especially stragglers such as the Myers party, killed in the Salmon Falls Massacre of September 13, 1860.

As Federal troops had withdrawn in 1861 to return east for engagements of the American Civil War, California Volunteers had provided protection to the emigrants.

Later, the Volunteer Regiment of Washington and the 1st Oregon Cavalry had replaced Army escorts on the emigrant trails.

As settlers searching for gold start to move west, they compete more for resources with the Native Americans, living on the land longer and consuming more game and water.

Many isolated occurrences have resulted in violence, with the result that both sides are taking to arms.

The influx of miners into the Nez Perce reservation during the Clearwater Gold Rush had raised tensions among all the tribes.

The Nez Perce had been divided when some chiefs agreed to a new treaty that permitted the intrusion.

As miners had developed new locations near Boise in 1862 and in the Owyhee Canyonlands in 1863, an influx of white settlers had descended on the area.

Western Shoshone, Paiute and other local Indians had resisted the encroachment, fighting what will be called the Snake War from 1864 to 1868.

The 1st Oregon Volunteer Infantry Regiment had been formed in 1864 and its last company had been mustered out of service in July 1867.

Both units had been used to guard travel routes and Indian reservations, escort immigrant wagon trains, and protect settlers from Indian raiders.

Several infantry detachments had also accompanied survey parties and built roads in central and southern Oregon.

Regular U.S. troops had been withdrawn from the Pacific Northwest and sent east at the outbreak of the American Civil War.

Volunteer cavalry and infantry had been recruited in California and sent north to Oregon to keep peace and protect the populace.

Oregon had also raised the 1st Oregon Cavalry that was activated in 1862 and served until June 1865.

During the Civil War, immigrants had continued to clash with the Paiute, Shoshone and Bannock tribes in Oregon, Idaho and Nevada until relations degenerated into the bloody 1864 - 1868 Snake War

The Snake War, unlike other Indian Wars, lacks notable leaders on either side.

Probably the most well-known Indian leader is Chief Paulina of the northern Paiute; the most well-known U.S. Army commander in the Snake War may have been George Crook, who had received a brevet as major general in the regular army at the end of the Civil War, but had reverted to the permanent rank of lieutenant colonel, serving with the 23rd Infantry on frontier duty in the Pacific Northwest.

Crook successfully campaigns against the Paiute, Bannock, and Shoshone peoples, winning nationwide recognition.

Having fought Indians in Oregon before the Civil War, Crook had been assigned to the Pacific Northwest to use new tactics in this war, arriving in Boise City to take command on December 11, 1866.

The general had noticed that the Northern Paiute use the fall, winter and spring seasons to gather food, so he adopts the tactic recommended by a predecessor, George B. Currey: to attack during the winter.

Crook has his cavalry approach the Paiute on foot in attack at their winter camp.

As the soldiers draw them in, Crook has them remount; they defeat the Paiute and recovered some stolen livestock.

Crook uses native scouts as troops as well as to spot enemy encampments.

While campaigning in Eastern Oregon during the winter of 1867, Crook's scouts locate a Paiute village near the eastern edge of Steens Mountain.

After covering all the escape routes, Crook orders the charge on the village while intending to view the raid from afar, but his horse gets spooked and gallops ahead of Crook's forces toward the village.

Caught in the crossfire, Crook's horse carries the general through the village without his being wounded.

The army causes heavy casualties for the Paiute in the battle of Tearass Plain.

Lieutenant Colonel George Crook battles a mixed band of Paiute, Pit River and Modoc from September 26 to 28 at the battle of Infernal Caverns in northern California, where the Native American warriors have made a fortress out of lava rocks from which they are able to pour a steady fire upon the soldiers commanded by Crook.

Crook's men, which include Shoshone and Warm Springs Indians, or Tenino, attack on the second day and, despite heavy casualties, manage to scale the cliffs and take the fortifications.

Colonel Crook reportedly shoots down Chief Sieto himself.

Fighting continues into the night as the Native warriors withdraw deeper into the caverns.

The natives flee on the third day.