Massacre At Bear River: First, Worst and Forgotten

Although it has been largely ignored by historians, it was the war waged against the Shoshoni tribe that opened the book on Indian massacres in the West. The Shoshoni were victims of a bloodbath more extreme than that at Wounded Knee, and more deadly than the more famous slaughter at Sand Creek.

The Bear River Massacre, on January 29, 1863, claimed at least 250 Shoshoni lives and changed the culture of the natives who lived in the area along what later became the Utah-Idaho border.

The author provides a compelling narrative of the massacre and the events leading up to the bloody clash on a frozen riverbank in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. Miller also explains why the massacre has remained in the historical shadows for 145 years while detailing the fight waged by Shoshonis and a few dedicated researchers to raise the event to its rightful place in Western history.