Hualapai War (1865-1870)
Encyclopedia
The Hualapai War, or Walapai War, was an armed conflict fought from 1865 to 1870 between the Hualapai native American
s and the United States
in Arizona Territory
. The Yavapai
also participated on the side of the Hualapai and Mohave scouts were employed by the United States Army
. Following the death of the prominent Yavapai leader Anasa
in April 1865, the natives began raiding American settlements which provoked a response by the United States Army forces stationed in the area. By the spring of 1869 disease
forced the majority of the Hualapais to surrender though some skirmishing continued for almost two more years.
and the Bill Williams River
. In 1857 Edward Fitzgerald Beale
carved a road through Hualapai territory, leading to Needles
, California
, and in 1863, gold
was discovered in the Prescott Valley
. The gold rush
brought a steady flow of miner
s and other settlers to the area so in 1864 Captain William Hardy built a toll
road through Hualapai territory between Prescott and Bull Head City
, which was then known as Hardyville. The road later spread out, leading to other places such as Fort Mohave and the Colorado River ports. Relations with the natives were generally peaceful and Hardy was able to acquire a fortune by building a ferry across the Colorado River
and by taxing the settlers who used his road. However, in April 1865, drunken settlers killed Anasa during some sort of meeting which led the Yavapai to wage war. The Hualapai called on their Yavapai allies to help them fight and they accepted, warrior
s under Chief
Leve Leve assembled. In all there were about 250 Hualapai warriors, and an unknown number of Yavapai and Apache allies, facing hundreds of United States Army troops and militia
. At the time, the Americans made no distinction between the Yavapai and the Western Apache
people, due to their close relationship with tribes such as the Tonto
, the word Yavapai was not then in use so the Americans referred to the Yavapai as Tonto-Apaches, or Apache-Mohaves. The actual fighting took the form of guerilla warfare, in which small bands of natives cut off Hardy's road and raided using hit and run tactics. It was not until Captain Hardy negotiated a peace treaty
with the Hualapai at Camp Beale's Spring that the raids were ceased. Nine months later, during another meeting with the Hualapai chiefs, settlers killed Wauba Yuma which renewed the hostilities.
Men of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, from Fort Whipple
, and men of the 14th Infantry Regiment, under William Redwood Price, responded by counter raiding into Hualapai territory. The soldiers fought several small battles with the natives and burned many of their ranchería
s. They also built posts, including Camp Date Creek
, in January 1867, and Camp Hualapai, in May 1869. Camp Date Creek was located along Date Creek and the road between Prescott and La Paz
. Camp Hualapai was located north of Prescott, southeast of Aztec Pass, along Walnut Creek
and Captain Hardy's toll road. Both of the posts greatly improved the Americans ability to defeat the natives but disease would conquer the Hualapai first. The war is generally recorded as having ended in December 1868 due to an outbreak of dysentery
and whooping cough that caused many of the natives to surrender, however, Chief Leve Leve did not surrender until 1869 and Chief Sherum continued to lead his followers until 1870. Many of the Hualapais were moved to a reservation
at Camp Beale's Spring but three years later moved to the Colorado River Reservation
near La Paz. Some went to a temporary reservation at Camp Date Creek but by 1874 the post was closed. Conditions at the reservations led to starvation and disease so in 1875 some of the Hualapai escaped to their traditional lands, only to find that it had already been settled by Americans. The Hualapais then either went back to the reservation or took up work in mines or on ranches. In 1882, a 900,000 acre reservation was established for the Hualapai but it was described a poor land, either because of weather, or from the American ranchers whose cattle destroyed many of the indigenous plants that were vital to the Hualapais source of food. It is estimated that one-third of the Hualapai population was lost between 1865 and 1870.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North and South America, their descendants and other ethnic groups who are identified with those peoples. Indigenous peoples are known in Canada as Aboriginal peoples, and in the United States as Native Americans...
s and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in Arizona Territory
Arizona Territory
The Territory of Arizona was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from February 24, 1863 until February 14, 1912, when it was admitted to the Union as the 48th state....
. The Yavapai
Yavapai people
Yavapai are an indigenous people in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai were divided into four geographical bands that considered themselves separate peoples: the Tolkapaya, or Western Yavapai, the Yavapé, or Northwestern Yavapai, the Kwevkapaya, or Southeastern Yavapai, and Wipukpa, or Northeastern...
also participated on the side of the Hualapai and Mohave scouts were employed by the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
. Following the death of the prominent Yavapai leader Anasa
Anasa
Anasa is a genus of leaf-footed bug in the Coreinae subfamily. The nine described species within this genus are:* A. andresii* A. armigera * A. bellator* A. cornuta* A. maculipes* A. repetita...
in April 1865, the natives began raiding American settlements which provoked a response by the United States Army forces stationed in the area. By the spring of 1869 disease
Disease
A disease is an abnormal condition affecting the body of an organism. It is often construed to be a medical condition associated with specific symptoms and signs. It may be caused by external factors, such as infectious disease, or it may be caused by internal dysfunctions, such as autoimmune...
forced the majority of the Hualapais to surrender though some skirmishing continued for almost two more years.
War
Tension between the Hualapai people and the Americans has its routes in the encroachment on native American land by settlers. The Hualapai lived in the area between the Grand CanyonGrand Canyon
The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided canyon carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, the 15th national park in the United States...
and the Bill Williams River
Bill Williams River
The Bill Williams River is a river in western-central Arizona in Mohave County; the river proper is the northern border of La Paz County which it drains in the north, as well as areas of far western Yavapai County...
. In 1857 Edward Fitzgerald Beale
Edward Fitzgerald Beale
Edward Fitzgerald "Ned" Beale was a national figure in 19th century America. He was naval officer, military general, explorer, frontiersman, Indian affairs superintendent, California rancher, diplomat, and friend of Kit Carson, Buffalo Bill Cody and Ulysses S. Grant...
carved a road through Hualapai territory, leading to Needles
Needles, California
Needles is a city located in the Mojave Desert on the western banks of the Colorado River in San Bernardino County, California. It is located in the Mohave Valley, which straddles the California–Arizona border. The city is accessible via Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 95...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, and in 1863, gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
was discovered in the Prescott Valley
Prescott, Arizona
Prescott is a city in Yavapai County, Arizona, USA. It was designated "Arizona's Christmas City" by Arizona Governor Rose Mofford in the late 1980s....
. The gold rush
Gold rush
A gold rush is a period of feverish migration of workers to an area that has had a dramatic discovery of gold. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, Brazil, Canada, South Africa, and the United States, while smaller gold rushes took place elsewhere.In the 19th and early...
brought a steady flow of miner
Miner
A miner is a person whose work or business is to extract ore or minerals from the earth. Mining is one of the most dangerous trades in the world. In some countries miners lack social guarantees and in case of injury may be left to cope without assistance....
s and other settlers to the area so in 1864 Captain William Hardy built a toll
Toll
The word toll has several meanings.Road transportation infrastructure* "Toll" is sometimes used as a synonym for tariff** Toll road, a road for which road usage tolls are charged...
road through Hualapai territory between Prescott and Bull Head City
Bullhead City, Arizona
Bullhead City is a city located on the Colorado River in Mohave County, Arizona, USA, roughly south of Las Vegas, Nevada, and directly across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada, whose casinos and ancillary services supply much of the employment for Bullhead City...
, which was then known as Hardyville. The road later spread out, leading to other places such as Fort Mohave and the Colorado River ports. Relations with the natives were generally peaceful and Hardy was able to acquire a fortune by building a ferry across the Colorado River
Colorado River
The Colorado River , is a river in the Southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico, approximately long, draining a part of the arid regions on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains. The watershed of the Colorado River covers in parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states...
and by taxing the settlers who used his road. However, in April 1865, drunken settlers killed Anasa during some sort of meeting which led the Yavapai to wage war. The Hualapai called on their Yavapai allies to help them fight and they accepted, warrior
Warrior
A warrior is a person skilled in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based society that recognizes a separate warrior class.-Warrior classes in tribal culture:...
s under Chief
Tribal chief
A tribal chief is the leader of a tribal society or chiefdom. Tribal societies with social stratification under a single leader emerged in the Neolithic period out of earlier tribal structures with little stratification, and they remained prevalent throughout the Iron Age.In the case of ...
Leve Leve assembled. In all there were about 250 Hualapai warriors, and an unknown number of Yavapai and Apache allies, facing hundreds of United States Army troops and militia
Militia
The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...
. At the time, the Americans made no distinction between the Yavapai and the Western Apache
Western Apache
Western Apache refers to the Apache peoples living today primarily in east central Arizona. Most live within reservations. The White Mountain Apache of the Fort Apache, San Carlos, Yavapai-Apache, Tonto Apache, and the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Indian reservations are home to the majority of...
people, due to their close relationship with tribes such as the Tonto
Tonto Apache
The Tonto Apache is one of the groups of Western Apache people. The term is also used for their dialect, one of the three dialects of the Western Apache language...
, the word Yavapai was not then in use so the Americans referred to the Yavapai as Tonto-Apaches, or Apache-Mohaves. The actual fighting took the form of guerilla warfare, in which small bands of natives cut off Hardy's road and raided using hit and run tactics. It was not until Captain Hardy negotiated a peace treaty
Peace treaty
A peace treaty is an agreement between two or more hostile parties, usually countries or governments, that formally ends a state of war between the parties...
with the Hualapai at Camp Beale's Spring that the raids were ceased. Nine months later, during another meeting with the Hualapai chiefs, settlers killed Wauba Yuma which renewed the hostilities.
Men of the 8th Cavalry Regiment, from Fort Whipple
Fort Whipple, Arizona
Fort Whipple was a U.S. Army post which served as Arizona Territory's capital prior to the founding of Prescott, Arizona. The post was founded by Edward Banker Willis in January 1864 in Chino Valley, Arizona, but was moved in May 1864 to Granite Creek near the present day location of Prescott. ...
, and men of the 14th Infantry Regiment, under William Redwood Price, responded by counter raiding into Hualapai territory. The soldiers fought several small battles with the natives and burned many of their ranchería
Ranchería
The Spanish word ranchería, or rancherío, refers to a small, rural settlement. In the Americas the term was applied to native villages and to the workers' quarters of a ranch. English adopted the term with both these meanings, usually to designate the residential area of a rancho in the American...
s. They also built posts, including Camp Date Creek
Fort Date Creek
Fort Date Creek, also known as Camp McPherson or Camp Date Creek, was a United States Army post established in 1867 sixty miles south of Prescott, Arizona. It was built to safeguard American settlers in Yavapai County.-History:...
, in January 1867, and Camp Hualapai, in May 1869. Camp Date Creek was located along Date Creek and the road between Prescott and La Paz
La Paz, Arizona
La Paz was a short-lived, early gold mining town along the Colorado River in La Paz County on the western border of the U.S. state of Arizona. It was the location of the La Paz Incident in 1863, the westernmost confrontation of the American Civil War. The town was settled in 1862 in what was then...
. Camp Hualapai was located north of Prescott, southeast of Aztec Pass, along Walnut Creek
Walnut Creek
-Communities:United States of America*Walnut Creek, California*Walnut Creek, North Carolina*Walnut Creek, Ohio-Schools:*A middle school in Metropolitan Detroit that belongs to the Walled Lake Consolidated Schools District in Oakland County, Michigan.-Streams:...
and Captain Hardy's toll road. Both of the posts greatly improved the Americans ability to defeat the natives but disease would conquer the Hualapai first. The war is generally recorded as having ended in December 1868 due to an outbreak of dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
and whooping cough that caused many of the natives to surrender, however, Chief Leve Leve did not surrender until 1869 and Chief Sherum continued to lead his followers until 1870. Many of the Hualapais were moved to a reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
at Camp Beale's Spring but three years later moved to the Colorado River Reservation
Colorado River Indian Reservation
The Colorado River Indian Reservation is 189 miles west of Phoenix, Arizona, on highway 95. It lies in western La Paz County, Arizona, southeastern San Bernardino County, California, and northeastern Riverside County, California. It has a total land area of 432.22 sq mi , and most of it lies...
near La Paz. Some went to a temporary reservation at Camp Date Creek but by 1874 the post was closed. Conditions at the reservations led to starvation and disease so in 1875 some of the Hualapai escaped to their traditional lands, only to find that it had already been settled by Americans. The Hualapais then either went back to the reservation or took up work in mines or on ranches. In 1882, a 900,000 acre reservation was established for the Hualapai but it was described a poor land, either because of weather, or from the American ranchers whose cattle destroyed many of the indigenous plants that were vital to the Hualapais source of food. It is estimated that one-third of the Hualapai population was lost between 1865 and 1870.