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The Marias Massacre (also known as the Baker Massacre or the Piegan Massacre) was a massacre of a friendly band of Piegan Blackfeet Indians on January 23, 1870 by the United States Army in Montana Territory during the Indian Wars. About 200 Indians were killed, mostly women and children, and elderly men. During a campaign to suppress Mountain Chief's band of Piegan Blackfeet, who harbored a man named Owl Child, said to have murdered a white trader and rancher, Malcolm Clarke, the U.S. Army instead attacked a band led by Heavy Runner, a chief who had been promised protection by the United States government. Following public outrage, the long-term result was a shift in the policy of the Federal Government toward a "peace policy" as advocated by President Ulysses S. Grant. He kept the Bureau of Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior, at a time when the War Department was trying to regain control, and he appointed men who were recommended by various religious clergy including Quakers and Methodists as Indian agents, hoping they would be free of corruption he had found in the department. ==Background== Relations between the Blackfoot Confederacy (comprising the Blackfeet, Blood, and Piegan tribes) and whites in Montana Territory had been largely hostile for years, as European Americans encroached on Native American territory and resources. In turn, some Blackfeet stole horses and raided white settlements. A general air of lawlessness prevailed among both races rather than widespread, organized conflict such as Red Cloud's War. By 1870, the Blackfeet had largely retreated north of the Marias River in the territory. Amid this tension, the event which touched off the massacre was the murder on August 17, 1869, of Malcolm Clarke, a respected white trader and rancher who had lived in Montana for decades, married a Blackfeet woman and had mixed-race children. He was killed by Owl Child, a young Piegan warrior, and his comrades after they had been to dinner at the Clarke ranch. They also shot and severely wounded Clarke's oldest son Horace, who survived. Another son Nathan, the two daughters, and Clarke's wife ''Coth-co-co-na,'' a Blackfeet woman, had taken shelter in the house and were unharmed.〔Welch 2007, pp. 28-29〕 This attack was Owl Child's revenge. Two years earlier in 1867, Owl Child stole some horses from Clarke as payment for his own horses, whose loss he blamed on the trader.〔Welch 2007, pg. 27〕 Clarke and his son Horace had tracked Owl Child down and beat him in front of a group of Blackfeet, humiliating him. Native accounts had said that Malcolm Clarke had earlier raped Owl Child's wife, who was a cousin of Clarke's wife Coth-co-co-na.〔(A descendant of Heavy Runner, accessed February 6, 2011 )〕 Other Blackfeet oral history accounts state Owl Child's wife gave birth to a mixed-race child from the rape, who was either stillborn or killed by elders in the tribe.〔Andrew R. Graybill, ''The Red and the White: A Family Saga of the American West'', Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2013〕〔(2011, CarolMurrayTellsBakerMassacre1.flv )〕 The killing of Clarke at home outraged settlers in the region, who demanded the government protect them and suppress the outlaw Blackfeet. The United States Army demanded of leaders of the Blackfoot Confederacy that Owl Child be killed and his body delivered within two weeks. Owl Child fled and joined the band of Mountain Chief in the north.〔Welch 2007, pg. 30〕 Mountain Chief's Piegan band was noted for its hostility toward white settlers, but they were not conducting organized raids against them.〔 When the two-week deadline had passed, General Philip Sheridan sent a squadron of cavalry from the Second Cavalry Regiment, led by Major Eugene Baker, to track down and punish the offending party. Sheridan ordered: "If the lives and property of the citizens of Montana can best be protected by striking Mountain Chief's band, I want them struck. Tell Baker to strike them hard."〔Quoted in Welch 2007, pg. 30〕 Sheridan intended the squadron to conduct a dawn attack on the village; snow had been heavy and most of the Blackfeet would be sleeping or staying inside to keep warm. (It was a strategy he had used before, directing George Custer to attack Black Kettle's band of Cheyenne in the Battle of Washita River).〔Welch 2007, pg. 29〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Marias Massacre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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