The Mulberry Creek Massacre

[cinemo]

In late January or in very early February 1869, happened a lesser known incident – today known as the Mulberry Creek Massacre ( Ellsworth County, Kansas )
For lack of information, little is known about this incident. There are a few versions of this tragic story. The story has to do with a group of about twenty Pawnees, who were returning home to their Reservation in Nebraska. A few of these men had served recently as U.S. Army scouts and discharge papers in hand. Their presence alarmed local settlers, who summoned the cavalry. Though the Pawnees argued they were ex-Army scouts and tried to show their papers, a gunfight broke out near Mulberry Creek . Seven Pawnee were killed instantly ( by US – Army soldiers and a few settlers ) and five more were wounded and left to die on the hard winter ground. One Pawnee was taken prisoner. Pawnee Chiefs were infuriated by the murders but did not retaliate. The Pawnee Chiefs applied to civil and military authorities to rectify the situation but the pleas fell on deaf ears.

Shortly after this fight, the post surgeon from Fort Harker, B. F. Fryer, dispatched a civilian to the massacre site to collect the skulls of the dead Pawnee. After he had found and decapitated one corpse, a blizzard set in, and the Pawnee survivors stopped him from collecting the others skulls. But two weeks later, the weather moderated and Fryer resumed his search, ultimately recovering five additional crania from the Mulberry Creek Massacre. The Pawnee skulls became part of a shipment of 26 sent to the Army Medical Museum, including skulls from the Cheyenne, Caddo, Wichita, and Osage tribes.

On February 5, 1869, the >Emporia News < wrote a small article :

FIGHT WITH THE INDIANS.

Our latest news from the West state that the citizens on Saline River had a fight with the Pawnee Indians, 14 miles from Salina, on Mulberry Creek, on January 29th. The Indians were at their old game of trying to run off the stock of the settlers, and had robbed several houses on the Saline. Seven Indians were reported killed and wounded. There were no whites killed. The Indians made the attack and were driven back completely demoralized. We would like to know where the troops are that are stationed on the frontier to protect the isolated settlements.
Emporia News, February 5, 1869.

Another report of this incident wrote Elizabeth N. Barr in her book :
A souvenir history of Lincoln County, Kansas ( 1908 )
In this book, the incident is named – The Mulberry Scrap, see the book excerpt :

This is the name of an encounter which occurred the 2d of February, 1869, on the Mulberry between the Indians on one side, and some Lincoln County settlers and soldier on the other. Of course, the Indians got the worst of it as uf.ual, and this is how it happened:
The Kaws from Council Bluffs, and the Pawnees from Nebraska, used to pass back and forth and steal horses from each other. Sometimes they annoyed the settlers too much, to their oeverlasting undoing. On the occasion of which we are speaking, a band of about a score of Pawnees were coming through the neighborhood, and stopping at Tom Skinner's home, compelled Mrs. Skinner to cook for them.
When the settlers heard of this they gathered together to see what had best be done. Several suggestions were made, but it was decided to go for the troops that were camped not far from the present site of Lincoln. John Alverson, Eli Ziegler, and Chal. Smith went. The captain told them to have the settlers ready by daybreak and he would have some soldiers there at that time.
Accordingly, a lieutenant with about a dozen soldiers, took up the trail with the settlers the next morning. They followed the Indians to Table Rock Creek, where they found their camp fire, and from there to Mulberry, where they overtook them. The Indians had stopped at the home of Chas. Martin to get food and tobacco, but the advance scouts did not succeed in holding them until the main body of men came up.
The red men scattered and the settlers began hunting them up and down the creek. Some of them went south across the stream to a high bluff. As they stood looking four Indians raised up side by side. They had discharges from the army, and one of them handed his discharge to the whites. It was passed from one to another. While this was going on Alverson, who was in the crowd, slipped off his horse and shot the Indian leader dead. The Indians began firing, and the troops soon appeared on the scene. There were two or three more Indians killed.
The lieutenant wanted to take them to Fort Harker and civilize them. Gen. Isaac DeGraff sat down on the ground and also on the lieutenant's proposition, saying they could make good Indian's of them right there. The men dismounted, and, leading their horses, followed the Indians down a ravine. The redskins were shooting arrows, and one of them hit the lieutenant's horse, causing the animal to jerk loose and got away. The lieutenant then said he would kill every Indian. They fol lowed the red men to a rocky gorge where sixteen of them took refuge in a cave.
One of the soldiers who was not careful to keep out of range was shot by an Indian and died at Martin's house two hours later. Mr. Ziegler sustained a slight wound.
Finding no other way to get the Indians it was de sided to throw hay into the mouth of the cave and fire it. Seeing what was about to be done the Indians dashed out of the cave under a rain of shot. All but three were killed before they get out of range. The men quickly mounted and persued the remnant. Richard Clark and Vollany Ball shot two of them at one hundred fifty yards range. The other was captured and the lieutenant took him to Fort Harker. ( Excerpt end )

To be continued - cinemo

[nicolas (carlo)]

Cinemo,

Thanks for bringing this sad episode to the attention of the readers here. It shows the high degree of suspicion and animocity (or rather hatred) of the Central Plains settlers and soldiers in 1868-69 towards any Indian, regardless of tribe affiliation or whether they were 'friendly' or not.

For more detailed information, see Van de Logt, 'War Party in Blue: Pawnee Scout in the US Army', pp111-115. Van de Logt balances both the settler/soldier story and the Pawnee version, leaving the question of blame for the reader to decide. I personally doubt very much that these Pitahawirata Pawnees were anything but friendly, as they had only just been discharged as US scouts and on their way home. Identifying Indians as horse thieves, or a group as a war party, was the common settler justification; I believe this incident is yet another example.

Three of the five survivors died from cold exposure shortly after arriving at Pawnee agency. At the time of the Mulberry incident, Frank North was busy recruiting new scouts at the Pawnee agency. Had the chiefs known of the gruesome desecration of the bodies, they may not have consented their warriors to go with North.

The skulls were finally returned to the Pawnee people in 1995, and buried with full military honors in Genoa, Nebraska.

Carlo

[cinemo]

Hi carlo,

thanks for your answer and additional information. The death of this three Pawnees after returning to their reservation was not known to me. Your opinion on this topic is pretty much similar like mine.

In the meantime, I was finding an indication here :

Record of Engagements with Hostile Indians within the Military Division of the Missouri from 1868 to 1882

Excerpt :

29 January 1869 - Mulberry Creek, Kansas (Captain E Byrne)Detachment of Cavalry recruits 2 wounded 6 Indians killed ( Excerpt end )

This date is concurring with the article by Emporia News ( see above )

James Riding In, a Pawnee scholar of American Indian Studies published in 1992
„ Six Pawnee Crania : The Historical and Contemporary Significance of the Massacre and Decapitation of Pawnee Indians in 1869 „ ( American Indian Culture and Research Journal 16,No.2 pages 101 to 117

Unfortunately, this Journal is not ( online ) available

Greetings from Germany - cinemo

[nicolas (carlo)]

Btw, the Cavalry troops that engaged the Pawnees were the now-famous Buffalo Soldiers.

[cinemo]

Beginning in 1865, the United States Army Medical Museum (founded in 1862) issued a request to Army medical personnel situated in ‘Indian country’ for specimens of skulls from Native Americans. In response, army officers were soon systematically robbing graves on Indian reservations so that the bones, or at least the skulls, could be shipped to the Army Medical Museum. Army medical officers had already contributed to the Samuel G.Morton collection, who used skulls as a teaching device in his classes at the Philadelphia Hospital and Pennsylvania College in 1823. The military posts in the West were advantageous for the collecting of Indian remains for two reasons. First, the posts were near the fighting between the U.S. Army and western tribes, and the battles often left many Native Americans dead. Secondly, medical personnel were familiar with the tribes with which they were fighting and thus were able to provide good biographical information on the skulls shipped to the museum.

On September 1, in 1868, the US Surgeon General Joseph K. Barnes had sent out a circular to U.S. Army medical officers explaining the collection and asking for their help in building the collection :

MEMORANDUM FOR THE INFORMATION OF MEDICAL OFFICERS

The officers of the Medical Staff are informed that a craniological collection was
commenced last year at the Army Medical Museum, and that it already includes 143 specimens of skulls. The chief purpose had in view in forming this collection is to aid in the progress of anthropological science by obtaining measurements of a large number of skulls of the aboriginal races of North America. Medical officers stationed in the Indian country or in the vicinity of ancient Indian mounds or cemeteries, in the Mississippi valley or the Atlantic region, have peculiar facilities for promoting this undertaking. They have already enriched the Mortonian and other magnificent craniological cabinets by their contributions, and it is hoped they will evince even greater zeal in collecting for their own Museum. A list of the crania now in the possession of the Museum will soon be published in the Catalogue of the Osteological Series of the Anatomical Section. It is sufficient here to state that 47 of the 143 specimens are crania from the following tribes : Tsuktshi 1 ; Flathead, Chenock, Selipsh, Nisqually, 13 ; Californian, 3 ; Piegan, Spokane, Mandan, 3 ; Arickaree, Gros Ventre, 2 ; Sioux, Kaw, Minataree, Menominee, 6 ; Cheyenne, Kiowa, Arrapahoe, Wichita, 10 ; Navajo and Apache, 5 ; doubtful or mixed breeds, 5 .
These crania were collected by Brevet Lietenant Colonels J. Cooper McKee, D.C. Peters, C.C. Gray, F.L. Town, Surgeon B.E.Fryer, Brevet Majors J.F.Weed, W.H. Forwood, Acting Assistent surgeons W. Matthews and G. H. Oliver, Dr. George Suckley, Mr. George Gibbs, Lietenant ( now Brevet Major General ) G. K. Warren, and Mr. Lloyd Brooke. Information has been received of the shipment of an interesting series of crania exhumed from an ancient Indian mound near Fort Wadsworth, Dakota Territory, by Acting Assistant Surgeon A. I. Comfort, and of many crania procured at the instance of the Medical Directors of the Department of Columbia and the District of Texas. While exotic and normal and abnormal crania of all descriptions are valued at the Museum for purposes of comparison, it is chiefly desired to procure sufficiently large series of adult crania of the principal Indian tribes to furnish accurate average measurements. Medical officers will enhance the value of their contributions by transmitting with the specimens the fullest attainable memoranda specifying the locality whence the skulls were derived, the presumed age and sex, and in the case of “Mound” skulls, or of those from cemeteries, describing the mode of sepulture, and any traces of weapons, implements, utensils found with the specimens, or any other circumstance that may throw light on their ethnic character.

The subject is earnestly commended to the attention of the Medical Officers of the Army.

BY ORDER OF THE SURGEON GENERAL :

C. H. Crane , Assistant Surgeon General, U. S. Army

( Memorandum is qoted in Lamb, A history of the United States army medical museum )


A few months after this circular, the Mulberry Creek Massacre took place – and finally, six Pawnee crania were send to the Army Medical Museum by Fort Harker`s post surgeon B.E. Fryer. Fryer became an active procurer of American Natives heads. From 1868 to 1874, he send at least forty-four American Natives heads to the Museum.

Regarding the Mulberry Creek incident, Fryer wrote a letter to General George A. Otis, a curator of the Army Medical Museum : ( Date, February 12, 1869 )

„ I had already obtained for the Museum the skull of one of the Pawnees, killed in the
fight you speak of, and would have had all had it now been that immediately after the engagement, the Indians lurked about their dead and watched them so closely, that the guide I sent out was unable to secure but one - Until within a day or two the snow has prevented a further attempt - Yesterday I sent a scout who knows the spot & think I can get at least two more of the Crania – that number being reported to me as left unburied by the Pawnee, & it may be that if the remaining five (eight not seven were killed) are buried or have been hid near where the fight took place - about twenty miles from here - I can, after a time, obtain all - I shall certainly use every effort“

cinemo

[cinemo]

The repatriation of the Pawnee - Scouts

One of the most emotional issues facing Native Americans today is the repatriation of human remains. Indian tribes seek the return of their dead from universities, federal agencies, and other institutions in order to properly bury their ancestors. Scientists, government employees, and collectors took these bones from graves or battlefields and sold, traded, or gave the bones to institutions or agencies such as the Smithsonian Institution or the American Museum of Natural History in New York. The remains were further mishandled, according to Native American beliefs, as researchers conducted tests or placed the bones on public view in museum display cases. Other bones were placed in
cardboard boxes and kept in storage, an act deemed disrespectful by a majority of Native Americans. Furthermore, the grave goods that accompanied the dead were, in many instances, separated from the bodies and sold by collectors or placed in institutions. American institutions, as well as European museums and collectors, acquired thousands of these remains and cultural items. Most tribes now believe their dead have suffered enough through the scientific research conducted on their skeletons and the many years their ancestors have been removed from their traditional homelands.

Until the end of the twentieth century, Native Americans had little recourse in recovering their absent dead and funerary objects. The passage of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act of 1990 (NAGPRA) changed the situation in the tribes`favor. NAGPRA established guidelines for the summary, inventory, and eventual return of Native American remains and cultural items held in American institutions receiving federal funds. The law does not apply to individual collectors, private institutions, or museums outside the United States.

Like many Indian Tribes, the Pawnee Tribe was historically subjected to massive disturbances of tribal cemeteries and burial grounds. Since 1989, the Pawnee Tribe has been heavily involved in repatriation and reburial activities under state and federal repatriation laws. The Pawnee efforts have been supported by the legal work and experts of the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) without which the Tribe would not have been able to accomplish these tasks. In 1990 and in 1991 occurred three reburials under state law. The fourth reburial occurred in June, 1995, when the Pawnee, Arikara and Wichita people reburied human remains and associated funerary objects in a mass grave near Genoa, Nebraska, according to tribal rites. This reburial occurred under NAGPRA and NMAIA ( National Museum of the American Indian Act )

A part of this fourth reburial was the repatriation of the six Pawnee – Scouts, killed in the Mulberry Creek Massacre. The six Pawnee – Scouts remains has been reburied with full military honors in a cemetery near Genoa, Nebraska, their aboriginal homeland. On this land, they can rest in peace, forever.

Please see this short video regarding the Scout - Repatriation :



cinemo