Marias Massacre

Marias Massacre
Part of American Indian Wars
LocationMarias River, Montana Territory
Coordinates48°23′41″N 111°39′19″W / 48.39472°N 111.65528°W / 48.39472; -111.65528
TargetPiegan Blackfeet
Deaths173–217
PerpetratorsUnited States Army
AssailantsMajor Eugene Mortimer Baker, U.S. Second Cavalry
MotiveManifest Destiny, forced assimilation

The Marias Massacre (also known as the Baker Massacre or the Piegan Massacre) was a massacre of Piegan Blackfeet Native peoples which was committed by United States Army forces under Major Eugene Mortimer Baker as part of the Indian Wars. The massacre occurred on January 23, 1870, in Montana Territory. Approximately 200 Native people were killed, most of whom were women, children, and older men.

As part of a campaign to suppress Mountain Chief's band of Piegan Blackfeet, the U.S. Army attacked a different band led by Chief Heavy Runner, to whom the United States government had previously promised their protection. This resulted in public outrage and a long-term shift towards a "Peace Policy" by the Federal Government, as advocated by President Ulysses S. Grant. Grant kept the Bureau of Indian Affairs as a division of the Department of the Interior although the War Department was trying to regain control. He then appointed men recommended by various religious clergy—including Quakers and Methodists—as Indian agents, in hopes that they would be free of the corruption he had previously found in the department.[1]

  1. ^ Nackenoff, Carol; Hrabar, Allison (2019-01-01). Quaker Roles in Making and Implementing Federal Indian Policy: From Grant's Peace Policy through the Early Dawes Act Era (1869–1900). Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-38817-8.