Keyesville Massacre occurred on April 19, 1863, in Tulare County

Tulare County, California

Tulare County is a county located in the Central Valley of the U.S. state of California, south of Fresno. Sequoia National Park is located in the county, as are part of Kings Canyon National Park, in its northeast corner , and part of Mount Whitney, on its eastern border...

, now Kern County, California

Kern County, California

Spreading across the southern end of the California Central Valley, Kern County is the fifth-largest county by population in California. Its economy is heavily linked to agriculture and to petroleum extraction, and there is a strong aviation and space presence. Politically, it has generally...

 during the Owens Valley Indian War

Owens Valley Indian War

The Owens Valley War was fought between 1862 and 1863, by California Volunteers and local settlers against the Owens Valley Paiutes, and their Shoshone and Kawaiisu allies, in the Owens Valley of California and the southwestern Nevada border region. The removal of a large number of the Owens River...

. White settlers and a detachment of the 2nd California Volunteer Cavalry

2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry

The 2nd Regiment California Volunteer Cavalry was a cavalry regiment in the Union Army during the American Civil War. It spent its entire term of service in the western United States, with most of its companies dispersed to various posts.-History:...

 under Captain Moses A. McLaughlin, killed 35 Tübatulabal

Tübatulabal people

The Tübatulabal are Native Americans whose ancestral home was in the Kern River basin, in the southern Sierra Nevada mountains of California.Their traditional culture was similar to that of the Yokuts, who occupied most the of the southern half of the California's Central Valley. Acorns, piñon...

 and Owens Valley Paiute men, "about ten miles from Keysville [sic], upon the right bank of Kern River".

The Orders

In early April, Lieutenant Colonel

Lieutenant colonel

Lieutenant colonel is a rank of commissioned officer in the armies and most marine forces and some air forces of the world, typically ranking above a major and below a colonel. The rank of lieutenant colonel is often shortened to simply "colonel" in conversation and in unofficial correspondence...

 William Jones

William Jones

-Academics and authors:* William Jones , Welsh mathematician who proposed the use of the symbol π* Sir William Jones , English philologist who proposed a relationship among Indo-European languages...

 received a petition from citizens of Keysville

Keyesville, California

Keyesville is an unincorporated community in Kern County, California. It is located 2 miles west of Lake Isabella, at an elevation of 2848 feet . Keyesville is named for Richard M. Keyes, whose discovery of gold in 1853 started the Kern River Gold Rush...

 and vicinity asking military protection from Indian depredations. He forwarded the petition and notified his superiors in San Francisco of the action he was taking:

"CAMP BABBIT, Near Visalia, Cal., April 8, 1863.

Colonel R. C. DRUM

Richard C. Drum

Richard Coulter Drum was Adjutant General of the United States Army from 1880 to 1889. He was born in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, and graduated from Jefferson College before entering the printing business...

,

Asst. Adjt. General, Dept. of the Pacific, San Francisco, Cal.:

Sir : I have the honor herewith to forward a petition from citizens of Keysville and vicinity asking military protection from Indian depredations. Captain McLaughlin will leave this camp on the arrival of the detachment of Company E, which will accompany him to join their company at Owen's Valley. They are expected to arrive this evening, and will leave on Saturday or Sunday morning, passing by the way of Keysville through Kern River Valley. The captain will halt a few days in the upper end of the valley, where the difficulties are said to exist, and investigate the matter, and if the position of the Indians should be found as favorable as represented, if deemed advisable will give them battle. The captain will have about forty men, with arms to arm twenty more. This, with the number of citizens that will join him from Keysville, will give him a force sufficient to handle any number of Indians that he will be likely to meet at that place. ....

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

WM. JONES,

Lieutenant-Colonel, Commanding Camp Babbitt, near Visalia, Cal."

The Report

Captain Moses A. McLaughlin, commanding the expedition to Keysville, California made the following report about the incident:

"APRIL 12-24, 1863. Expedition from Camp Babbitt to Keysville, Cal.

Report of Capt. Moses A. McLaughlin, Second California Cavalry.

Camp Independence, Owen's River Valley, April 21, 1863.

Colonel: I have the honor to report that in obedience to instructions dated Camp Babbitt, near Visalia, Cal., April 10, 1863, and signed Lieut. Col. William Jones, Second Cavalry California Volunteers, I left Camp Babbitt on Sunday, the 12th instant, in command of twenty-four men of Company D and eighteen men of Company E, accompanied by Lieutenants French and Daley, one 12-pounder howitzer, and four six mule Government teams, used for the transportation of rations, company property, ammunition, and forage, all of which arrived in good condition at Camp Independence, Owen's Valley, on the 24th of the same month. Distance traveled I suppose to be 250 or 275 miles.

I had been instructed by Colonel Jones to investigate the Indian troubles on Kern River. On arriving at Keysville I was waited upon by several of the residents of the place, who represented that there was a large body of Indians encamped upon the North Fork of Kern River; that many of these Indians had doubtless been engaged in the war and in the depredations committed in Kern River Valley; that one man had been murdered in Kelsey Canon; that Roberts and Waldron had lost about 150 head of stock; that many other citizens had lost cattle, horses, and other property; that the roads were unsafe, and finally, that the Indians there congregated were for the most part strangers in the valley, and were thought to be Tehachapie

Kawaiisu

thumb|Kawaiisu FamilyThe Kawaiisu are a Native American group who lived in the southern California Tehachapi Valley and across the Tehachapi Pass in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains to the north, toward Lake Isabella and Walker Pass...

 and Owen's River Indians, who after seeing so many troops pass had endeavored to shield themselves from punishment by seeking the more immediate vicinity of the white settlements.

After having the above statements, and learning that Jose Chico was in the neighborhood, I sent for him and two other chiefs who were known to have been friendly. Jose Chico is an Owen's River Indian, but resides on Kern River, where he cultivates a farm, he speaks but little English. In Spanish he, however, makes himself well understood. From him I learned that the Tehachapies had endeavored to have him go to the war with them: that many of his own Indians had gone; that some had returned and were now in the valley, sleeping in the camps at night and hiding in the daytime; that there were many Indians there whom he did not know, either Owen's or Tehachapies. I told him to remain in camp with me and dismissed the others. I informed Doctor George, Mr. Herman, and others, citizens, that I would visit the camps early in the morning, and that they might accompany me and vouch for such Indians as they might know.

Accordingly at 2 a. m. on the 19th, accompanied by a detail of twenty men of my command and Lieutenant Daley, with Jose Chico as guide, I left camp, and at dawn surrounded the camp of the Indians, which was situated about ten miles from Keysville, upon the right bank of Kern River. I had the bucks collected together, and informed Jose Chico and the citizens who had arrived that they might choose out those whom they knew to have been friendly. This was soon done. The boys and old men I sent back to their camps, and the others, to the number of thirty-five, for whom no one could vouch, were either shot or sabered. Their only chance for life being their fleetness, but none escaped, though many of them fought well with knives, sticks, stones, and clubs.

This extreme punishment, though I regret it, was necessary, and I feel certain that a few such examples will soon crush the Indians and finish the war in this and adjacent valleys. It is now a well-established fact that no treaty can be entered into with these Indians. They care nothing for pledges given, and have imagined that they could live better by war than peace. They will soon learn that they have been mistaken, as with the forces here they will soon either be killed off, or pushed so far in the surrounding deserts that they will perish by famine.

A Tejon prisoner says the Tejon and Tehachapie Indians (those for whom the Government has done so much) have been engaged in both these wars, and as soon as they are tired return to the reservation. The Indian agents should be notified of this fact. If I have to send down there I will leave them very little to do, and save the Government some treasure.

The route from Visalia by way of Walker's Pass is far preferable to the Los Angeles route, an upon the former there is wood, water, and grass at easy marches. Forage can be purchased in Tulare Valley and forwarded to Keysville, from which point the Government teams can bring it to Camp Independence, having water and grass at intervals upon the road, of not more than fifteen or twenty miles, while upon the Los Angeles road from Tehachapie Canon by Walker's Pass, a distance of over fifty miles, there is not a blade of grass and the water unfit to be used.

I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

M. A. Mclaughlin, Capt., Second Cav. California Vols., Comdg. Camp Independence.

Col. E. C. Drum, Assistant Adjutant-General, San Francisco, Cal."

Site of the Massacre

The village where the Keyesville Massacre occurred has been identified as being on Tillie Creek

Tillie Creek

Tillie Creek is a tributary of the North Fork of the Kern River, in Kern County, California. Since the Kern River was dammed, it now enters Lake Isabella at Wofford Heights, California.In Wofford Heights the creek is located at ....

, near the North Fork of the Kern River

Kern River

The Kern River is a river in the U.S. state of California, approximately long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield. Fed by snowmelt near Mount Whitney, the river passes through scenic canyons in the mountains and is a popular destination for...

, now under Lake Isabella

Lake Isabella

Lake Isabella is a reservoir in Kern County, California created by the earthen Isabella Dam. It was formed in 1953 when the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dammed the Kern River at the junction of its two forks at Whiskey Flat. At 11,000 acres , it is one of the larger reservoirs in California...

 next to what is now Wofford Heights, California

Wofford Heights, California

Wofford Heights is a census-designated place the southern Sierra Nevadas, in Kern County, California, United States. Wofford Heights is located south-southwest of Kernville, at an elevation of 2684 feet...

. This is used as the memorial site. However this site does not meet the required distance from Keyesville, being only six miles from that ghost town

Ghost town

A ghost town is an abandoned town or city. A town often becomes a ghost town because the economic activity that supported it has failed, or due to natural or human-caused disasters such as floods, government actions, uncontrolled lawlessness, war, or nuclear disasters...

.

The ten mile distance brings the location to the west bank of the Kern above Lake Isabella just above Kernville

Kernville, California

Kernville is a census-designated place in the southern Sierra Nevadas, in Kern County, California, United States. Kernville is located northeast of Bakersfield, at an elevation of 2667 feet...

 where 5 small creeks flowing northeastward down the mountainside merge into one creek that flows southeastward into the Kern River at that point. This seems a likely site for a village site and is about ten miles from Keysville, upon the right bank of Kern River. Berlando Road runs through the area.

See also

• Owens Valley Indian War
  Owens Valley Indian War
  The Owens Valley War was fought between 1862 and 1863, by California Volunteers and local settlers against the Owens Valley Paiutes, and their Shoshone and Kawaiisu allies, in the Owens Valley of California and the southwestern Nevada border region. The removal of a large number of the Owens River...
  
  
• Indigenous peoples of California
  Indigenous peoples of California
  The Indigenous peoples of California are the indigenous inhabitants who have lived or currently live in the geographic area within the current boundaries of California before and after the arrival of Europeans. With over one hundred federally recognized tribes, California has the largest Native...
  
  
• Kitanemuk
  Kitanemuk
  The Kitanemuk were a Native American tribe and people who lived in the Tehachapi Mountains and the Antelope Valley area of the western Mojave Desert of southern California, United States.-Language:...
  
  
• Serrano people

External links

• Tübatulabal Memorial photo of one of three crosses that stand above Lake Isabella in Wofford Heights. CA.