On this day, April 30, in 1871, 144 Apaches in Arizona are slaughtered by settlers and rival Indians after surrendering to the United States Army in what became known as the Camp Grant massacre.
The refuge was created after five elderly Aravaipa Apache women came to Camp Grant looking for a son who had been taken prisoner. The women were fed and treated with care, and soon hundreds of other starving Aravaipa surrendered to receive beef and flour. The Army set up a camp to support the group along the Aravaipa Creek, five miles from Camp Grant.
But local Anglo and Mexican settlers soon began blaming the Aravaipa for stealing their cattle. At dawn, while the Aravaipa men were off hunting, a group of six Anglos, 48 Mexicans and 94 rival Indians surrounded the camp and killed those left in the refuge. All but eight of the corpses were women and children.
Many of the settlers in southern Arizona considered the attack justifiable, but President Ulysses S. Grant called it a massacre and ordered a trial. The trial lasted five days. The jury deliberated for 19 minutes and acquitted every defendant.
