The Alma Massacre involved a raid on United States settlers' homes around Alma, New Mexico

Alma, New Mexico

Alma is an unincorporated community in Catron County, New Mexico, United States, north of Glenwood and south of Reserve.-History:Sergeant James C. Cooney laid out a town on site of Alma in the early 1870s, but left it undeveloped. The town was bought by a Captain Birney, who named it "Alma" for his...

 on April 28, 1880. At least 41 people were killed during or immediately after the raid.

Details

During the event Chiricahua

Chiricahua

Chiricahua are a group of Apache Native Americans who live in the Southwest United States. At the time of European encounter, they were living in 15 million acres of territory in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona in the United States, and in northern Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico...

 Apache

Apache

Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...

 tribal members were led by Victorio

Victorio

Victorio was a warrior and chief of the Chihenne band of the Chiricahua Apaches in what is now the American states of New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and the Mexican states of Sonora and Chihuahua....

. They attacked a silver mine near the town of Cooney

Cooney, New Mexico

Cooney is a ghost town in Catron County, New Mexico, United States, east of Alma. Cooney was once home to gold and silver prospectors in the nearby Mogollon Mountains.-History:...

 in the Mogollon Mountains

Mogollon Mountains

The Mogollon Mountains or Mogollon Range are a mountain range east of the San Francisco River in Grant and Catron counties of southwestern New Mexico, between the communities of Reserve and Silver City. They extend roughly north-south for about 30 miles , and form part of the divide between the...

. At the town they killed three, and then caught up to a fleeing party of three that included Sergeant Cooney. The Apaches then killed 35 sheepherders in the nearby area. Victorio and his men left the area when U.S. Army troops from Fort Bayard arrived.

Memorials

There were two memorials erected to commemorate these events. Sergeant Cooney's brother and others dynamited out a rock tomb

Cooney's Tomb

Conney's Tomb is a historic location near Alma, Catron County, New Mexico. Marked by a large boulder on the side of a roadway, it is the site where former Army Sergeant James C. Cooney was interred in 1880 after being killed by a group of Apaches.- History :...

 where they buried Sergeant Cooney, and a hundred years later in April 1980, Dave Foreman and others of Earth First!

Earth First!

Earth First! is a radical environmental advocacy group that emerged in the Southwestern United States in 1979. It was co-founded on April 4th, 1980 by Dave Foreman, Mike Roselle, Howie Wolke, and less directly, Bart Koehler and Ron Kezar....

 erected a monument in the Gila Wilderness

Gila Wilderness

Gila Wilderness was designated the world's first wilderness area on June 3, 1924. Along with Aldo Leopold Wilderness and Blue Range Wilderness, the wilderness is part of New Mexico's Gila National Forest. The wilderness is approximately from north to south and east to west...

to honor Victorio's defense of the mountains, crediting the memorial to the non-existent New Mexico Patriotic Heritage Society.