Arkansas, Idaho, and Oklahoma: January-September 1863; February 1864 :
      Bear River, Idaho (ID001) , Franklin County, January 29, 1863

Bear River was the first and the worst of the massacres of American Indians in the West. For fifteen years the Northwestern Shoshoni had been dispossessed of their traditional lands by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints pioneers, whose cattle herds were destroying the grass seeds that were their primary food. As the white hunters increased, the wild game decreased, taking another Shoshoni source of food. Without their lands the Shoshoni were starving, so they raided the farms on the lands that had been theirs. The policy of Brigham Young, the Church's leader, was that the settlers would provide food to the Shoshoni in exchange for the return of much of what they had taken.

The peace bought with food for the Shoshoni was an uneasy one. While the Shoshoni avoided the settlers' homesteads, the emigrants on trails and on the Overland Stage, with their supplies of food, were targets of their attacks. In one of their 1860 raids the Shoshoni along the Oregon Trail killed members of an emigrant family and captured three young children. In the search for the children, one man concluded that a young white boy in Bear Hunter's band of Shoshoni was his nephew. The Shoshoni said the boy was the son of a tribal woman and a French trapper. The uncle petitioned US Colonel Patrick Edward Connor to retrieve the boy. During the negotiations the soldiers killed four Shoshoni men. When a gold miner was killed by the Shoshoni on the Montana Trail, supposedly in retribution, a Salt Lake City judge issued a warrant for Bear Hunter's arrest.

The primary mission of Connor and his California Volunteers was to guard the overland mail, the vital connection between the East and the West. Their orders permitted them to "hang on the spot" any Indians accused of hindering the mail. Connor used the warrant as his mandate to kill Shoshoni and discredit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints's policy of providing food for them.

Connor launched a surprise attack on the Shoshoni on January 21 by sending 69 men of the 3rd California Infantry with two 6-pounder mountain howitzers toward Bear River. Three days later he and US Major Edward McGarry left Fort Douglas near Salt Lake City with about 220 men of the 2nd California Cavalry. Traveling at night to avoid detection, they headed northward, suffering in the intense cold and snowstorms. The two columns united on January 27.

The Shoshoni were in a favorite winter camp, located near hot springs and protected from winter winds by willow trees. Their seventy-five lodges were along Beaver Creek (now known as Battle Creek) where the protected ravine widened. Their horse herd was farther south in the meadow. Bluffs that almost circled the ravine provided defense.

On January 29 McGarry crossed the Bear River with the cavalry and attacked. Bear Hunter's warriors easily repulsed the initial frontal attack. Connor then ferried his infantry across the river on cavalry horses and surrounded the camp. When the Californians broke through a ravine on the Shoshoni's left, the battle became a massacre and then a slaughter. There were no wounded on the field because the soldiers had bludgeoned them to death.

While there were about 200 men engaged on each side, the Shoshoni included old men. As a result of the four-hour fight in the bitter cold, there were 42 wounded and 23 killed in Connor's force. Connor reported a month later that 112 men were still incapacitated from frostbite and injuries. About 20 Shoshoni men escaped, but Bear Hunter was killed and his body mutilated by the soldiers. Connor left the surviving women and children with a small supply of grain, destroyed the rest of their provisions, and burned their tipi poles to warm his troops.

The massacre enraged the surviving Indians in the area, and for six months raids—that avoided Connor—continued, until Superintendent of Indian Affairs in Utah James J. Doty was successful in engaging them in talks and then treaties later in the year.

Connor was promoted two months later and became an adviser to US Colonel John Chivington, the commander in the massacre at Sand Creek in November 1864.

Estimated Casualties: 65 US, 250 Shoshoni