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attack displayed that someone in the group had knowledge of the country near the ranch. Yontocket was the location of the tribes arrival on the coast and it was a village on the south side of the Smith River. The
Needash is the Tolowa's feather dance that occurs twice a year. This Needash was after fall harvest. Native Americans gathered from the surrounding areas to celebrate their religion. It was common for the tribes in the area (Chetko, Pistol River, Tolowa, Tututni, and some Rogue River tribes) to meet at the Center of the Tolowa World, Yontocket, at both the Summer and the Winter solstices. On the third night of the ten night gatherings, the town mob invaded the village and the massacre began.
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An eyewitness said "The people got all around them… Every time someone go out, never come back in… they set fire to the house, the
Indians' house. You could see them just cutting heads off. They stick them things into them; pretty soon they pick them up and throw them right into the fire. Some of 'em tried to get away, run down the slough. Soon as they get down there, if they don't get 'em right away, they get 'em from the other side when they come up. Shoot 'em right there, waiting for them."
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few
Indians were scarcely left alive. The men reported no intentional kills of women and children. So many victims were incinerated, submerged, or have floated away that the attackers could not obtain a complete body count. Sources estimated to only 150 lives lost that morning. This may have been an understatement and Tolowa sources insist that 600 people were massacred at Yontocket. This is ranked as one of the most lethal massacres in U.S. history.
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celebrations and discussions. The survivors of the massacre were forced to move to the village north of Smith's River called
Howonquet. The slaughtering of the Tolowa people continued for some years. They were seemingly always caught at their Needash celebrations. These massacres caused some unrest which led in part to the Rogue River Indian war.
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All around the men, the
Indians attempted to escape, but there was no chance of surviving. The Indian men's scream was intermingled with the screams of the women and children, which caused even more confusion to the Indians. Hundreds of people were killed in the attack, but the men were not done yet.
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Many Tolowa people were incarcerated at
Battery Point in 1855 to withhold them from joining an uprising led by their chief. Adding to the number of dead from the Yontocket Massacre and the Battery Point Attack are many more in the following years. They are the Chetko Massacre with 24 dead, the Smith
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After the attack, the men built a huge fire and threw almost everything the
Indians had into it. They threw in the Indian's sacred ceremonial dresses into it and they even threw babies, some of which were still alive, in the fire too. Finally, Burnett's men burned Yontocket to the ground and only a
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After the killing of the Native
Americans at Battery Point, a large number of the Tolowa survivors fled to a rancheria (a small Native American settlement) close to the mouth of Smith's River. The rancheria was known as Yontocket Ranch. A group was formed who were ready to fight. The manner of the
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Not long after, a Native
American was spotted in town carrying a pistol with the name "California Jack" engraved on it. Believing that the prospectors had been killed by the Native Americans, a group of townspeople attacked the Native Americans at Battery Point. They killed the Native American who
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The Tolowa Tribe, or the Taa-laa-wa Dee-ni' is a Native
American tribe from northwestern California and southern Oregon. In the Spring of 1853, a group of prospectors headed by a man by the name of "California Jack" started from Crescent City on a prospecting journey. They planned to go to a place
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After the event, as many as 450 to 500 Tolowa people were recorded dead. Because their homes had burned down, the place received the name "Burnt Ranch." The Yontocket Massacre decimated the cultural center of the Tolowa peoples. The Natives from the surrounding areas would gather there for their
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When they found out where the survivors of the Battery Point Massacre were located, they formed a thirty-three man company. The men trapped the Indians by encircling them. Just when the sun came up on the Eastern horizon, they opened fire at Yontocket. The Indians immediately came running out of
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creek massacre with 7 dead, the Howonquet Massacre with 70 dead, and the Stundossun Massacre with 300 dead. In total, 902 Tolowa Native Americans were killed in 7 years. There are no records that any of the perpetrators were ever held accountable.
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had the pistol and several others in the area. They immediately began to assemble a search party to look for the men's camp and bodies. When they found them, they became increasingly more angry.
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Lewis, David G. "Tolowa Dee-Ni Fish Camp & Chronology." NDNHISTORYRESEARCH, NDNHISTORYRESEARCH, 25 Nov. 2017, ndnhistoryresearch.com/2015/08/30/dee-ni-tolowa-fish-camp-chronology/.
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their huts, armed with their bow and arrows, fighting for their lives. Their primitive weapons were no match for the modern weapons of the men.
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One Tolowa man said that more than 450 people were killed in the attack. The massacre was conducted by a "company", a militia organized by
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Madley, Benjamin. An American Genocide: the United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846-1873. Yale University Press, 2017.
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388:"The Most Persistent Attempt to Exterminate the Tribes, Beginning with the Yontocket Massacre 1853."
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Little or no loss of life was reported on the American side.
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Genocide in Northwestern California: When Our Worlds Cried
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16:1853 massacre of Tolowa people in California, USA
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135:Round Valley Settler Massacres of 1856–1859
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433:History of Del Norte County, California
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448:Anti-Indigenous racism in California
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158:California's Pitt River Expedition
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390:NDNHISTORYRESEARCH, 21 Aug. 2017.
149:Northeast California Indian Wars
304:List of massacres in California
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229:: yan'-daa-k'vt), northwestern
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423:Massacres of Native Americans
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182:Mojave Desert Indian Campaign
145:Second Pitt River Expedition
130:Klamath and Salmon River War
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329:"Siletz Talking Dictionary"
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418:Massacres of ethnic groups
125:Sacramento River Massacre
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168:Bitter Spring Expedition
242:near the Smith River.
190:Calloway Affair of 1880
173:Owens Valley Indian War
395:(Link at Google Books)
120:Sutter Buttes Massacre
70:Bloody Island Massacre
52:California Indian Wars
365:Norton, Jack (1979).
115:Kabyai Creek Massacre
95:Bridge Gulch Massacre
211:Burnt Ranch massacre
75:El Dorado Indian War
453:California genocide
443:1853 in California
282:After the massacre
221:at the village of
207:Yontocket massacre
413:Conflicts in 1853
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386:Lewis, David G.
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309:Achulet massacre
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194:Round Valley War
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85:Garra Revolt
80:Mariposa War
407:Categories
334:2012-06-04
315:References
231:California
223:Yontocket
186:Modoc War
178:Snake War
298:See also
255:American
215:massacre
90:Yuma War
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