Snake War

Snake War
Part of the American Indian Wars
Date 1864 to 1868 Location Oregon, Nevada, California, Idaho Result United States victory
Belligerents
United States	Snake Indians:
Commanders and leaders
Benjamin Alvord Reuben F. Maury George B. Currey Frederick Steele Louis H. Marshall George Crook Billy Chinook William C. McKay	Wewawewa Howluck Po-li-ni Paunia Egan Paulina Oytes Winnemucca Ocheho
Strength
1864-65 1st Oregon Cavalry 1st Nevada Cavalry 1864-67 1st Oregon Infantry 1866-68 U.S. 14th Infantry Regiment U.S. 1st Cavalry Regiment 8th Cavalry Regiment U.S. Army Wasco Scouts	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Total casualties: ~1762

The Snake War (1864–1868) was a war fought by the United States of America against the "Snake Indians," the settlers' term for Northern Paiute, Bannock and Western Shoshone bands who lived along the Snake River. Fighting took place in the states of Oregon, Nevada, and California, and in Idaho Territory. Total casualties from both sides of the conflict numbered 1,762 dead, wounded, or captured.

The conflict was a result of increasing tension over several years between the Native tribes and the settlers who were encroaching on their lands, and competing for game and water. Explorers passing through had minimal effect. In October 1851, Shoshone Indians killed eight men in Fort Hall Idaho. From the time of the Clark Massacre, in 1851 the regional Native Americans, commonly called the "Snakes" by the white settlers, harassed and sometimes attacked emigrant parties crossing the Snake River Valley. European-American settlers retaliated by attacking Native American villages. In September 1852, Ben Wright and a group of miners responded to an Indian attack by attacking the Modoc village near Black Bluff in Oregon, killing about 41 Modoc. Similar attacks and retaliations took place in the years leading up to the Snake War.

In August 1854, Native attacks on several pioneer trains along the Snake River culminated in the Ward Massacre on August 20, 1854, in which Native Americans killed 21 people. The following year, the US Army mounted the punitive Winnas Expedition. From 1858 at the end of the Spokane-Coeur d'Alene-Paloos War, the US Army protected the migration to Oregon by sending out escorts each spring. Natives 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 withdrew in 1861 to return east for engagements of the American Civil War, California Volunteers provided protection to the emigrants. Later the Volunteer Regiment of Washington and the 1st Oregon Cavalry replaced Army escorts on the emigrant trails.

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